Migration Category: National Old Site

Starting on September 1, approximately 180,000 women in Texas will be without access to contraception and preventive services as a result of the state Legislature’s cuts to family planning services by two-thirds. However, state lawmakers voted to increase funding by $300,000 for Alternatives to Abortion Services, a state program comprised of 26 crisis pregnancy centers, adoption agencies, and maternity homes. The 26 centers receiving money from Texas Pregnancy Care Network, a charity contracted with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

The executive director of Austin LifeCare, Pam Cobern, stated that “the center’s policy is to refer women to community health clinics that are not affiliated with Planned Parenthood or other abortion providers,” according to the New York Times.

Currently, there are an estimated 3,500 CPCs nationwide, most of which are affiliated with one or more national umbrella organizations. CPCs often pose as comprehensive health centers and offer “free” pregnancy tests. Some CPCs coerce and intimidate women out of considering abortion as an option, and do not offer women neutral or comprehensive medical advice. Often CPCs are run by anti-abortion zealots who are not licensed medical professionals.

Yesterday, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) signed a bill into law that would require that medical staff, including physicians, physician’s assistants, nurses, medical technicians, social workers, and licensed counselors, at abortion clinics are included as mandated reporters under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act. Planned Parenthood of Illinois notes, that physician, physician’s assistant, registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, medical technician, social worker, and licensed professional counselor, were already mandated reporters “regardless of the type of facility they work in.”

The mandated reporters will be required to report suspected cases of abuse or neglect. Non-medical staff is also required to notify medical personnel if they suspect abuse.

The bill passed both the state Senate and House unanimously. Although abortion rights activists support the law’s intended aim of helping victims of child abuse, many are concerned that the law will deter under-age girls form seeking necessary health services out of fear of being reported by clinic staff.

The Massachusetts Public Health Department approved new regulations that will allow the sexual partners of those being treated for chlamydia to obtain antibiotics without seeing a doctor. The new regulations aim to dramatically cut down on the spread of the disease in the state.

Kevin Cranston, director of the infectious disease bureau at the Massachusetts Public Health Department, stated, “Right now, if you treat someone and cure them, they could literally be reinfected within hours or days from an untreated sexual partner.”

According to the Boston Globe, since 1999, chlamydia cases have doubled in the state, going from approximately 8,700 cases in 1999 to over 21,200 in 2010.

On Tuesday, a New York City mandate was announced requiring that public school students take one semester of sex education classes during 6th or 7th grade and then an additional semester during either 9th or tenth grade. The sex-education curriculum would emphasize abstinence as the most effective way of preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and pregnancy but also includes information about contraception and condom use. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York responded by calling the mandate “troubling” and encouraged parents to opt their children out of sex-education classes.

This is the first time in nearly 20 years that students enrolled in New York City public schools will be required to take sex-education classes. According to the New York Times, between 2006 and 2008, twenty-five percent of teenagers received abstinence-only education that did not include information about contraception.

Comprehensive family planning services, like those funded by Title X, are not only based in medically accurate information but are proven to prevent unintended pregnancies and limit the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), while they save taxpayers’ money.

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that a new blood test used to predict a baby’s sex is between 95 and 99 percent effective when used by women who are over seven weeks pregnant. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health found that this test is effective over a month before other sex-determining tests, such as amniocentesis, which is typically performed at approximately 16 weeks gestation, and ultrasounds, performed around the 13th week.

The study indicated that sex determination “can be useful in clinical settings for early detection of fetuses at risk for sex-linked disorders requiring follow-up testing.” Dr. Lee Schulman, chief of clinical genetics at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, stated, “I would have a lot of difficulties offering such a test just for gender identification.”

In India, the government prohibited the use of sonograms in 1994 to reveal the sex of the fetus, but according to the 2011 India census, the country continues to have a disproportionate rate of abortions of female fetuses. For every 1,000 male children under the age six, there are only 914 girls.

Democratic Senators Jennifer Shilling and Jessica King won two of the contested seats in strongly Republican districts. However the Democrats needed to win three seats in order to gain control of the state Senate. The Republicans spent $8 million in Wisconsin’s 8th district to retain State Senator Alberta Darling’s seat, who was challenged by State Rep. Sandy Pasch, setting probably a nation-wide historic record on money spent for single state Senatorial race. The Democrats were heavily outspent in this seat, having raised for Pasch a little over $1 million, which typically would have been more than enough to successfully challenge the seat in Wisconsin.

Most disconcerting about this key race was that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus reported at about 11pm that their returns would be delayed for an hour or more. This is the same county and the same county clerk that six months ago found some 14,000 votes in the highly contested Supreme Court race, tipping the vote to allow GOP-backed Justice David Prosser to defeat Democrat-supported Amy Kloppenburg, who had previously been leading by 200 votes. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin had asked for a Department of Justice investigation for election irregularities concerning this county in the Supreme Court race.

