- So it's sorry, it's 537. And we have quorum. So I was thinking about this. Let's just start with roll
- call. So Julie's like, what are you talking about? I don't know. But I'm here. We always take roll call.
- OK. I mean, like at my other meetings, I was like, I'm just going to start taking roll call. All right.
- Julie Haresti. I'm here. Hi. Hi, Yaro. Here.
- Maria Douglas. I think I'm here. Liz Fiddle. I'm here. Molly Otto. Here. Susan Hingle. Here. Currently
- Jennifer Belton. Not here. Or Tiana Oroge. Not here. All right. The commission shall serve in an advisory
- role to assist residents.
- businesses in the government of Monroe County and addressing issues of gender equity. The mission is
- to advance the status of women in marginalized genders in all areas of county life. The first item of
- business is approval of minutes. I know Molly for last month for September. I saw that you had sent
- those out earlier this week. Has everyone had a chance to read them?
- And if so, do I have a motion to accept them? Speaking about next month, if people need more time. We
- are not making a motion to accept them.
- Well, I have not had the capacity to read them, to be honest, but looking at them now. All right.
- Moving on. Commissioner updates myself. I saw that you said that you would comment on the email that
- we got today. So I will let you do that. Oh, yeah. When we get there. Thank you. I'm sorry. I didn't.
- Yeah. Other than that, we got a couple of name tags. I have Eve's. I gave Eve his name.
- her name tag, and then I have Jennifer's, which I will give Jennifer that one too. And that's all I
- have. Julie? Yes. The topic I am trying to look at this month is reproductive health care in Monroe
- County and statistics surrounding that.
- There's this is this is like a giant topic for Indiana and for Monroe County. And it's also already
- pretty difficult to come up with anything close to accurate statistics about what's happening.
- So understanding any statistics around this topic of reproductive health care in Monroe County has to
- start with knowing about the laws in Indiana.
- because reproductive health care is limited and severely regulated for women and marginalized genders
- in our state. This includes statewide regulations such as the abortion ban that's been in effect in
- Indiana since 2023 and bans on gender transition procedures, including puberty blockers and hormone
- therapy for minors, children under 18 in Indiana since 2024.
- So none of this changes the fact that pregnant people still need abortions or children under 18 still
- need gender affirming care, but it does significantly impact reproductive health care for all women
- and marginalized genders in the state, including Monroe County.
- Um, bans and legal ramifications for medical procedures that are known to be safe and effective in managing
- reproductive health mean that our state is losing health care providers that are able to do not only
- those banned procedures, but reproductive health care in general. So we're losing, we're losing medical
- providers. Um, and that means that all other reproductive health care services that all women
- and marginalized genders still need are also less available. And I do have a little bit of data that
- we can point to, to show.
- what is, I think, trending in the state. So all of this is unnecessary and stressful and has nothing
- to do with women and marginalized genders taking care of their reproductive health. But here we are.
- So I think the best, most recent info that I could find is from an organization called the Commonwealth Fund.
- It's been around for over 100 years and is basically a private organization that promotes high-performing,
- equitable healthcare systems that achieve better access, improve quality, and greater efficiency,
- particularly for societies most vulnerable, including people of color, people with low income, and those
- who are uninsured. What they have at this point is a 2024.
- scorecard by state on women's health and reproductive care. And Indiana ranks 29 out of 50 overall with
- a performance rate of worse than average. So that's where things are as of 2024, which is still looking
- a little bit in the past. Statistical sources that they are using include the CDC's national vital statistics
- and other reports, which are from 2022 and prior. So that's before the abortion ban took effect.
- and the National Center for Health Statistics from 2024. So that's maybe getting into a little bit of
- something that shows some of that impact. So we are among the states with the highest rates of breast
- and cervical cancer deaths in the nation at this point. And we are also one of the states with the fewest
- maternity care providers in the nation. And I think this is mostly based on data from before the abortion
- ban was even in effect.
- There's a state profile that's just a PDF for Indiana that I can share as part of the summary information.
