Reflection on Reproduction Issues are Essential Survival Issues for
The Asian-American Communities

What a sad state we live in when women, living in the United States are still denied basic health care simply because either they are unable to understand what is expected of them or the physician and/or medical office are unable to explain it.
Connie C. Chan writes of the frightening ordeal that these non-English speaking women are forced to face. Imagine walking into a medical office where you are unable to fill out the forms, are given 3 minutes with the physician and come out unable to explain what it is that has brought you there. This scenario isn’t fiction, it happens every day. The Statue of Liberty states to “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free”, but what it doesn’t say on the bottom line is you can have these benefits as long as you can speak English. We are supposed to be a land of equal opportunity, but that just isn’t true. Chan writes when speaking on the issue of Asian-American immigrant woman and their lack of available healthcare for abortions that “they do not speak English; they do not demand equal access to health care; their needs are easily overlooked.” But why are they overlooked? I would argue that they do not demand their rights because they do not know they have them. It is a sad state indeed when women, such as Chan must personally advocate for women’s health issues without even the support of her medical office simply because no one else will. However, even though a significant portion of the problem, as I see it, has to do with the lack of communication, I also believe it has to do with an economic issue. These women are being discriminated against. Because they are poor and struggling to make “sense of life in the United States and to survive in whatever fashion they could”,