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Breaking: Paycheck Fairness Act Fails

5 Jun equal-pay-poster

In today’s “oh for fuck’s sake!” news, the GOP has blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act in a 52-47 vote, further igniting its war on women and families. The GOP claimed the bill was a war on free enterprise, when in fact it would have drastically leveled the playing field for women in the workforce and helped struggling families.

In short, the Paycheck Fairness Act would have barred employers from retaliating against workers who shared information on wages, and women would not only be able to seek back pay but could also seek punitive damages for pay discrimination.

Despite what these white-collar GOPers think, pay equity matters. Big time. It’s not about free enterprise or about whiny feminists. As Senator Barbara Mikulski pointed out in yesterday’s Huffington Post op-ed, the wage gap has real, significant consequences — not just for women, but for families:

Think of a college graduate who starts working at 22 and works until they are 62. By the time they retire, there will be a $434,000 income gap. This is about supporting women, men and their families. The wage gap makes it harder for working moms to provide for their families, makes it more difficult to own a home and means there will be less in Social Security and retirement savings. This is the true cost of being a woman.

For a party that claims to be all about family values, the GOP seems hell-bent on undermining the family unit.

Want to know how your Senator voted? Check out the roll-call here. And as always, be sure to express your outrage, or thanks, accordingly.

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HR3 Up For Vote Tomorrow

3 May capitol-hill

I know, it feels like a nightmare replaying over and over again. HR3, one of the most anti-woman pieces of legislation in Congress right now, is up for a vote tomorrow.

As a refresher, here’s HR3 in a nutshell:

  • It manipulates the tax code to push forward an anti-choice — and anti-woman — agenda
  • It would make it virtually impossible for private insurance companies that participate in the new health system to offer abortion coverage to women (it eliminates tax credits for any insurance plan that covers abortion care)
  • It denies pregnant women access to life-saving procedures via expanded conscience clauses

This bill is likely to pass the House; so likely in fact, that I’d bet my life savings on it. But, there may be a light at the end of the shitty conservative tunnel. If HR3 passes the House and went on to pass in the Senate, Obama’s senior advisors are recommending he veto it.

Here’s what the Office of Management and Budget had to say about it:

The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 3 because it:  intrudes on women’s reproductive freedom and access to health care; increases the tax burden on many Americans; unnecessarily restricts the private insurance choices that consumers have today; and restricts the District of Columbia’s use of local funds, which undermines home rule.  Longstanding Federal policy prohibits Federal funds from being used for abortions, except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered.  This prohibition is maintained in the Affordable Care Act and reinforced through the President’s Executive Order 13535.  H.R. 3 goes well beyond these safeguards by interfering with consumers’ private health care choices.  The Administration also strongly supports existing provider conscience laws that have protected the rights of health care providers and entities for over 30 years, and it recognizes and supports the rights of patients.  The Administration will strongly oppose legislation that unnecessarily restricts women’s reproductive freedoms and consumers’ private insurance options.

If the President is presented with H.R. 3, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill. (Via RH Reality Check.)

Let’s hope Barry does the right thing.

While we wait, however, YOU can do the right thing by contacting your Congress representatives and telling them to vote NO on HR3!

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Senate Rejects House’s Attempt to Defund PPFA!

9 Mar capitol-hill

Hats off to the Senate, which today rejected the House’s budget proposal that aimed to defund Planned Parenthood and family planning. WOO HOO!

According to an action alert I received from NARAL Pro-Choice America, the organization is planning a national lobby day as the War on Women continues:

Believe me, this is not over – not by a mile. We have to harness that energy to stop the entire anti-choice War on Women. That’s right – we still face extreme bills in Congress that could change women’s access to abortion and birth control forever. In fact, today a key House committee scheduled a third legislative hearing on H.R.3, the extreme “Stupak on Steroids” legislation, for next week.

Our next step is organizing a 5,000-person pro-choice lobby day in Washington, D.C. on April 7. We will be joined by our partners at Planned Parenthood and other major pro-choice organizations.

Great job — and many thanks — to all the pro-woman, pro-family planning activists who spoke out against the House’s attempt to defund Title X! Let’s keep it up!!!

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Boehner Turns His Sights on Gay Marriage

4 Mar John Boehner

In the midst of  his myriad attacks on women, Boehner somehow has the time to also go after gay marriage.

