WST Engagement 1

On Saturday, September 15th I attended the Women's Health Panel at the Youth Organizing and Policy Institute on the UCF campus. The speakers were Jenna Tosh, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando, Scott Randolph, the Florida State Representative, and Dr. M.C. Santana, the director of the women's studies program at UCF. The panel was shorter than I expected. I think there were some time issues. So I would have liked to hear more, but overall it was pretty good. Scott Randolph talked about the affordable care act and the equality it can create in insurance payments. Dr. Santana was probably my favorite speaker, although I am probably biased because I know her, unlike the other two speakers.

Dr. Santana spoke on some of her personal experiences with reproductive health. She talked about the hard time she had getting her maternity leave from UCF when she had one of her children and how she had to be back within two weeks of having her baby. She talked about how she took her son and daughter to both get the HPV shot and how this brought about much reaction from the clinic staff. Everyone saw this to be a huge deal. Scott Randolph discussed how our Governor Rick Scott is one of the most disliked governors. He discussed the breakdown of how people voted and who voted and said that in the end it took less than 20% of the population to vote for Rick Scott for him to get elected.

I think Dr. Santana’s stories are a great example of how women’s health and sexual health affect us all in our everyday lives, and Scott Randolph’s discussion about Rick Scott shows the importance of getting involved and voting. Towards the end of the panel someone asked Dr. Santana what brought her to the movement? Or why she is involved like she is? Her answer was simple: “Because you have to!” She said, you can’t life and look the other way. This was something that really stuck with me. How can we ignore issues that are affecting all of us? How can we not vote and leave our futures and our vaginas futures up to representatives that we don’t even support. Anna Eskamani, a Planned Parenthood representative, ended off the panel in the perfect way. She said “if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.” I completely agree. We have to stop ignoring and start being active.