Demeter Speaks

About Demeter Speaks
Demeter Speaks is an organization founded by women who have great interest in promoting women’s health and educating women about the available options in the world of emerging reproductive technologies.

In their research and advocacy work on reproductive health and rights, the Demeter Speaks founders perceived a substantial deficit of information available to women contemplating donating their eggs. In spite of the growing demand for donors, the majority of the available resources have been written either for the individual or the couple facing infertility, saturated in overly legal or scientific language, at times placing judgment, or conceived as a solicitation for the potential egg donor.

We are concerned that women’s voices are not being heard. Demeter Speaks was born to start that conversation.

In Greek Mythology, Demeter is the goddess of grain and fertility; she is the nourisher of the earth, the health-giving cycle of life and death, and preserver of marriage and the sacred law. Here, we invoke Demeter to honor a woman’s right to preside over her own fertility and health.

Inspired by Mary Pipher’s 1994 bestseller Reviving Ophelia, and Sara Shandler’s response, Ophelia Speaks, we are invested in creating a space where women can speak for themselves about their experiences and use their voices to affect change.

Guiding Principles
We believe in the tradition of empowering women. We seek to bring women into full participation in the world of emerging reproductive health technologies in order to explore and expose the ways in which government, industry, religion, and culture influence our ability to make healthy decisions.

DemeterSpeaks.org will include information on the process of egg donation, and information about the health and policy impacts of egg donation as well as a space for women to post their thoughts and perspectives. In the tradition of grassroots movement building, we seek to promote social justice through dialogue.

Organizational Objectives
• Build an online community of women where women’s health, rights, and sexual selves are of central concern.
• Ensure women’s reproductive health and rights through collective and shared advocacy efforts.
• Foster a women-centered dialogue.
• Create and share tools for women contemplating the use of assisted reproductive technologies.