For Immediate Release: October 16, 2024
Contact: Jocelyn Foye
[email protected]
(401) 400-0061
The Index represents the first effort in RI to ascertain where candidates for any office stand on the rights to bodily autonomy for all
[Providence, RI] – OCTOBER 16 – The Womxn Project today announced the full report launch for the General Election of the Bodily Freedom Forever Index (BFFI©). This Index is derived from publicly available sources and directly from candidates. All candidates were sent the Bodily Freedom Forever Survey.
“The Womxn Project does not expect every candidate will respond to the survey in the interests of transparency since there has not been a direct action for this kind of accountability. But voters have the right to know where candidates for any elected office stand on these most fundamental of human rights.” Jocelyn Foye said.
Bodily freedom is the ideal that people should have sole decision-making power over their own body as long as those decisions don’t infringe on another’s bodily freedom. The Index rates candidates as supporting or opposing bodily freedom based on their support or opposition to reproductive rights including abortion and support or opposition to LGBTQ+ rights.
The Index can be located at the link below. The Index is sorted by town and then the candidates for every race in that town are listed along with their position, For, Against or N/A, the latter for candidates who have yet to respond.
“Candidates who have not yet responded to the surveys are encouraged to do so by visiting our website listed below. Further, TWP encourages constituents to contact candidates in their towns to encourage, cajole and harangue them into responding to the survey or otherwise declaring their position on bodily freedom. The BFFI will become a feature of every election in RI and you can help us build it by contacting candidates,” added Foye.
The Womxn Project encourages any interested voter to contact their candidates and ask them to fill out the BFFI Survey. TWP has compiled a list of publicly available contact information for every candidate on their website and encourages candidates themselves to request access to the BFFI survey if they did not receive or cannot find the email at an link on our website.
The Womxn Project will continue to compile the results and other research findings right up until the last day to vote on November 5th. The need for this Index, no matter the office sought, reflects the realities of polarized US politics.
“Local elected officials may not directly act upon issues of bodily freedom, but candidates’ stands on bodily freedom informs aspects of many other policies,” concludes Foye.
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Jocelyn Foye is available for interview upon request.
