Deliberation Experience

After finally going to one of the last of the deliberations I realized how many people could actually show up in a room to discuss something and end up staying silent. I went to the deliberation "Who Decides? A Discussion on Reproductive Rights", I was very excited because I love talking about women's rights. However there seemed to be some false advertising because instead of women's reproductive rights it was about teenage pregnancy. Understandably still a big issue but not what I was expecting at all. A lot of people came and the group hosting the deliberation even ran out of issue guides. When the deliberation started there was about four people to carry on the conversation as well as voice their opinions, one of those people being me.

The questions and points discussed were things like, is their a lack of sex education in public schools? The group immediately cut out private and Catholic schools which is the type of school where a majority of the people attending the deliberation went. There was good discussion about whether teaching just abstinence or the actual reality which is safe sex, STD's, etc. There was some argument about whether or not the school, the state, or the national government should be in charge of implanting the kind of system they think is right. The conversation moved to the next topic which was contraceptives, excluding abortion...so that kind of closed a large door on the conversation. The moderators asked whether the pills should be made over the counter, whether the age to start the pill be moved up, and if getting on the pill made teenagers think they could have sex. The questions were not phrased well and were more talking to the women which was not fun. Yea condoms were talked about but it seemed like a lot of the responsibility for contraceptives was on the female. Either way most people were in agreement that the pill should be made accessible over the counter but with a proper discussion with an OB/GYN first.

The last topic was asking how to make the "sex talk" easier between parents and children. A lot of the times children have issues discussing sex with their parents so ideas were shared about special classes for parents on how to talk to their kids and online programs as well. Most people agreed that parents will talk to their kids about it in whatever way they want too. It is their decision and a class can't be made mandatory because of the parents set in stone ideologies. The deliberation was run just ok, the lack of other people discussing was not fun, and the conversation seemed very limited in what we could actually talk about.

Has baby, has to take off of work, is not going to be paid?

Many women have said that having a baby is one of the best things in the entire world. A child brings joy, happiness, and a new appreciation for life. The downside of having a baby is having to take that time off of work to care for the child since you know, the child can do literally nothing to take care of itself. You would think that taking off of work would be great and relaxing. However, women are not given paid maternity leave. This is a huge problem in the United States as well as a hot topic in political debates. Why is one of the most powerful countries in the world, built on democracy, the only country who does not give mothers paid maternity leave.

Yes under the Family Medical Leave Act, families get twelve weeks of leave to care for their children but it is unpaid. The United States comes in dead last compared to other countries for paid maternity leave. Ireland, Italy, Poland, Japan, Chile; all have paid maternity leave. Different levels yes but still more than zero. Also the U.S. is one of about nine countries that does not have any sort of leave policies for fathers. Parents need the opportunity to take care of their children after they are born.



While states have took the federal regulations and added to provide more maternity leave and better benefits, there is still none that give paid maternity leave. Women are already making less then men and when they have to take off work and take care of their child, even more of their income is gone. Single mothers, mothers who are the primary breadwinner, and mothers who's partners are out of work especially need to have a paid leave. Why should they be punished when the mother decided to have a child? And sometimes they did not make the decision, it could have been a surprise, and the parents would need all the support they can get.

The government needs to look more closely at the policies in place and look at how to change them for the benefit of new mothers. Also companies need to be more active in voicing the concerns of their employees. There needs to be change made for new mothers as well as fathers for an equal share of child rearing.