- I'll send that link. In terms of maternal mortality, there is a maternal mortality committee for the
- state of Indiana, or there was. I think there technically still is, although it may not be active anymore.
- I don't know. I can't follow what the recent news is with all of that.
- There was a maternal mortality report for Indiana from 2021. And then in 2023, there was a study from
- that committee that looked at that 2021 data. And so it appears that the last time we have any data
- on maternal mortality at state level is from 2021.
- So that's before the abortion ban was in effect. So the 2023 report technically came out after the abortion
- ban was put in place, but it was not looking at any recent data. It was looking at 2021 data. So that
- was a little bit news. And based on that, the 2023 study of the 2021 data is showing that Indiana has
- the third worst maternal mortality rate in the nation. So even before the abortion ban was in place,
- we're still not taking care of pregnant people.
- So there's also some some reports from the Indiana Department of Health from twenty twenty one in twenty
- twenty two that are detailed about terminated pregnancies apparently there was.
- required reporting in the state leading up to the abortion ban about terminated pregnancies at the county
- levels and the places that we're providing services, that sort of thing. So those are available and
- actually are kind of showing what the need was at that point in time at least.
- The 2023 March of Dimes report on Indiana does show that as of 2023, Monroe County is viewed as having
- full access to maternity care. And there's some qualifications for that, depending on how many places
- are available to provide birthing services, how many obstetrics providers there are available within
- a certain distance, and so the maps that they're showing in that report.
- are showing Monroe County as being a place that is providing full access to maternity care. Let's see.
- Health care in Monroe County, there's not very much I can really get into. I was able to really come
- up with four specific statistics, but it's trying to figure out what services are available. The Monroe
- County government website does have
- And it does offer a list of places to go to for reproductive health care. And there's a place called
- the Indiana Family Planning Centers, which I think is what came in after whatever the futures places
- closed down.
- the Monroe County Government website also points folks to Health Net and Planned Parenthood and Path
- for You, which are all in Bloomington, and Pace Health Connection in Bedford. So the Monroe County Government
- website is trying to offer up some options for people who need reproductive health care, but I feel
- like there's probably more that could be provided.
- There are, in terms of gender affirming care, reproductive health care, in that regard, there are places,
- if you're over 18 at least, there are places in Bloomington that can help. Planned Parenthood is one
- of them, but the IU Health System also has OBGYNs and other services available.
- And then up in Indianapolis, Eskenazi Health and IU School of Medicine also have services available
- there. And there's also a telehealth service called Plume Clinic, which I think Planned Parenthood makes
- use of and is also, I think, available as its own thing. That is something that can be used. So I think
- there's maybe some potential for Monroe County on its online presence to offer more options and more
- information.
- The Monroe County Public Library currently does offer reproductive rights libguide sort of information
- that is sharing other options that are available. In addition to that, we also in Bloomington have all
- options pregnancy resource center,
- community birth center. Those are those are places that are also offering pregnancy and maternity care,
- reproductive health care. And then there's the we've we've talked about this at previous meetings that
- the gather store on the square has a free contraceptives vending machine through a program from the
- Indiana task force. And it was HAP that also helped put that
- in place. So you can use that vending machine. You can also shop and gather and make a donation to stock
- the vending machine. So that is something else that is out there. So those aren't really statistics,
- but it felt like that was a good place to kind of go with this for what is available. The last thing
- that I looked at is family leave policies. And that was
- I kind of took it from a county and city perspective. So looking at Monroe County government, city of
- Bloomington government, city of Ellisville government, and then also at the school corporations. So
- MCCSC and RBBSC as school corporations within the county that would be kind of county run. So in looking
- at those, there are,
- I think there are some some differences that are are a little bit interesting. So Monroe County government
- seems to have amended its personnel policy in 2024 that and it does provide for paid parental leave
- of up to six weeks.
