talking about a beautiful location on earth because of the exotic and beautiful scenery, or

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1 Laura Harris National Advocates For Pregnant Women NAPW is one of the best places on earth. Usually one hears that when someone is talking about a beautiful location on earth because of the exotic and beautiful scenery, or the history it tells. NAPW is one of the best places on earth because of the worlds it opened my eyes to, and the people who were able to do so. With so much exposure to the reproductive rights movement through guest speakers, brown bag lunches, films, and outings I was able to see a much greater world of social justice. NAPW really focuses on the imprisonment of pregnant women, which gave me so much insight on the criminal justice system. Besides getting involved and learning about reproductive justice, I learned about motherhood. I learned about midwives and homebirth, the expectations and pressures there are on mothers to be perfect, and overall the great beauty of motherhood. To have this as a foundation is key to really feeling compassion and understanding the severity of the issues in the reproductive world. I started off the internship doing small tasks for Lynn Paltrow, the Executive Director, like proofreading and organizing information. I filled out cover sheets for new cases found post-2005, where a pregnant woman was arrested in connection to her pregnancy, and entered them into a spreadsheet. I then moved on to a project that was by far the biggest project and most worthwhile, and that was to organize the filing cabinet of files of all the cases in which a woman was jailed in relation to her pregnancy, then to enter the information into an Excel spreadsheet. Reading the cases and filling out coversheets for a lot of them really enhanced my knowledge of the issues NAPW tackles,

2 as well the types of human rights issues the reproductive justice world deals with. I became so attached to the files and came to know so many of the cases by heart. When I was joined by more interns who also helped on the big project, one girl who worked closely with me on the project would often joke with me about how long it took me to finish working on some files because I would sit and read the entire case file on the woman. I worked with the cases so much that later on in the internship Lynn would call me over while she worked on her report to pull files for her and ask me to look out for certain details or find particular facts on the case. Throughout my internship I did a lot of reading, mostly proofreading narratives Lynn had written. During my time there, Lynn was working on a big report and so everything had to be proofread a couple of times by multiple people. One time Lynn had me format an article she had written that she wanted to print out copies of and bring to a talk she was giving and I literally had to go back and revise it ten times before she was okay with it! She has very high standards and knows exactly what she wants. Another intern and I were given the project of writing the weekly update that NAPW does where you summarize what went on in the office that past week and we spent the entire day nervously writing the summaries because we knew Lynn would be the one reading it. We had never written the overview before and it was given to us because the research and program associate was away on vacation. We had to send out s to everyone in the office asking what they had each done that week, and follow up on details. When we handed in the summary Lynn was very impressed and could barely find any faults! The legal advocate, Emma, gave a lot of small research projects in connection to the work she was doing. I researched Alabama newspapers to get information on how

3 Emma could get a press release out. In connection to a case she was working on in Indiana I looked up women s rights groups in Indiana, of which I found very few. Emma also planned really worthwhile trips for the interns. She had us volunteer to do leafleting at an organization called Women of the Right Telling HerStory (WORTH) for a day in Harlem. WORTH was having a panel on efforts to stop the war on drugs and wanted to get the word out to the community to come and listen in, so that s what we were handing flyers out for. I got to attend the panel, which was really good. Leafleting is something I ve always feared and so I was not really looking forward to it but it was a great experience. The people were really receptive to our flyers, they asked questions about what exactly the war on drugs is, and gave their positive and negative feedback. I learned a lot about how much people actually know about the war on drugs, and these are the people who are being affected by it the most! I also got another look at East Harlem; it really is a rough neighborhood. We went to family court in the Bronx, where Emma used to be a public defender. The Bronx family court was chaos! Another movement needs to be started to abolish the family court. Kids are unfairly being taken away from their parents and the only people being subject to the court are African-Americans and Hispanics. We witnessed a young toddler being taken away from her mother who was in tears hugging her child and we all cried! It was terrible and heart breaking. Lastly, Emma recommended I go see a woman named Michelle Alexander speak on her book called The New Jim Crow, which is on the mass incarceration of African Americans. It was a very moving and insightful speech. I am currently reading the book. The problems of the family court, the war on drugs and mass incarceration are all connected and affecting the same group of people.

4 My last project I worked on was writing my own narrative on a case. A narrative is a summary of the specific case. Lynn wanted the non-law interns to get some experience writing a narrative. I did struggle writing the narrative although by that time I had read about two hundred of them. The greatest skill I had and used the most was just being as much of a help as possible, and not always having to be asked to help. I really became familiar with the office and comfortable with the staff that I really could just get up and help do small things. Even if I didn t know how I still did my best and I learned that way. If I did something that wasn t exactly right Lynn would tell me and then I knew how to do it the next time around. I gained office skills from this experience, how to respond and deal with phone calls, how to send out mail, etc. You really had to be open to learning all the time at NAPW. One of the interns was not so open and took Lynn s advice in the wrong way and thought she wasn t really liked but that wasn t it at all. Lynn also really pushed me to ask questions whenever I didn t know something. She really pushed this on me when I once expressed to her after a discussion that I didn t understand a big part of it because of all the law terms they kept using. Every discussion or talk after that she would always eye me or ask if I was clear on everything, to make sure that I wasn t holding any questions back. The highlights of my internship were the two outings Emma planned to Harlem and the Bronx family court. Not because we go out of the office! It s actually all the things I learned from being in the office around such conscious women that made the trips have such an impact on me. When you actually get to see the injustices take place rather than just hearing about it and reading about it you really understand the situation

5 and it s just like wow, I can t believe this! Everything you learn just starts to come together. Before I went to family court Emma had me read a piece called Abolish the Family Court, I then read it again after going and the piece made so much more sense to me and I could really see how it was so true. Another thing that connected with me was the introduction to the book Bad Mothers Emma also recommended I read, which discussed how much pressure is on mothers to be perfect and how in fact it s impossible. To then go to family court and see mothers being constantly judged and they are already at an economic set back was so horrible. I had many joyous times in the office as well. Sometimes I would speak to the staff for long periods of time discussing personal matters and laughing a lot! NAPW really brought me into the world where people work hard to achieve social justice. I ve met so many people trying to do right in this world on issues I didn t even know existed. When people ask me what I am going to do with a major in African American history I don t even know where to begin and even if I should begin on the reasons, there is just so much and this internship has broadened that even more. I definitely have to do some work in the criminal justice field, the issue of mass incarceration is really what I would like to focus on. I ve considered becoming a lawyer after working around so many lawyers and soon-to-be lawyers this summer and also a midwife after seeing the movie The Business of Being Born, which is a really good movie that I totally recommend, but I don t think that s what I want to do. I m not sure what I would like to do yet but I do know I have to join this world of people who are so aware of the problems out there and the injustices and devote their life to trying to make an impact.

6 I am beyond thankful that I was placed at NAPW for many reasons. But mainly because I think I got one of the best perspectives of the reproductive justice world and how connected it is to the social justice world. Lynn broke away from much of the conventional work that was being done and started to do her own thing. She s an extraordinary woman who I was in the beginning intimidated by but now admire for her abilities. The greatest piece of advice to a future intern is to always be open to learning. You are constantly learning and if you can make connections and be creative with your thinking your learning will go that much farther.