Despite its worthy mission, the White House common ground agenda needs some serious tweaking. There is a need to reframe the agenda in a larger discourse of honoring motherhood and honoring the sacredness of women and girls’ lives. The current discourse on teen pregnancy reduction and abortion reduction, without the larger context of honoring women and girls’ lives, reifies the calcified vocabulary of gendered control and judgment.  

So let’s recast the Obama Administration’s common ground language and agenda to ensure that we are moving the pro-choice and pro-life collective efforts to a higher plane.  Here is what that might look like: 

Honoring Women and Girls Lives 

TEEN PREGNANCY REDUCTION IS ALSO TEEN VIOLENCE REDUCTION

Approximately 50-60% of adolescent girls who become pregnant have a history of childhood sexual or physical abuse. 

Girls in high school who reported experiencing dating violence were four to six times more likely to have been pregnant than peers who had not experienced dating violence. 

The shared work to reduce teen pregnancy must then be pursued in the larger context of violence against teen girls. A common ground agenda that recognizes the interrelationship between gendered violence and teen pregnancy moves away from a discourse of control and judgment and unearths the unacceptable levels of violence against teen girls and how that violence denies girls the fulfillment of their full personhood and aspirations. 

ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

Violence against American women and girls exists at levels that are simply unacceptable. At least one out every three women has been beaten, sexually coerced or otherwise abused in her lifetime, here in the United States and worldwide. Girls ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. 7% of girls in grades 5-8 and 12% of girls in grades 9-12 report that they had been sexually abused. Women who experienced childhood molestation are more vulnerable to mental health disorders, suicide, substance abuse, and obesity. 

A common ground agenda must include ending violence against women and girls. The experience of physical or sexual violence is, unfortunately, the too often shared narrative of being female in America.  A common ground agenda on ending violence against women and girls includes supporting services and programs that keep women and girls strong and safe; public square discussions on the intolerably high rates of gendered violence (we need you First Lady Michelle Obama); and a media campaign that promotes women and girls’ sacredness, against the backdrop of popular culture’s systemic denigration of our bodies.

 

Honoring Mothering, Especially in Vulnerable Communities 

END SHACKLING OF INCARCERATED MOTHERS DURING LABOR, DELIVERY, AND POST- DELIVERY

Presently, most U.S. jails and prisons shackle incarcerated women during labor and delivery as a matter of course. In June 2007, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released a statement calling for an end to the practice of shackling mothers in labor and delivery due to the potential harm posed to the mother and unborn child.  

In response to the draconian practice in jails and state prisons of shackling incarcerated mothers during labor, delivery and post-delivery, national and state-wide coalitions of faith-based and reproductive health organizations have emerged to urge for reform that is just, moral, and safe for mothers, their unborn babies, and medical and correctional staff. As members of the faith and reproductive health communities, these persons possess a shared concern for the well-being and health of the mother and unborn baby, and a shared belief that all mothers are entitled to birth their children with dignity.  

The end of shackling mothers during labor and delivery ought to be a common ground issue for the White House. Specifically, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and the White House Council of Women and Girls should:

 
1) Convene a meeting with clergy, advocates, and other stakeholders to explore opportunities to support the end of the shackling policies in state prisons and jails.  

2) Disseminate a moral plea to states to follow the lead of the Bureau of Prison and state legislatures and reform the practice of shackling in a manner that provides health and safety to mothers, their unborn children, medical staff and security personnel. 

EXPAND ACCESS TO FAMILY TREATMENT PROGRAMS FOR MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN

Most substance abuse treatment programs deny access to pregnant and parenting mothers. Mothers are forced to make an untenable choice between treatment and their children. Honoring the sacredness of the mother-child relationship in vulnerable communities means that mothers ought to have access to family-based treatment programs—although very few exist—where mothers and their children can heal together as a whole family. A common ground agenda should be dedicated to expanding family treatment capacity.