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Related: About this forumWhy Native American Women Are Battling for Plan B
Why Native American Women Are Battling for Plan B
Two years ago Lisa Iyotte, a rape survivor of Sicangu Lakota and White Clay descent, stood at a White House podium and explained why the Tribal Law and Order Act President Barack Obama was poised to sign was so significant. Between long pauses and persistent tears, she recounted how she was beaten and raped in front of her daughters on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota 16 years prior.
I received medical treatment at Indian Health Service hospital, but no doctors talked to me about the rape. I had to wait all night for someone to come and collect the DNA, she told the crowd of advocates, tribal leaders, lawmakers, law enforcement and press. Tribal police suspected a local man but no federal investigators interviewed me. Federal authorities declined to get involved because the attacker did not use a weapon. A few months later the same man assaulted another woman. It wasnt until he raped a teen-age girl that he was finally arrested and convicted. He was never prosecuted for raping me. The Tribal Law and Order Act will prevent cases like mine from falling through the cracks.
Iyotte isnt alone. A staggering one in three Native American women will be raped in their lifetimethree and a half times the national average. The law Iyotte testified about was designed to cut through the jurisdictional red tape that too often allowed rapists to go unchecked. It also requires the federal Indian Health Service (IHS)which runs or oversees most reservation-based clinics, hospitals and mobile unitsto create and adopt standard sexual assault policies based on those used by the U.S. Department of Justice.
In a new roundtable report by the Native American Womens Health Education Resource Center (NAWHERC), more than 50 indigenous sexual assault and domestic violence advocates from Oklahoma, New Mexico and South Dakota say that IHS hasnt held up its end of the law.
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http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/03/on_july_29_2010_lisa.html
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Why Native American Women Are Battling for Plan B (Original Post)
niyad
Mar 2012
OP
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)2. It's not as if these women have much of a choice in providers either..
This is going to sound like a silly question, but bear with me. Why cant they walk up to the pharmacy counter and get a few doses of Plan B in advance?
To get Plan B from Indian Health Service pharmacies, you still have to see a provider first. You have to get their approval before the pharmacy will release the drug to you. As for commercial pharmacies, oftentimes there are none on the reservationand keep in mind that some reservations are bigger than some states. Even if there is a commercial pharmacy, youd have to have a car or hire someone to drive you there, pay $50 for the drugs and find your way back home. That is financially inaccessible for many Native women.
To get Plan B from Indian Health Service pharmacies, you still have to see a provider first. You have to get their approval before the pharmacy will release the drug to you. As for commercial pharmacies, oftentimes there are none on the reservationand keep in mind that some reservations are bigger than some states. Even if there is a commercial pharmacy, youd have to have a car or hire someone to drive you there, pay $50 for the drugs and find your way back home. That is financially inaccessible for many Native women.
I have family on one of the huge western reservations and know that this is true for them.
niyad
(113,323 posts)3. I have spent a lot of time in the southwest, and have some idea how large some of the
reservations are.
these situations are absolutely intolerable.