The remaining two elections challenging the Democrats will occur on August 16. However, even if the Democrats win those seats, the Republicans will maintain control by one vote of the Senate. The Republicans are also the majority in the Wisconsin House of Representatives.

The recall bids grew out of this spring’s bitter fight over Republican Governor Scott Walker’s anti-union law stripping teachers, nurses and social workers of their collective bargaining rights. Walker who had led a fight to cut taxes of corporations, then cut not only teachers bargaining rights but cut state education funding resulting in closing some public schools and teachers’ pensions.

Yesterday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced his decision to select Senator Patty Murray to co-chair the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, a debt panel formed last week to designate approximately $1.5 trillion in cuts from the federal budget. Senator Murray, a strong supporter of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and veteran’s benefits and the Chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, will join Reid’s other picks for the committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair John Kerry (D-MA) and Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT. Senator Reid described Murray’s “depth of knowledge on budget issues” and her “ability to work across party lines” in a statement. Reid did not choose Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, or Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senate Democratic Whip, both of whom supported cuts to Medicare and Social Security as members of the President’s Deficit Commission.

Senator Murray issued a joint statement with Senators Kerry and Baucus saying, “This is an important moment for our country. Millions of Americans are struggling in this tough economy, working overtime to pay the bills, find a job, and find a way forward for their families, and they want this Committee to force the federal government to make similar sacrifices without the red hot partisanship and brinksmanship of the last months. Every member of Congress knows the importance of getting our fiscal house in order.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) must also name 3 members each to the bipartisan 12-person panel by August 16. Representative Boehner will decide Murray’s co-chair.

President Obama, who has nominated more ethnic minorities and women for federal judge positions than any other president, has dramatically increased judicial diversity during his term, despite low rates of confirmation of his nominees. Only 97 of President Obama’s judicial nominees have been confirmed, compared to President George W. Bush, who has had 322 of his judicial nominees confirmed, and 372 nominees confirmed during President Clinton’s two terms.

Twenty-one percent of President Obama’s nominees are African Americans and nearly 50 percent are women. By contrast, only 7 percent of President George W. Bush’s nominees were African American and 23 percent were women, and President Clinton’s nominees were 16 percent African American and 29 percent women. Moreover, three of President Obama’s nominees are openly gay. Kathryn Ruemmler, the White House counsel, stated, “The president wants the federal courts to look like America. He wants people who are coming to court to feel like it’s their court as well.”

Nevertheless, President Obama’s judicial nominations have been stalled more than those of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The Constitutional Accountability Center indicated, “Never before has the number of vacancies risen so sharply and remained so high for so long during a president’s term.” Moreover, the Senate has taken approximately three times longer to confirm Obama’s district court nominations compared to the first Congress of the Bush administration.

Alcoa Mill Products Inc., the world’s leading aluminum manufacturer, has agreed to pay over $540,000 in back wages to 37 Hispanic and African-American and two women job applicants following a compliance review conducted by the US Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) that found that the company had discriminated in its hiring practices. The job applicants were all denied material handler positions at the company’s Lancaster, PA plant.

Patricia Shiu, director of OFCCP, stated, “No worker should be denied a job because of factors that have absolutely nothing to do with his or her ability to accomplish the work. I am glad we reached a fair settlement with Alcoa Mill Products, one that not only provides financial remedies for the affected victims, but also creates opportunities for good jobs.”

During its investigation between 2009 and 2010, OFCCP found that Alcoa Mill Products violated Executive Order 11246 “by failing to meet its obligations as a federal contractor to ensure that qualified job applicants receive equal consideration for employment without regard to their sex, race, color, religion, or national origin.”

Today six recall elections are being held for seats in the Wisconsin Senate, with five Democratic challengers running. The recall bids grew out of this spring’s bitter fight over an anti-union law backed by Republican Governor Scott Walker. Opponents of the law are targeting six Republican state senators who voted for the law.

On July 22, Democrat Dave Hansen won in the first of nine recall elections in Wisconsin, easily defending his seat in the state Senate from a Republican David Vanderleest. The remaining two elections challenging the Democrats will occur on August 16.

A record amount of money has been donated from sources around the country to Republican candidates. According to Bloomberg, the Wisconsin Democracy Club estimates that $40 million has been spent on the election in total. Mike McCabe, executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Club, remarked, “The spending is so far off the charts. It does not compare to anything we’ve ever seen. It is an indication of how much things have been stirred up here.”

If Democrats gain two additional seats, they will win control of the Senate and greatly improve their chance of thwarting further Walker initiatives.

