The genocide in Palestine is a reproductive justice issue; as a reproductive justice organization, PWN joins the national and global demands for a ceasefire now. 

Among the casualties, at least 5,500 are children. In the past month, over 13,000 Palestinians have been killed in the U.S.-backed genocide unfolding in occupied Palestine. More children have been killed in Gaza than have been killed in armed

conflict globally over the course of a whole year since 2019. These numbers are likely higher than reported, as health officials in Gaza struggle to keep up with the intensifying Israeli ground invasion.

The Israeli army has bombed hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, bakeries, and refugee camps indiscriminately. They have enacted further collective punishment on the Palestinian people by cutting off water, fuel, electricity, cell and internet service, and even humanitarian aid. Collective punishment is a war crime prohibited under international humanitarian law in all circumstances. Every hospital in North Gaza has gone completely out of service, and 75% of hospitals in all of Gaza are no longer operational. 

The water shutoff has led to 52,000 pregnant people and 30,000 babies under the age of six months drinking contaminated water. Approximately 150 people give birth each day with no clean water, no electricity and little or no access to medical care.

According to data from the UN, at least 80% of Gaza’s total population has been displaced since the start of the hostilities. The UN also estimates that there are around 50,000 pregnant woman in Gaza, with more than 160 babies being delivered every day. Additionally, approximately half of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has been destroyed, including 40,000 housing units. 

This is not a war; Palestine has no army. UN experts have confirmed that conditions on the ground fall within the settled-upon definitions of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

For all of these reasons, Gazans and people around the world are creating public displays of solidarity calling for an immediate ceasefire. Despite the fact that 68% of American voters would support a ceasefire, only 18 members of the House have signed onto the Ceasefire Now Resolution. The Biden administration meets calls for a ceasefire with the claim that they are unable to “exert significant influence” on Israel, despite plans to send Israel $14 billion in military aid. Staunch supporter of the ceasefire resolution Representative Tlaib was recently censured via a House resolution supported by 22 democrats. She is also the first and only Palestinian-American in Congress.

Though it’s easy to feel helpless in the face of such censorship and wide-scale violence, it is more important than ever to hold onto your grief. Exhaustion and indifference only benefit the perpetrators of genocide. The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights has put together a toolkit with various action items to support a ceasefire, including contacting your representatives, attending protests, and spreading information on social media.

As these events unfold, there has been a rise in Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism, antisemitism and violence, including a shooting just this past weekend targeting three Palestinian students. PWN condemns this bigotry and violence. We demand political leadership and a media that does not foster violence through dehumanizing rhetoric aimed at any communities.

“The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.”  –Audre Lorde, from “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”

Check out the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights'

"Stop Gaza Genocide" Action Toolkit

Join us in demanding a #CeasefireNOW!

• In Lubbock County Texas, Commissioners have voted to outlaw the transportation of persons seeking abortion along county roads. Of the six cities and counties in Texas who have passed abortion-related transportation bans, Lubbock is the largest jurisdiction. Lubbock contains major highways connecting Texas to New Mexico, where abortion is currently legal.
• Six states have received federal funding aimed at cutting rising fatalities in pregnant people related to overdose. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will provide grant funding to Montana, Connecticut, Iowa, Nevada, Maryland, and South Carolina to fund and expand programs for substance abuse treatment interventions during and after pregnancy.
• In Idaho, police arrested a mother and son for helping the son’s girlfriend with transportation to an out of state for an abortion. Both the mother and the son are facing multiple charges, including felony kidnapping. Prosecutors did not charge the pair under Idaho’s abortion trafficking law, likely because it is currently being challenged in Court.

• As the appropriations process faces further delays, a Representative Warren Davidson, an Ohio Republican, has proposed an amendment to the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) Appropriations bill intended to completely defund HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS). HOPWA is the only federal program specifically designed to address the housing and utility needs of people living with HIV and their families, providing over 55,000 households with direct housing services.

• On October 1^st, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits will automatically rise because of increased living costs due to inflation. Compared to last year, the USDA has stated benefits will increase by an average of over 3%, with recipients seeing the first increases in October.

• On October 18^th, 85,000 members of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions voted to ratify a new contract following the historic strike. The new provisions include a 21% wage increase over four years, additional investments to address staffing crises, and a minimum hourly wage of $25 in California, where most of Kaiser’s facilities are located.

• Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration continues to delay a citywide vote on Cop City, a $90 million police training facility in Georgia which will expand and intensify policing techniques that subjugate and harm Atlanta's already marginalized Black and brown communities. Organizers submitted 116,000 signatures supporting a referendum on Cop City, but city officials have refused to start verifying signatures over a dispute on when the signatures were actually due. The due date of the signatures will be decided by the 11^th Circuit Court later this year.
• In Tennessee, advocacy groups, led by the ACLU, Transgender Law Center, and OUTMemphis, have filed a federal suit to overturn Tennessee’s Aggravated Prostitution statute. The statute criminalizes sex workers living with HIV and forces them to register as “violent sex offenders,” cutting off their access to housing, employment, healthcare, and community life.

• Despite Biden previously promising “not another foot” of border wall would be constructed during his presidency, the Biden administration has recently waived 26 federal environmental laws in South Texas to build a new section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. In addition to being an environmental disaster, the wall cuts through the land of Latinx and Indigenous families who had thought their homes were safe after the end of the Trump administration.