An Do serves as executive director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon.
This month, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon celebrates Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which honors the histories, cultures and contributions of East, Southeast, South and West Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people in the United States.
As the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, my family lived at the intersection of the social, racial, gender, economic and reproductive justice issues that I fight for at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon.
At Planned Parenthood, we are proud to be working in solidarity across movements to push beyond reproductive freedom toward collective liberation and a future where every person has the rights, recognition and resources to be the authors of their own destiny — to chart and live their fullest lives in safe and thriving communities.
Asian and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing racial group in the country. Among Asian immigrants, 1 in 7 are undocumented and subject to discriminatory policies and right-wing political attacks that limit their health care options.
Planned Parenthood is a trusted health care provider that many communities of color rely on for preventive services like lifesaving cancer screenings, testing and treatment for STDs, Pap tests and health education. Planned Parenthood health centers serve more than 2.4 million patients each year — more than 120,000, or 5%, identify as Asian, Asian American or Pacific Islander.
Racism is a public health crisis. Discriminatory public policy has created systemic and economic barriers resulting in racial health disparities that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn. Across the nation, many AAPI people are deeply impacted by the overwhelming lack of access to health care and education services, yet they have some of the greatest needs for preventive health care:
- Cancer is the leading cause of death among AAPIs. The cervical cancer rate is higher in several Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander subgroups than in non-Hispanic whites. The incidence rate is twice as high in Cambodians than in non-Hispanic whites, and 40% higher among Vietnamese women.
- 1 in 5 Asians living with HIV in the United States do not know they have it.
- 1 in 4 Asian/Pacific Islanders are Limited English Proficient.
- For LGBTQ+ Asian/Pacific Islanders, the added barriers of homophobia and transphobia can result in medical discrimination, financial constraints that bar access to private insurance, trouble finding a culturally competent provider and even violence at the hands of medical professionals.
- In 11 of the 16 states that track their death rates separately from other Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are dying of COVID-19 at the highest rates of any racial or ethnic group.
In addition, communities are experiencing a devastating surge in racially motivated hate crimes. Throughout the pandemic, AAPI people have been scapegoated, harrassed and subjected to hate discrimination and violence.
The United States has a long-standing history of anti-Asian, xenophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy, from the first restrictive federal immigration law that halted the entry of Chinese women in 1875, to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, to the imperialist invasion and military assault of home countries that forced the migration of thousands of families like mine, to the ongoing surveillance and targeting of Muslims and South Asians following 9/11.
The deadly shootings in the Atlanta area on March 16 followed an alarming 150% increase in violence and harassment against Asians and Asian Americans since the beginning of the pandemic, with women reporting incidents at twice the rate as men. The murder of six women of Asian descent and subsequent media coverage surfaced the hypersexualization and denigration of Asian women within U.S. culture and brought to light the ways in which the racism and xenophobia AAPI communities face have been delegitimized.
The tendency to collapse the many cultures and identities represented within the term “AAPI” into a monolith renders entire communities and their unique experiences and needs invisible. What’s more, the myth of the “model minority” has been used to intentionally erase and silence AAPI histories and voices and divide AAPI communities from Black, Indigenous and other communities of color as part of a ruthless scarcity mindset that pits people against each other while concealing and upholding the systems and values of white supremacy.
The model minority myth is rooted in anti-Blackness and confers privilege based on proximity to whiteness and at the expense of other communities of color. The oppression of Black people is at the core of how race operates in the United States. Racial equity and liberation can only be achieved when we confront and disrupt the anti-Blackness and white supremacy within ourselves and our AAPI families and communities. AAPI liberation is Black liberation.
The stakes for solidarity are higher than ever. With three Trump nominees on the U.S. Supreme Court, anti-abortion politicians are emboldened. This year alone, more than 500 abortion restrictions have been introduced in nearly every state legislature, including Oregon. This month, the court announced it will review Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade and nearly 50 years of precedent.
If Roe is overturned, 25 million women of reproductive age and countless nonbinary and transgender people are at risk of losing abortion access. For so many, abortion access is already out of reach and dependent on ZIP code and income — barriers that disproportionately impact communities of color.
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Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon has been preparing for this moment, and we will continue working with our partners to ensure every person who needs access to abortion can get the care they need. Alongside partners like the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, we passed the nation’s most progressive reproductive health equity law and defeated the anti-abortion Ballot Measure 106.
We will continue to work in solidarity across movements and center those most impacted by systemic violence, racism, misogyny, xenophobia and white supremacy. Together we fight for all.