New Voices Fellow Wendy Morgan's approach to human rights became clarified while working on a graduate degree in social work at Boise State University.

"When I moved to Idaho, I noticed great disparities between those who could access rights and those who are victims of discrimination," she recalls. "The Idaho Women's Network took me in as a graduate intern and began teaching me how to organize and get people involved with issues of human rights and social justice."

Morgan is now one of Idaho's busiest social change advocates. As community organizing director for the Idaho Women's Network's Research and Education Fund, she has been instrumental in building collaborations across gender, class, race, and sexual orientation lines in one of the nation's most conservative states.

"I want to help people understand that 'human rights' is a sensible foundation for all social justice work," she explains. "And I hope to see all social justice organizations and activists come together to demand that our government stop violating our human rights as well as demand that they start promoting them."

The Women's Network is a diverse coalition of women and men working on justice and equality issues. The organization unites the voices and interests of Idaho women, families and communities. Through community organizing, advocacy and education, it strives to strengthen democracy and promote human rights.

Morgan, who joined the network in 2002 under the auspices of the New Voices Fellowship Program, also serves as the project organizer for the Idaho Reproductive Rights Project. This project works to promote and protect reproductive rights and health for all men and women.

Her responsibilities include leading a multidimensional campaign to convince Idaho policymakers of the need for state-funded family planning services. Morgan works to implement the initiative through research, coalition building, and grassroots organizing. As an organizer, she planned, hosted, and facilitated a community meeting on reproductive rights that was available in English, Spanish and Farsi.

She also contributes to the Abortion Access Project's Hospital Access Collaborative (HAC), which was founded in 1998 to increase women's access to hospital-based abortion and reproductive health services in each state.

For the past two years, Morgan and the Idaho Women's Network have collaborated with the Hospital Access Collaborative, assisting in research that revealed a serious lack of abortion services in hospitals and in OB/GYN offices in Idaho. The research conducted in the fall of
2002 showed that not a single hospital in Idaho provided abortions. Researchers found that although some respondents provided positive accurate referral information, other responses were not so enlightened. In one case, a hospital employee told researchers, "no doctor here would do that, and no nurses would help."

The HAC research was shared at the Reproductive Rights Summit in June 2003, which Morgan helped coordinate. Follow up research in September 2003 revealed that one hospital in Idaho had begun performing abortions.
In addition to coordinating the Reproductive Rights Summit during her fellowship, Morgan gave a presentation at the Reproductive Freedom Network Conference in Seattle titled, "Promoting Inclusiveness in the Reproductive Rights Movement".

In an effort to expand the number of people working on social issues, she conducts the Grassroots Lobbying Workshop for women in the Boise area. This interactive workshop helps participants learn skills for advocating on issues important to them. She has also served as a board member of the Women's Center at Boise State University and has contributed to the
Idaho Women's Network Legislative Report newsletter. An open lesbian, Morgan is also an energetic advocate for sexual rights. She serves on the board of a.l.p.h.a, or Allies Linked for the Prevention of HIV and Aids, and has coordinated a number of projects that seek to increase access to human rights by people of all sexual orientations. To that aim, she appeared on a segment about coming out on QTV, a local access television show produced by Your Family, Friends and Neighbors, a grass-roots organization that promotes respect, understanding, and tolerance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

She says she values the support and community she receives from the New Voices program. "In Idaho, I can often feel isolated," she says. "And I am always proud of my colleagues from NV when I hear of their successes and accomplishments."