According to the AP:

House Speaker John Boehner says he’s launching a legal defense of the federal law against gay marriage. The Ohio Republican announced Friday that he was convening a bipartisan legal advisory group to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. President Barack Obama has refused to defend the law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996.

I can’t say I’m surprised. Disappointed, yes. Surprised, no.

In closing, I’d like to say: WHAT ABOUT THE ECONOMY, BOEHNER?! WHAT ABOUT JOBS?! While it’s great that you, as a wealthy, White male politician, have a job and are not suffering in this economy, I can’t say the same for many Americans. Stop worrying about my uterus and whether guys are holding hands and CREATE JOBS.

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House Advances Anti-Woman Agenda: HR3 Heads for Full Vote

3 Mar capitol-hill

Today, the House Judiciary Committee celebrated Women’s History Month by passing the vile piece of legislation known as HR3 out of committee. It will now proceed to the House for a full vote.

According to Talking Points Memo, 22 Republicans and one Democrat (Puerto Rico Del. Pedro Pierluisi) voted to approve HR3 in committee.

In case you aren’t familiar with the naming of legislation, HR3 literally means this is the third piece of legislation the Republican House has taken up. Call me crazy, but shouldn’t JOBS and the ECONOMY be in the top 3? And correct me if I’m wrong, but there aren’t any job openings in my uterus…so why do Republicans have to get all up in it?

In the event that you’ve forgotten all that HR3 encompasses, let’s refresh:

  • It manipulates the tax code to push forward an anti-choice — and anti-woman — agenda
  • It would make it virtually impossible for private insurance companies that participate in the new health system to offer abortion coverage to women
  • It denies pregnant women access to life-saving procedures via expanded conscience clauses

This bill is downright dangerous, especially when combined with its counterparts, HR358 and the recently passed Pence Bill (to de-fund Planned Parenthood).

Rep. John Conyers (D – Mich.) put it perfectly:

this bill seeks to expand restrictions in current law and to impose an unprecedented penalty — by use of the tax code — on privately funded healthcare choices made by women and their families. Its goal — and effect, if ever enacted — is to make abortion and coverage for abortion services completely unavailable.

What a way to honor women and all of our collective achievements! The very achievements that, incidentally, would not be possible without the opportunity to control our fertility. Just saying.

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Links We Love

2 Mar extra-extra-paper

Quick Hit: Hillary Clinton on the Global War on Women’s Health, Feministing

Truth in Pregnancy Counseling, New York Times

High Court Urged to Give Wal-Mart Women a Hearing, Women’s eNews

Status of Women Measured by White House — But Then What?, On The Issues

Is Anyone Afraid of Senate Democrats?, Huffington Post

Beck Suggests Raped Women Who Choose Abortion Are Like Eugenicists, Media Matters For America

Why Mom is Miserable, The Daily

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WaPo Gets It Right

23 Feb washington_post_logo

In her Washington Post article today, “Side Effects of the GOP’s War on Family Planning,” Ruth Marcus hits the nail on the head. Even the first sentence is perfection:

House Republicans voted to increase the number of abortions, raise federal health-care costs and swell the welfare rolls.

Marcus goes on to beautifully articulate what so many activists have been shouting from the rooftops:

If anything, this assessment is understated. The sharper, and still accurate version, would be that Republicans voted to let more women die from breast cancer, cervical cancer and AIDS. How’s that? The family planning programs also provide cancer screening and HIV counseling to millions of low-income and uninsured people.

Let’s be clear about one thing. Almost none of this money went for abortions. The only federal funding for abortion involves the thankfully low number of situations in which poor women seek abortions for pregnancy due to rape or incest, or when their own lives are in jeopardy. In 2006, the last year for which figures are available, the federal government paid for 191 such abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

As she rightly points out, the House is doing its damndest to punish both women and abortion providers for respecting women’s right to chose.

But again — and I will reiterate this until I’m blue in the face — this is not just about abortion. This is about healthcare. Planned Parenthood and other federally-funded Title X clinics provide primary healthcare to millions of women: pap smears, STI treatment, breast cancer screenings, contraception, pre- and post-natal care, etc.

If you want to reduce the number of abortions, how does eliminating women’s access to reproductive health services and contraception advance this goal?

