Barbara Stratton

Barbara Stratton’s experience as a women’s health activist is an example of the difference one committed individual can make. After encountering difficulty obtaining health insurance coverage under her partner’s health plan, due to a Maryland law denying domestic partnership coverage to gay couples, Barbara made it her mission to challenge the law. She eventually won the case, making domestic partner coverage legal in Maryland. Barbara’s next big challenge came when she and her partner attempted to have a child. Their difficulty in finding resources about donor insemination for lesbians prompted Barbara and her partner to create an information resource packet on the topic and distribute it to other women in similar situations. Barbara also founded an insemination support group for lesbians. When, in 2004, Barbara discovered that Frederick Memorial Hospital had banned pregnant women from having a vaginal birth after a previous Caesarean section (VBAC), Barbara co-organized a rally to protest the VBAC ban, and started the Baltimore chapter of the International Caesarean Awareness Network (ICAN). See: www.birthingcircle.org/news.
September 2005