- in addition to everyone is offering FMLA, the federal mandated family and medical leave, but Monroe
- County government offers six weeks of paid leave and the city of Ellisville, I couldn't find anything,
- but the city of Bloomington in 2023 had a news item about a pilot program that was also offering six
- weeks of paid parental leave. I don't know if that is still in place. I could not find any information
- about their current
- the current leave policy. The school corporations, however, are a little bit different, and it's looking
- like parental leave is eight paid days for Monroe County schools. Yeah, you can, yeah. And then RBBSC
- is, if I'm understanding it correctly, is only five paid days. What in the world? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah.
- I think there's something to look into with that, with school corporations, because that seems pretty
- different and surprisingly short. So unpaid leave, I think there's still, Monroe County School Corporation
- looks like one year unpaid leave is still, is an option. So you can be gone and come back to do your
- position, but it's an unpaid leave. And I think RBBSC, I think has the similar sort of thing up to one
- year of unpaid leave. But the paid leave is,
- pretty different from what the Monroe County government is offering its employees and the city
- of Bloomington. So, and like I said, city of Ellisville, I couldn't find anything online. So there may
- be information, but I don't know what it is. So that's, I think, kind of the long short. Did the community,
- I'm looking, because I don't remember, but did you look at the Health Equity Council website? Do they
- have any sources? They didn't seem to have.
- all that much about reproductive health care in particular. So yeah, that wasn't something I came across
- in their information. Maybe I missed it. It's possible that that is something that we should look at.
- Because I'd been looking at that for health care for women previously with the last month's topic, but
- it didn't seem to really get into reproductive health care.
- And I can't remember when the report was coming out, but it's possible that things were changing so
- much that it may have just been hard to understand what they could look at and talk about realistically.
- So yeah. I think there's some things to, this topic seems like there's some things that we could potentially
- make suggestions to,
- county commissioners regarding information that Monroe County government is providing on its website.
- In addition to potential policy inequities that should be considered between school corporations and
- Monroe County government employees otherwise. So is there any role for the rubric? We can take. Yeah,
- that is I mean, the the policies itself, I think both
- I have to look at what it was that I was, it's collective bargaining contracts, which may or may not
- be the sort of thing that you can use the rubric on. Maybe it would work, possibly. Or add something
- to the rubric about leave in some way. So yeah, what we've got from the school corporations
- is not necessarily, I guess it's the policy in terms of,
- the contract that they have for whatever the time period is. So I guess it could probably work similarly
- using the rubric. So whose collective bargaining agreement are you referring to? I missed that. This
- one's the Monroe County School Corporation. Oh, the school corporation. Yeah, yeah. OK, thank you. And
- it might be the same with RBVSC. I'm not sure. Yeah, I think it's the collective bargaining agreement
- at RBVSC as well that I was seeing.
- Yeah, that's something we could check out. I don't quite know what that would, yeah. We can see what
- it does, but I'm not comparing it. Seeing what the differences are between paid leaves for parental
- leave, I don't know that the rubric would get at that. Looking at one policy, looking at multiple policies,
- maybe we would pull something like that out. But yeah. All the times for Jolena to be here, she was
- on the board. Anyway, I think there's something that's
- the Women's Commission could actually take a look at this and potentially have something to bring up
- and ask about, so. Jodi was on what board? Looks like she was on the board, the steering committee for
- the Health Equity Council. Oh, cool. Yeah, stunningly, this is my newer
- newer phrase I made up, but stunningly stunning information. And I'm curious, it just, I'm curious about,
- you know, it would be fantastic if the Women's Commission could be an advocate, you know, an advocacy
- organization, you know, having that be part. Because, I mean, we could go to the school board, we could, you know,
- schedule meetings, you know, with the superintendent, with the school board, with the school board president,
- you know, things like that. This is a definitely like issue cut. It's an issue cut, you know, and so
- a winnable. It's definitely a winnable thing situation. And so I'm curious about how. But I assume that
- we would have to get permission from the commissioners to take on this work. So.
- I don't know what that entails. But thank you for that bad, good information. And I will do the summary
- and send that over to you, Molly, for minutes. That's what I've got. Always a ray of sunshine. Try.
