text: Black Women Need Real Change, Not Just Thanks | Milwaukee Courier Weekly Newspaper
  (Executive Director, new Voices for Reproductive Justice)
  La'Tasha D. Mayes, the founder and executive director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice, says that Black women are already leading the way in reproductive health, rights, and justice policy. (La'Tasha D. Mayes)
  After Roy Moore's defeat at the hands of Alabama voters—driven by Black voter turnout, especially the votes of Black women— we saw the celebration, credit-taking, and meaning-making that usually accompanies a progressive electoral victory. But one thing was different this time. This time, mainstream media and social media feeds flooded with messages acknowledging and thanking Black women for our role in the outcome.
  Black women are already leading the way in reproductive health, rights, and justice policy. In 2015, after decades of work by Black women advocates, Representative Barbara Lee (DCalif.) led the introduction of the EACH Woman Act to repeal the Hyde Amendment's Reign of Terror on poor women, and the bill today has 128 co-sponsors in the House, even in this incredibly hostile political moment.
  No longer. It's time for this country to do more than thank Black women— it's time to put our issues in the center of the political table and follow the leadership of Black women as we construct a new nation that affirms the human rights of us all.
  La'Tasha D. Mayes, the founder and executive director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice, writes about the political power of Black women.