West Orange Activist Raises Awareness About Women’s Reproductive Health Care

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — A crowd of more than 200 Essex County residents gathered to discuss “threats to [female] reproductive health care access” during a recent forum held by the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW).

The Jan. 26 forum was spearheaded by NCJW/Essex volunteers Lyn Rosenzweig of West Orange and Phoebe Pollinger of Montclair, and included sponsorship from more than 20 organizations.

The event, which commemorated the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, was held “in support of a woman’s right to make decisions about her own health without interference from politicians,” organizers said.

Topics of the day included:

• Public school curriculums and sexuality
• Abortions and informed consent materials
• Crisis pregnancy centers

During the forum, Nicole Cushman, executive director of answer at Rutgers University, stated that research shows sex education works and has widespread support, but only 13 states require sex education to be “medically accurate.”

Cynthia Daniels, professor of political science at Rutgers University and lead author of “The Informed Consent Project,” said that one third of all information in informed consent booklets in 30 states was “medically inaccurate, untruthful or misleading.”

Jen Boulanger, director of communications at the Women’s Centers in PA, NJ, CT and GA, addressed the proliferation of “crisis pregnancy centers,” which she alleged are unregulated, “religious-based entities whose sole purpose is to prevent women from choosing abortion.”

“We hosted this Lunch and Learn program to help people see that access to medically accurate, unbiased and factual information about reproductive health is essential to helping our children, teens and young adults develop into sexually healthy individuals,” said Phoebe Pollinger, NCJW/Essex volunteer and co-chair of the event.

“At a time when politicians are pushing reproductive health care access out of reach, these topics take on added importance,” Pollinger said. “Our hope is to fill the information void with truthful and medically accurate information so our youth, both male and female, can make smart decisions about their health and their futures.”

Caption: NCJW/Essex volunteers Lyn Rosenzweig of West Orange (left) and Phoebe Pollinger of Montclair (right) co-chaired The Information Void which stressed the importance of medically accurate information about reproductive health.

Photo: NCJW/Essex

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