- Any other commissioners present and have updates? Molly? Eve? I do not. October 20th through the 26th
- is National Estate Planning Week. So just a reminder, if you don't have documents in place or if you
- have any questions. I work at an estate planning firm, so happy to help. Gordon? Especially for women.
- For what? Women. Yes, absolutely. Maria. Just piggybacking off of what Julie said, I wanted to let everyone
- know that the ACLU is inviting everyone to a community town hall on maternal health and reproductive
- access on October 23rd at 6 p.m. at the downtown library.
- And just a little, this is on Facebook, also receive emails if you belong, if you get the ACLU emails.
- Across Indiana, families are navigating what it means to thrive during pregnancy while raising children
- and when making deeply personal decisions about their bodies and futures. As we prepare for the next
- legislative session, we're bringing neighbors together to talk about what's happening in our communities
- across the state and around the country.
- So what to expect, stories and insights from people on the front lines of reproductive care, space for
- thoughtful, respectful dialogue across viewpoint, it's information on upcoming legislation and how it
- impacts your family and community and clear, meaningful ways to take action. So again, that's October
- 23rd at 6 p.m. at the Downtown Library. Is there a room number there?
- Guess. Auditorium. That would be my guess. Yeah, downtown library auditorium. Okay, great. Yep.
- I wanted to make another announcement slash plea that if anyone in the community or anyone who's listening
- to this, or if you know anyone who has received one of the letters from our beloved clerk Brown in terms
- of having to prove your citizenship for in terms of being registered to vote, please contact me, Maria M.A.R.I.A.
- at Hoosier.
- AAP.org. My organization, Hoosier Asian American Power, can help navigate that process to ensure that
- you're registered. We are also very interested in supporting individuals who may be affected by House
- Enrolled Act 1264, which has, I'll say it, spawned these letters.
- Do we know how many letters people have received in the county? In Monroe County, 39. Thank you. At
- the time of, um, clerk, clerk Brown held that round table two to three weeks ago, three weeks ago, maybe.
- And at that time it had, it was 39. And I will also report from that round table. She reported that
- one of the individuals who received the letter because it was in their hopper to do it. And they have to,
- do these things that are in their hopper, that's what they call it, had never had a temporary ID, because
- that's what seems to be flagging people is a temporary ID, but he called and said, I have been a citizen
- since I was three years old, and I've never had a temporary ID. And why did I get this letter? Why was
- I flagged? And of course, even the clerk's office
- don't have answers to that. I think she said she also had a couple, at least one, if not a couple calls
- from people who are like, I'm not trying to vote. I know I can't vote. Like, are you trying to deport
- me? So some fear with these letters that for whatever reason they were flagged, they had to receive
- these letters. And so causing fear in some of the members of our community.
- Also, we almost had our first public commenter, but Melanie Vestledge, the prevention coordinator at
- the Youth Services Bureau, could not make public comments, but she did take the time to send us, Jodi
- and Liz and Susan and myself and maybe a few others, that
- She wanted to let us know about MC3 coming up on November 13th from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and MC3 is Monroe
- County Childhood Conditions Summit. I believe this is the third year for this. I personally have gone
- every year and it is such an impressive seminar and it's free. So anyone who is
- interested in youth, anyone who's interested in the future of this community, anyone that's interested
- in what resources are available, I highly, highly recommend it. And again, so that's November 13th from
- eight to four at the Monroe Convention Center. That's BTCC.
- annually since 2016. Maybe it's just me that's gone three years.
- But anyway, there's a range of topics from using GIS and decision making to advocacy to conflict mapping
- to community based fire prevention to insights from CASA and thriving connections and much more.
- And up to 3.75 social work CEUs can be earned by attending. And again, the event is free and open to
- the public.
- So I'm not sure I can say this, but you can go to this tiny URL situation, tinyurl.com backslash. Forward
- slash. Forward slash. 2025 hyphen or dash MC3. So tinyurl.com forward slash 2025.
- I highly recommend. Thank you for all the assists. I think that's all. All right. Thank you. Old and
- ongoing business. We have the policy subcommittee or committee with commissioners Harkerstein-Douglas.
