Advocating for Reproductive Rights in the Age of Obama
The mainstream media may think having a pro-choice president is all that matters, but reproductive rights activists know there's so much more to the issue. Instead of just making up for ground lost under Bush, how can we push for a reproductive justice framework, where more people have their real needs met? Most importantly, how can we use online tools like blogs and social media to spread the word despite silence from many mainstream sources?
Aimée Thorne-Thomsen brings her passion as a social justice activist and her extensive experience in leadership and communications to her role as Executive Director of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project (PEP). Her work at PEP focuses on elevating the voices of young women in the reproductive justice movement. Aimée sits on the Boards of Reproductive Health Technologies Project and Law Students for Reproductive Justice, and the Editorial Board of Our Truths/Nuestras Verdades. She earned her B.A. from Yale University and her M.P.A from Baruch College, City University of New York.
I joined the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank on sexual and reproductive health issues, in April 2006. I'm based in the Institute’s Washington DC office, where I'm responsible for many of Guttmacher’s strategic and policy-related communications activities on domestic and international issues, including outreach to online media and bloggers.
Amanda Marcotte is a freelance writer and blogger based in Brooklyn after a lifetime of living in Texas. She publishes regularly at Pandagon, RH Reality Check, and Double X, and has written for Slate, Salon, the Guardian, the American Prospect, and the LA Times. She focuses on feminism, monitoring the American right, and having a grand old time doing it.
James Wagoner, a respected public policy and reproductive health expert, has been the President and Executive Director of Advocates for Youth since September 1997. He represents the organization with the media, funders, and colleague organizations, and during speaking engagements, both nationally and internationally. Before coming to Advocates, James spent seven years at NARAL, most recently as Executive Vice-President. During the decade prior to that, James served on the staff of Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum from Ohio. He is a graduate of Georgetown University.