That’s right, it doesn’t. As Marcus points out,

The Guttmacher Institute has estimated that Title X helps prevent nearly 1 million unintended pregnancies annually. The institute says these pregnancies would otherwise result in 433,000 unintended births and 406,000 abortions.

Please take note of the word PREVENT above. Not terminate, not abort, not destroy. PREVENT.

And if prevention isn’t your argument, try economics:

The inevitable result of eliminating Title X funding would not only be more abortions – it would also be higher bills for taxpayers footing Medicaid and welfare costs for poor children. Guttmacher found that every public dollar invested in family planning care saves $3.74 in Medicaid expenditures for pregnant women and their babies during the first year of care. Imagine the lifetime savings.

VERY well done, Washington Post. Hats off to you, Ruth Marcus!

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A Glimmer of Hope?

22 Feb President-obama-signing-legislation

I think by now we’re all intimately familiar with the assault on women’s right to choose. In the midst of all this, however, Obama has rescinded Bush’s conscience rules.

According to Ms. Magazine’s Feminist Wire Daily:

On Friday, the Obama administration rescinded the “conscience” rules, first instituted under the Bush administration, that granted protections to medical providers who refused to provide abortions, sterilization, in-vitro fertilization, and other medical procedures, such as care to AIDS patients, due to moral objections.

Under the “conscience” rules, hospitals could refuse to provide emergency contraception to rape victims and pharmacists could refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills. In addition, the Bush administration rules stated that hospitals, clinics, and health plans that refused to honor workers’ “right of conscience” could face a loss of federal funding.

[...]

The revised law, which will go into effect in 30 days, will continue to allow doctors and nurses to refuse to provide abortions on religious or moral grounds.

So a small win, but a win nonetheless. Is this indicative of more pro-choice support to come from Obama? Should HR3, HR358 and Pence’s bill make their way through the Senate and land on Obama’s desk, would he veto them?

Of course, I would like to adamantly say YES! But history has shown that women’s rights are among the first to be compromised away for the “larger good” of other issues. Hostile amendments, anyone?

Only time will tell. But that doesn’t mean we should sit around twiddling our thumbs. Pick up the phone, bang out an email or two to your Senators and make sure these bills don’t get as far as Obama.

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Title X Update: House Sucks, Senate Has Hope

18 Feb I-Stand-with-Planned-Parenthood

Today WAS going swell. It’s a beautiful day outside and I got fixings to make chocolate chip cookies. Then I heard: the House passed the Pence bill, officially de-funding Title X.

I realize that it’s very easy to be an arm-chair activist, to let others speak for you. But I — along with millions of other women — beg you to take two minutes to be an activist today.

I recently wrote about Title X and how it helps poor and uninsured women. You can get the skinny here. But the following bears repeating:

THIS IS NOT ABOUT ABORTION. THIS IS ABOUT WOMEN’S HEALTHCARE.

The House is a lost cause, but you can take a hot minute to either email or call your Senators and urge them to block this legislation once it reaches the Senate floor.

Your Senators NEED to hear from you! PLEASE. As someone who relied on Planned Parenthood for healthcare when I moved to NYC and had no money and no insurance, I can testify to the necessity of Title X.

Please believe,  it takes less time to reach out to your Senators than it did to read this post. Look up & contact them here.

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Abortion News Roundup

16 Feb no_coat_hangers_-keep_abortion_legal

When I started sherights, I had no intention of making abortion the central issue of this site.  But these damn anti-choicers have left me no other choice (pun intended). There’s just too much anti-abortion news for me to individually cover today, so here is a good round-up:

H.R. 358 is Part of House Republican Leadership War on Contraception, RH Reality Check

Action Alert: Kansas H.B. 2035, Trust Women

MoveOn Moves Into the Abortion Battle, Ms. Magazine

Huckabee Puts Abortion Front and Center in 2012 GOP Presidential Primary, TPM

IA House Subcommittee Passes Anti-Abortion Bill, Feminist Daily News

Mike Huckabee Compares Abortion to Slavery, Huffington Post

Ohio Republicans Seek to Outlaw Abortion After 6 Weeks, Feminists for Choice

It’s All About JOBS, Stupid! Not My Uterus!, Smart As A Fox

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