- Do we have any updates that we would need to share? Like to share? We are going to be meeting next week
- and Commissioner Yarrow has been reviewing and checking out the formatting that we have on the rubric
- itself and figuring out a way to better
- better display it more compactly, and has given some feedback as well on the rubric and what things,
- if there's some criteria consolidation that we can do, which might also help tame it a little bit and
- make it a little easier to take in. And then PowerPoint, we're also working on the PowerPoint, again,
- shaping that up. So that feels like it is getting there.
- Yes. Do we have any other updates? That's the only update for the that I have. Does anyone else have?
- And I mean, I just want to note that it's been super helpful to have Eve look at it because Julie and
- I have been looking at it for a year and a half. And so it's fantastic to have new eyes on it and someone
- who has eyes for formatting and just
- I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I
- think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think that's a great question. I think
- that's a great question. I think that's a great question.
- Didn't we get that statement from the professor that we're working with? Oh, yes, you're correct. Okay,
- I just can't get that. I can't access that email on my phone. So can you pull that up? It was very lovely.
- Search for lovely.
- So Diane Henschel, who is the faculty advisor for the potential capstone project that we will be working
- on, she sent us a description of the capstone. So we really should, I have another chance to look at
- it. The Monroe County Women's Commission, and I will send this to you.
- Online Capstone will investigate the situation of women in Monroe County and develop recommendations
- to help the Monroe County Women's Commission identify new policies and actions to improve the status,
- security, and sustainability of women throughout Monroe County. The Monroe County Women's Commission
- is run jointly by the Monroe County Board of Commission and the Monroe County Council, which is not
- true. I will correct that. And their recommendations would then be enacted through
- the commissioner of the council. I will fix that. O'Neill capstone students have carried out two prior
- capstone efforts directed at understanding and developing recommendations to address the concerns of
- women in Bloomington, particularly concerns about gender equity in the light of the recent climate action
- plan. And that had just been released in 2022. Many women in Monroe County live outside.
- Bloomington City Limits and the Monroe County Women's Commission would like an updated and county-wide
- effort to both gather data and the status of women using both publicly available data and survey data.
- Specifically, we would like to see a similar survey used with the Bloomington status of women capstones
- developed and implemented across Monroe County, addressing the needs and concerns of many subpopulations within
- the county. We request the development of a set of recommendations for new and changed policies and
- actions to enhance and increase sustainability and stability of the lives of Monroe County women using
- an analysis of the results of the survey and the other public data that Capstone students compile. The
- commission would like particularly
- would particularly like attention paid to how the changes in climate politics, infrastructure and funding
- dynamics are affecting women throughout the county and would like the recommendations to be future thinking
- and recognize how societal and environmental changes are particularly affected women. That's a lot.
- That's great.
- Yeah, it is a lot. And so I'm excited to see what the students with the class will return.
- It seems like, what's Diane's last name? Henchel. Henchel. Dr. Henchel seems very interested also in
- terms of what they'll return that could be in addition
- or have changed since that initial capstone report. So I'm excited for it. Me too. I should say also
- at the bottom, the capstone will run from May 12th through July 31st of 2026. So I will probably take
- this while I need some updates. Or maybe I could work with Molly Turner King about updates to that exact
- description and then work
- proceeding with a necessary MOU, I guess. And I always say that the little recommendations I see are
- about, we are not technically, we are technically under the commissioners and technically we would present
- to the commissioners, I believe, but I will see what the correct verbiage would be to that.
- I think that's a great question. Absolutely. Thank you for doing that. Yes. That's all I have. We have
- the Outreach Committee, Roger Belton and Otto. Molly, you're the one here. Yeah. We didn't meet, so
- I was hoping that Tiana would be here for more info on the camp, but it starts on Saturday.
- I'm sorry, what doesn't the camp camp starts on the 18th? It starts on Saturday. Yeah, it's scheduled
- for October 18th through December six. Yeah. So I will text her tomorrow. Yeah, we need to see if there's
- like an event that we can work as commissioners should women's commissioners should be at. We should
- know. And I know Tiana had mentioned that we should. I mean, as soon as we have the times and when it's
- all happening, right, that we can show up to any of them that we want, as long as we have a background
- check through.