In an effort to better address the medical needs of the thousands of women veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) started a “mini residency program” to refresh doctors and nurse practitioners, many of whom are more accustomed to treating male veterans, on women’s healthcare. Approximately 1,100 health care providers have completed the course, which offers training on pelvic and breast exams, as well as services for women veterans who have been sexually assaulted.

Women veterans are limited in their ability to ability to obtain gender-specific health appointments. According to Patty Hayes, the VA’s chief consultant for women’s health, only 16 percent of women who are eligible for care at the VA use it.

The VA aims to have a designated women’s health provider in each of its medical facilities. Currently the VA has practitioners specifically trained on women’s health in approximately 60- 65 percent of its clinics.

According to the Outline for the Development of Chinese Children (2011-2020), released today, China will strengthen its efforts to end sex-selective abortions as a means to close the country’s gender gap. The Outline states that “using ultrasonic techniques to conduct non-medical sex determination” is strictly banned in order to “eliminate discrimination against girls.”

Due in part to the country’s policy restricting families to one child, China has a male-to-female birth ratio of 119 male children for every 100 female children born. In certain provinces, the ratio is 130 males to 100 females born.

In June, the UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, WHO, and OHCHR issued a statement about sex-selective abortion: “Sex selection in favour of boys is a symptom of pervasive social, cultural, political, and economic injustices against women, and a manifest violation of women’s human rights….There is a huge pressure on women to produce sons…which not only directly affects women’s reproductive decisions, with implications for their health and survival, but also puts women in a position where they must perpetuate the lower status of girls through son preference.”

On Wednesday, US District Court Judge Frank Damrell of Sacramento ruled that the University of California at Davis failed to allow women students equal opportunities to play college sports and violated Title IX, a law passed in 1972 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all levels of education. Judge Damrell wrote in his decision, “UC Davis did not have a continuing practice of program expansion at the time plaintiffs were students….When an institution loses over 60 opportunities in two years and never fully regains all of those opportunities over the next four years, such an institution cannot be held to be Title IX compliant.”

Nevertheless, Judge Damrell stated that there was no evidence that the defendants in the case, the university officials, “deliberately discriminated” against the plaintiffs and therefore his decision would place “severe limitations on the damages these plaintiffs may recover.” Arezou Mansourian, Christine Ng, and Lauren Mancuso filed the lawsuit ten years ago after they were not permitted to sign up for varsity wrestling.

Noreen Farrell, Managing Attorney at Equal Rights Advocates who represented the plaintiffs, stated, “The young women who brought this suit courageously sought enforcement of Title IX, a law which was passed nearly 40 years ago to ensure that young women and men across the country have equal educational opportunities, including in athletics. As this Court’s decision reflects, schools such as UC Davis must make gender equity a priority. Generations of young women depend on it.”

On Wednesday, Sheila Coley was appointed by the Newark City Council of New Jersey as the first woman police chief in the department’s 175-year history. Coley will fill the newly re-established position after approval from the council. The position of police chief was removed in 2008 but was re-established Wednesday night.

In response to her appointment, Coley said “I am honored and excited by the challenge of becoming Newark’s first female chief of police. I promise my brothers and sisters in blue that I will give them the highest level of professional leadership and the citizens of Newark the best police force in the entire nation.”

Coley’s work with the Newark Police Department began in 1989 as a patrol officer and narcotics detective. In 2004, she was promoted to captain. Now as police chief, Coley will oversee day-to-day operations of a 1,100 member department. According to the National Center for Women & Policing, a division of the Feminist Majority Foundation, only 13% of police officers nationwide are women.

On Monday, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists filed an appeal on US District Court Judge Carlos Murguia’s decision to block the enforcement of a new Kansas anti-abortion law until the pending lawsuit is decided. The new restrictive legislation governing abortion clinics was signed into law by anti-abortion zealot Governor Sam Brownback (R). The law gives authority to the Department of Health and Environment to stipulate stringent and unnecessary building regulations that can result in closing the clinic if they are not met.

Bonnie Scott Jones, deputy of the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), representing the abortion providers in the case, remarked that she “felt confident” the judge’s ruling will not be appealed successfully. CRR also questions whether the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists have standing to appeal the ruling since it was not a party in the case. CRR will oppose the group’s efforts to intervene in the case.

The new regulations were sent out in mid-June by Brownback’s administration to abortion providers, which were then required to comply by July 1. The list of requirements is approximately 36 pages and stipulates hundreds of details including the minimum square footage of janitors’ closets and the temperature range for procedure and recovery rooms (68 to 73 degrees and 70 to 75 degrees, respectively).

On Wednesday, the US Commerce Department’s Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) released the second report on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs and higher education, which found fewer women than men in STEM jobs and pursuing degrees in STEM fields. The report entitled “Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation” also noted that there is greater income parity between genders in STEM jobs than there is in the employment market overall. According to the report, men in STEM jobs earn 14 percent more than women in STEM jobs.

