Social Justice Wins in 2021
I started this blog to connect my involvement between social justice and speech-language pathology. It’s good to reflect on what were the social justice wins this year when it feels like we’ve had a lot of losses. Cheers to 2022!
Derek Chauvin- Guilty on all counts
A jury found Chauvin guilty on all charges in the death of George Floyd. As of May 25, 2021, at least 31 states have enacted or pending new bills regarding police reform. They mainly center around limiting offer immunity (4 states), mandating body cameras (10 states), restricting neck restraints (16 states), and restricting no-knock warrants (5 states). Police use of facial recognition was banned. Illinois ended wealth-based pre-trial detention. Check out my articles on police reform here:
Sources:
https://www.statista.com/chart/22172/legislation-on-police-reform-by-state/
Activists Question Whether Police Reform Bills Are Enough – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
@so.informed on Instagram
We Voted Out Donald Trump
Need I say more???
In all serious, this brought relief to minority communities that received hate, discrimination and reduced safety because of the Trump Administration and his followers. Good riddance.
The Vaccine
More than 4.57 billion people worldwide have received a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, equal to about 59.6 percent of the world population. This map shows the stark gap between vaccination programs in different countries. There’s a long way to go, but we made tremendous progress in a year making the vaccine available and saving lives.
Sources:
Covid World Vaccination Tracker – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
More Attention to the Experience of Palestinians
Americans protested in citities all over the U.S. following video footage of Gaza destruction. Social media helped spread awareness and understanding of this issue, and people that previously supported Israel to look at their own bias and learn about the Palestinian refugee crisis.
Sources:
Why Pro-Palestinian Support Is Growing Amid Israel Conflict | Time
Dr. Rachel Levine- First Openly Transgender Person to Be Confirmed to A Federal Office
Admiral Rachel L. Levine serves as the 17th Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), after being nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2021. As Assistant Secretary for Health, ADM Rachel Levine fights every day to improve the health and well-being of all Americans. She’s working to help our nation overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and build a stronger foundation for a healthier future – one in which every American can attain their full health potential. ADM Levine also is the head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned one of the eight uniformed services.
Source:
16 States now have legalized marijuana!
Virginia is the 16th state to legalize marijuana as of April 2021. Two states have fully decriminalized marijuana. Many states have legalized medical marijuana. Hopefully 2022 will bring more process with legalized marijuana across all 50 states.
Abortion Pills by Mail
The FDA approved abortion pills to be sent by mail.
Patients will be able to have a telemedicine appointment with a provider who can prescribe the pills and send them to the patient by mail, the FDA said in new guidance issued Thursday.
Abortion pills are approved in the United States for pregnancies up to 10 weeks’ gestation and are an increasingly common method of ending an unwanted pregnancy.
Medication abortion is a two-drug regimen that was approved in the United States in 2000, with restrictions only on the first drug, mifepristone.
Earlier this year, the FDA said that for the duration of the pandemic, it would temporarily lift the in-person requirement on mifepristone.
“It’s really significant,” Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University, told The New York Times. “Telehealth abortions are much easier for both providers and patients, and even in states that want to do it, there have been limits on how available it is.”
Source:
FDA Allows Abortion Pill to Stay Available by Mail (webmd.com)
These are just a few great things that happened this year! Share your wins for the year- social justice or otherwise!