- the school. Oh, well, which we did last time. We should. We had done last time. Did we? But I know that
- that was in the email. If we're going to be through MCCSE or through Luddy. I don't know. I will find
- out. Yeah. Yeah. If there's an email, if there's information about that that we're supposed to get,
- I don't think I've gotten that. Yeah. I didn't either. I don't know that there was one, but I'll get
- with Tiana tomorrow to make sure that we have all the info. Cool.
- I was hoping she would be here. Yeah, she was texting that she was running late, and I was hoping that
- she would kind of come in. Well, hurry up. It took a minute, and now we're running. It took years, and
- now we're moving at warp speed. Yes.
- I believe we have new business and public comment. I don't believe there's anybody here for, oh, Molly's
- on there. Can't wait to work with you, Molly. Anyway. Okay, so just in terms of new business, I'm curious
- about what everyone thinks about asking
- the commissioners are exploring advocacy opportunities for this commission. Like changing the role of
- commissions. I'm sorry? You want to change the role, add to the role of the commission. Add, yeah. To
- the role and the actions of the commission.
- Molly, can you? I bet that's not going to be possible. Can you comment at all? Molly Turner-King. I
- don't know if she's really listening or just recording. I don't know. I'd be interested. Can you hear
- me? My mic's not working. Hi, Molly. Did you hear what we were talking about, about what Maria was saying
- about advocacy? Yeah, I think the easiest way is probably to schedule a meeting with
- and then kind of just talk through it. That's what I would recommend. Yeah, that sounds reasonable.
- OK, thank you. Thank. Well, that'd be amazing if we. Yeah, because right now we're just advisory. OK,
- do you want to try to get that scheduled? Or how do you want that?
- How do you want to proceed with that? I just want to get in. Let me think about it, if that's OK,
- because or. This just came to mind when Julie was and I forgot kind of the unspoken rule that if you
- suggest something, then you need to you're probably going to be the one responsible for it. So let me
- think everywhere. I know.
- I forgot. And I'm okay. I mean, if you say yet, I mean, I think a good place to start would be virtually.
- I know Jodi. I don't know what Jodi's availability is. Ours is all over the place. So you know what,
- for me as president, for you, if you think this is something that we is worthwhile having a meeting
- about, set the meeting and I will attend if I'm available.
- Would you prefer in-person or virtual? I would probably prefer virtual during daytime. Virtual, yes.
- Just for legit travel time and all that, or lack thereof. OK. I'll see what traction I can get. I just
- know that you are. Yes. OK. I will follow through. Anything else? I forgot to ask you, I didn't include
- you, Liz, and I forgot.
- Council Member Feidl, if you have any comments that you or news that you would like to share with us.
- Just happy that the budget's been adopted for the county. Yay. That's really what we've been focusing
- on the last two months very heavily. So we have some more things to follow up on on the 28th of this
- month. And then we'll be back to some sort of a dull roar, I think.
- I'm looking forward to the dull roar because it's been a very intense eight week period. But yeah,
- but good. Yes. But good. A lot of discussion about lots of things. So a lot of things have been brought
- up and aired and thoroughly vetted and analyzed and everything. So there's just a lot out there to think
- about. So. Well, thank you for that work. I'm curious if we have the Monroe County Women's Commission
- has a line item in the budget.
- If so, I would think it would be under the County Commissioners Office. Under the OK, because you're
- appointed to the commissioners, right? So I would think when you have your conversation about this,
- you can ask that then. Very good. Thank you. Yeah. I would just double check then. They should know
- Angie or somebody should be able to tell you what the history is on that. I when I served on the commission
- many years ago, I don't remember there being a line, but things change.
- We've had a line for a couple of years. Good for you. Find out where it's at. Yeah. But thank you for
- that work. All right. As no public comment, it is 617 and I call this meeting adjourned. Thank you all
- very much.