Kimberly Lee (1L)

National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum

Washington, D.C.

Kim is working as a legal intern at the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF), the only national multi-issue Asian and Pacific Islander (API) organization in the country. NAPAWF is dedicated to advancing social justice and human rights for API women, focusing on issues such as reproductive justice, anti-human trafficking, health care reform, and immigration rights. Kim's projects with NAPAWF vary widely, ranging from putting together a manual for maintaining the organization's status as a 501(c)(3) to doing advocacy work against the Chris Smith Bill and sex-selection abortion bans. She is currently the vice president of SU's chapter of Law Students for Reproductive Justice, and she looks forward to bringing back what she learns at NAPAWF to Seattle.

August 2, 2011

Right now I'm at the San Francisco International Airport, waiting for my red-eye flight back to D.C. I'm exhausted, exhilarated. Going back to work directly from my flight tomorrow morning is going to be brutal, but this weekend was absolutely worth it; the national LSRJ conference, held at Berkeley this year, was an inspiring and energizing experience. LSRJ chapter leaders from all across the country came to Berkeley to share their experiences in leading their school chapters, to mingle over fantastic (and free) food, and to learn the latest legislative trends in reproductive justice.

During my time at NAPAWF, which is increasingly and unbelievably getting shorter and shorter, I've had the chance to research into one of these legislative trends: race and sex selection abortion (RASS) bans, which I had never even heard of prior to my internship. These bans, in an effort to promote gender and racial equality, punish doctors who perform abortions that are sought based on the sex or race of the offspring; doctors must sign affidavits if an abortion is not being performed on such preferences. Awareness of this issue spread when billboards started appearing in certain states that proclaimed, "Black children are an endangered species" and "The most dangerous place for a Latino is in the womb." Other billboards compared race and sex selection abortions to slavery, while others mourned the abortion of a black fetus as the death of a potential president.

RASS bans are championed as a civil rights movements. Due to the preference for sons over daughters in some Asian countries, proponents declare, gender imbalance among certain communities in the United States is becoming a huge concern. A ban on abortions based on the offspring's gender is meant to solve this imbalance and to give women a "second chance." However, not only do these bans shine an incriminating spotlight on women of color by separating them as a problem and as the "other" in the overall pro-choice community, as well as additionally impose legislation as a quick and easy solution to a cultural value that has been deeply engrained for centuries, RASS bans are an incredibly deceptive use of legislation. Proponents advocate the bill as promoting gender and racial equality, yet the voting records of said proponents show lack of interest in civil rights in general; they are strongly anti-choice, strongly anti-gay marriage, and some even oppose to women being in the military, suggesting a hidden agenda behind these bans.

RASS bans have been passed in a handful of states and has been introduced on the federal level on two different occasions. While the ban has not yet been introduced this Congress, I have had the privilege of helping NAPAWF be pro-active by putting together a legislative packet that discusses to House of Representative members the ramifications of RASS bans, as well as the need to address the root cause of gender imbalance (the belief that girls are not valuable) instead of imposing legislation. Despite being a small-staffed policy office, NAPAWF works on a myriad of other issues that impact API women, such as safe nail salon advocacy to promote a healthier work environment, and I am always amazed at how much work that impacts millions of women comes from a small office.

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June 30, 2011

For all of my life I have stayed within the confines of the Pacific Northwest. With this in mind, I knew that coming to Washington D.C. would be a huge eye-opener; not only would I merely be living in D.C. for two months, but I would also be interning in D.C. for two months. It has now been a month since I've been here, and my expectations for this internship being a huge learning experience have truly been exceeded.

Interning with an Asian and Pacific Islander women's organization is not like interning at just any women's social justice organization. Asian and Pacific Islander women are women with multiple identities-they are not only women, but they are women of color who face different challenges and have differing perspectives from other women. Intersectionality is something that I have always experienced, but never have I seen it as prominent as in D.C. A simple example was when I attended a Senate strategy meeting on the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act with Senator Patty Murray's office. Numerous representatives from great reproductive rights organizations were in attendance: NARAL, NAF, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the National Women's Law Center, and so on. However, NAPAWF was the only organization representing minority women, and although we were all at the same table and working towards the same goal, there was still a disparity and a lack of voice and representation on behalf of women of color.

Interning at NAPAWF has been a great experience in this respect. Not only have I been learning the ins and outs of the recent and very numerous proposed legislation surrounding reproductive justice, but I have also been practicing a skill that is valuable for any kind of legal career: looking at things in various perspectives, or more specifically, looking at how a certain piece of legislation could potentially impact a certain population.