The Womxn Project releases the Bodily Freedom Forever Index ahead of Tuesday's primary
It's important to know who you're voting for.
The Womxn Project, after months of work, today released their Bodily Freedom Forever Index for Tuesday’s primary elections. The group defines Bodily Freedom Forever “as having sole decision-making power over your body; so long as those decisions do not infringe on another’s bodily autonomy.” More specifically, Bodily Freedom Forever significantly but not completely refers to reproductive and transgender rights, that is, the right to contraception, including abortion, and the right to socially and medically transition one’s gender.
Access the most recent Bodily Freedom Forever Index here.
As Jocelyn Foye, executive director of The Womxn Project, put it in the video below:
“We're asking the question, where do these candidates stand on bodily freedom forever? We went looked from a journalistic standpoint - where people put information out [and] what they've said, and we've gone to the candidates themselves and said, "This is the information we found. Do you agree with our research?" Some people responded, some people had nothing. Some people had no way to get in touch with them, which, by the way, was super strange. If you're going to run for elected office, you probably want to be contacted by your constituents.
“We're hoping that you take this to the polls. We're hoping that you find this a helpful tool to understand who the candidates are who believe in bodily freedom and want to stand behind policies that protect those who need it most.
“For everybody in the state, ssome of the things we found were through information that is online. And when we turned to [the candidates] and asked, and if we still didn't find out, we listed that as empty spaces. It's an interesting [thing] to consider. Why are they not answering? What does that mean and what does it say about democracy?
:We are being fair and true, hoping that people [will] come forward and say, ‘This is where I stand.’ We will [update] this index: look at the timestamp at the bottom, make sure that it's most up to date from when you last looked at it, and we hope that you take it and use it to vote this primary. And be prepared for what's coming for the general election because we're going to do it across the state, up and down ballots.”
As Executive Director Foye pointed out, the Bodily Freedom Forever Index is not a static document and will be updated as new information is incorporated. So the photos of the first batch of released data shown below should not be seen as complete or definitive. Check back before you vote.
And be ready for the update coming for the General Election.
Hi! There are some issues with the data--the index has already been updated as candidates find out they have been labeled "Against" or "N/A" when they were never contacted (so the image here is outdated). I learned of this survey from a third party, two days before it was published, but I was never contacted directly by the Womxn Project. While this is a very worthy idea, and I support TWP's mission, it seems premature to have put out this survey at this time.