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| Cool Careers: Lois Uttley By: Clarissa Wong An important issue was brought up during the 2008 election: healthcare. With the new rising concerns in healthcare, it seemed appropriate to interview Lois Uttley, the founder of the MergerWatch Project, an organization, as Uttley explains, dedicated “to protecting women’s access to reproductive health services.” MergerWatch Project focuses on “ local hospitals [who] merge with religiously sponsored hospitals and uses a doctrine to restrict what services should be provided.” The goal is to “… organize women in local communities and help them speak out for continued access to women’s healthcare at their hospitals.” Uttley is also heavily involved in Raising Women’s Voices (RWV), a collaboration among the MergerWatch Project, the Avery Institute for Social Change and the National Women’s Health Network, which deals with “health coverage to pay for the care women need. RWV is trying to make sure that all women and families have quality, affordable health coverage that meets their need.” Uttley’s mother was an important influence on her career path: “my mother was a homemaker, but I could see that she would have liked to have a career. She had so many ideas and so much energy that wasn’t being used.” What lead Uttley to her interest in women rights and healthcare was growing up in the 1970s, during the beginning of the women’s liberation movement. She describes the exciting period as “it was really the birth of the contemporary women’s movement…most of the major feminist organizations was founded in this time”. After earning college degrees in journalism and women studies she held various positions ranging from journalist, the first female city editor of Albany’s daily newspaper, and government official titles, director of public affairs and director of communications in Albany, New York. Throughout her various careers though, she remained a strong advocate for women’s healthcare, covering women’s issues in journalism, and as the director of public affairs, she was in charge of speaking to news media about public health issues, especially those affecting women. And as the director of communications for family planning advocates, she handled the access to reproductive healthcare for women. Eventually she found herself in New York City as the founder of the MergerWatch Project. “Young women have a special need for healthcare because they are in their reproductive years,” said Uttley. A lot of young women find they cannot afford the cost of birth control pills, some manage to get to women health clinic but others go without or only take the pill every other day or try other ways to make ends meet…Women also need to know what the consequences can be of Sexually Transmitted Infections, which can endanger their future fertility.” Moreover, Uttley emphasizes young people in general should pay special attention to healthcare because of injuries resulting in emergency room visits, the rising rates of obesity, drug and alcohol abuse, STI and mental health problems. Another important concern for young people is when they turn nineteen years old. At nineteen, they “face a real challenge with health coverage, since they may ‘age out’ of their parents’ health insurance policies, or no longer eligible for public programs like children health insurance.” Although some colleges provide health policies, they are can be limited in coverage, expensive and only offered to full time students. Uttley also mentions how some young people do not go to college and just go right into workforce after graduating from high school and take entry level jobs where health insurance is not offered. However, the most important healthcare issue, regardless of gender, age, race or sexuality is the goal for universal healthcare, a hot topic during the 2008 election. What makes her career so special is there is no such thing as an average day. Some days, she spends in the office, working with other women’s health advocates through phone calls and e-mails. During her days out of the office, she is attending healthcare conferences, giving presentations, or writing articles. Her most important responsibility as the Director of MergerWatch Project is “cultivating grants officials to convince them to fund our work”. MergerWatch Project is solely funded on grants to pay for the bills, including the staff’s paychecks and the various programs MergerWatch Project hosts. The reason is, as Uttley explains “We take no money from the government, no funds from corporations because we want to be free to say the things that are right for women’s health.” The best part of being involved in healthcare, Uttley says, is how “I can make a difference. It’s nice to work on things that have potential to help real people.” A wonderful way to be more involved in healthcare is visiting RWV’s website to response to action alerts at http://raisingwomensvoices. net/ or reading RWV’s blog on the latest healthcare issues, http: //raisingwomensvoices08.wordpress.com/. You can also join their mailing list by e-mailing info@raisingwomensvoices.net |
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