Women in Barbacoas, Colombia have resorted to a "crossed legs" strike after all other efforts to lobby their government for basic infrastructure failed:
[T]he lack of a paved road means that even the cost of food is five or six times that of other regions of the country. But this isn't just about the price of goods or convenience: there have been many deaths linked to the lack of adequate infrastructure, as ambulances get stuck in the mud trying to reach town.
Nona Willis Aronowitz admires the desperate move:
At face value, this political tactic is as old-fashioned as it gets. It paints men as horny brutes and women as sacrificial gatekeepers. … But context is everything. The women in Colombia aren't simply playing the sex card; they're connecting their life-or-death struggle to their future children. "We are being deprived of our most human rights and as women we can't allow that to happen," Ruby Quinones, one of the organizers, told a local newspaper. "Why bring children into this world when they can just die without medical attention and we can't even offer them the most basic rights?"
Of course, in a country where birth control is accessible (and now free!) and abortion is legal, this defense rings hollow. But in a place like Barbacoas, where access to even basic medical care is strained and ending a pregnancy could get you three years in prison, a strike like this suddenly becomes meaningful.
The Dish 