HERvotes Blog Carnival: What Health-Care Reform Means to Women
By Cindy Pearson, co-founder of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need For the tenth #HERvotes blog carnival, we’re celebrating the second anniversary of the new health-reform law, the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. Why are women so excited about the ACA? Well, for a start, the law has already started removing barriers...
Health Reform: Winning for Women
by Tara Mancini, co-chair of WIN’s Women’s Health Policy Network I think it is no coincidence that the 2nd anniversary of the ACA coincides with the celebration of Women’s History Month. Women have made numerous contributions to society that throughout the ages have received little attention, much like the important protections afforded to women through...
“Where Are the Women?”
by Ali Tweedt, FMF Intern Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s (D-NY) now-infamous words have gone viral paired with a picture of last Thursday’s all-male panel at the hearing on contraception coverage by religious institutions. The hearing, “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” was...
HERvotes Blog Carnival: No Religious Exemption for Birth Control Coverage
Despite enormous pressure from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Obama Administration recently decided not to broaden the religious exemption for contraceptive coverage under the Preventive Care package of the Affordable Care Act. This demand for additional exemptions, would have denied millions of American women contraceptive coverage, including students, teachers, nurses, social workers, and...
Seven Things You (and the Media) Need to Know about Birth Control
by Jacqueline M., Planned Parenthood Action Fund We were thrilled with President Obama’s decision a few weeks ago to protect access to birth control for women who work at religiously affiliated universities, hospitals, or institutions. By not further expanding a refusal clause to the birth control coverage benefit under the Affordable Care Act, he is...
One more time…
by Jill Morrison, National Women’s Law Center Abortion. [uh-bawr-shuhn] Contraception. [kon-truh-sep-shuhn] These are not the same. Yet I’ve repeatedly seen claims that the HHS decision on contraceptive coverage requires religious employers to cover “abortifacients.” Clearly, those opposed to the preventive services rule know they are on shaky ground when it comes to rallying their troops against...
VICTORY: Health & Human Services Decides in Favor of Women’s Health
This afternoon, US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama administration released their decision not to broaden the exemption for birth control without copay. In August, HHS ruled that a host of women’s preventive health care services – including all FDA approved contraceptive methods – will be covered under...
Conscience Clause: Preserving Morality or Creating Immorality?
by Elizabeth Beaulac, Outreach Intern, National Women’s Law Center August brought with it a victory for women’s health. It was announced that all new health insurance plans would be required to coverage preventive services such as contraceptive coverage. However, in not so great news, the mandate included language that would allow religious employers to deny...
Should Catholic Bishops Have The Right To Control Your Life?
By Janet Hill, Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), National CLUW Vice President (United Steelworkers) Catholic bishops are pressuring the Obama administration to dilute the rule proposed by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to allow women access to birth control without paying out of pocket. There is a narrow exemption that allows religious...
Women’s Basic Health Coverage Is Not For Sale
by Miri Cypers, Jewish Women International Nearly one week after the defeat of the Mississippi “personhood initiative,” when the state of women’s reproductive rights in our country seemed like it could not be any more threatened, various news outlets have published an incredibly troubling story that requires our immediate attention. This Monday, the New York...
HERVotes Blog Carnival: Women v. the Bishops
by Kim Gandy, Feminist Majority Foundation Welcome to the sixth #HERvotes blog carnival on the effort by the Catholic bishops to allow some institutions to refuse, under the Affordable Care Act, birth control coverage without co-pays to students and employees of hospitals, universities, and other institutions, or other religious affiliated or connected institutions such as...
HERvotes: How the Youth, Women and Minority Vote are at Stake in 2012
By Francesca Witcher This post is part of the #Hervotes Blog Carnival and was originally posted on the Feminist Campus Blog. The Feminist Majority Foundation and Ms. Magazine are partnering with other organizations that represent women and people of color in a Health and Economic Right or HERvotes initiative for the election in 2012. FMF’s...