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.