Currently, only 24 percent of STEM jobs are held by women, who earned 33 percent more than women not in STEM jobs in 2009. According to Rebecca Blank, acting Commerce Secretary, possible factors contributing to fewer women than men in STEM jobs include less family-friendly flexibility, lack of women role models, and gender stereotyping.

In response to the fact that the percentage of women in STEM fields has not grown in a decade, Blank stated, “closing the gender gap in STEM degrees will boost the number of Americans in STEM jobs, and that will enhance U.S. innovation and sharpen our global competitiveness.”

Over 170 countries are celebrating World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) this week to improve breastfeeding rates globally by raising awareness. Partners of the week in the 170 countries, including UNICEF, hope to broadcast the benefits of breastfeeding in order to educate the public.

UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake said he hopes the week will send the message that “Breastfeeding can save your baby’s life. No other preventive intervention is more cost effective in reducing the number of children who die before reaching their fifth birthdays.” Onyebuchi Chukwu, minister of health, also advised mothers “to put their babies to breast within half an hour of delivery, avoid giving water, and continue to breastfeed exclusively for six months, while continuing breastfeeding for two years on demand.”

WBW promotes exclusively breastfeeding newborn babies and infants. In addition to nourishing infants and newborns, breast milk also protects them from neonatal disease and stunted growth. Evidence has shown that if infants were exclusively breastfed for 6 months up until one year, that there could be a 13 percent decrease in deaths of children under five.

Yesterday the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new guidelines, developed by the Institute of Medicine, that will require private insurance plans beginning on or after August 1, 2012 to cover an annual well-woman visit and a variety of specific health screenings and counseling, such as for domestic and interpersonal violence, gestational diabetes, cervical cancer (an HPV DNA screening), HIV and STIs, as well as all FDA-approved contraceptives, breastfeeding support, lactation services, and supplies. Nevertheless, HHS issued an amendment to the guidelines, which permits religious institutions that offer insurance to employees to choose whether or not to cover contraceptive services.

These guidelines will increase vitally needed and often lifesaving preventive services for women. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius stated, “These historic guidelines are based on science and existing literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need.”

Birth control and other women’s health services will not be free but will be fully covered for all women who have health insurance, without any additional charges or co-pays. This rule will apply to new insurance policies that are issued after the expiration of a one year waiting period, which starts after HHS adoption of the recommendations, and to all plans by 2018.

Representative Lois Capps (D-CA) stated, “Today marks an incredible step forward for women’s health. By adopting each of the IOM’s recommendations for preventive women health care services, the Obama Administration is ensuring that all women—regardless of how they get their health care — will have increased access to the services they need to be healthy. For too long, women have faced financial and access barriers that have kept them from the services that they need. These new rules change that.

In an effort to save the lives of pregnant women and women with newborns in the drought-stricken areas of Somalia and some parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is distributing reproductive healthcare kits. The health kits include sanitary pads, soap, underwear and other hygiene items. Headscarves are also included so women can walk to food distribution centers without being harassed by Islamic Extremists.

Over 3,500 kits have already been distributed to Kenyan women. UNFPA executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin said “We are deeply concerned by the gravity of the situation in the region. We call upon the international community to urgently look after the unique needs of pregnant women and mothers whose families’ survival are particularly at risk.”

The UNFPA is focusing its support specifically on women because around 80 percent of refugees in these three areas are women. OXFAM estimates that for every 100,000 live births, at least 298 women die in these areas, and the numbers are rising. Malnutrition increases pregnancy-related complications that lead to maternal deaths and infant illness. Experts believe that by eliminating malnutrition among months, disabilities in infants will be reduced by almost a third.

On Sunday, nearly 200 abortion rights activists gathered at the Reproductive Health Services in Germantown, MD to kick off the Summer Celebration of Choice week in support of abortion provider Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who has been practicing at the clinic since December. About 100 anti-abortion protestors launched their week of morning protests today, which was expected to be their largest morning demonstration of the week.

Supporters will be outside the clinic all week, serving as a peaceful reminder that support for abortion rights is a majority position in the country and as reinforcement of our determination that the clinic will stay open.

Kim Gandy, Vice President and General Counsel of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said, “Dr. Carhart and this clinic have made a commitment to serving women’s health needs, and the women’s rights community is here to support their work.”

The Reproductive Health Services clinic offers comprehensive family planning, male sexual health care, education programs, and abortion services, including specialized care in late abortion cases.

Prior to Dr. George Tiller’s murder in Wichita in May 2009, Dr. Carhart had traveled to Wichita each month to work with Dr. Tiller. After the murder, Dr. Carhart became the chief target of Operation Rescue, which is based in Wichita but organized the Germantown demonstrations.

Feminist Majority Foundation 8/1/11; Washington Post 7/31/11