Migration Category: National Old Site

Yesterday Syrian officials released information on the whereabouts of Dorothy Parvaz, 39, an Iranian-born US citizen and Al-Jazeera reporter who went missing for two weeks while covering the uprisings against President Bashar Assad. The Syrian officials reported that Parvaz was deported from Syria after being detained in Damascus and is currently being held in Iran.

A representative from Al-Jazeera stated, “We have now received information that she is being held in Tehran. We are calling for information from the Iranian authorities, access to Dorothy, and for her immediate release. We have had no contact with Dorothy since she left Doha on 29 April and we are deeply concerned for her welfare.”

Parvaz attended the University of British Columbia and earned a masters from the University of Arizona. She has completed fellowships in journalism from both Harvard and Cambridge.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, indicated that Syria is currently detaining at least five journalists as a means to limit the media.

Yesterday, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R) signed a bill that would make Indiana the first state to defund Planned Parenthood. In April, the state Senate and House voted to cut about $2 million in federal money that goes to Planned Parenthood, much of which is for Medicaid services. The bill also calls for a ban on all abortions after 20 weeks, which would dramatically restrict women’s access to abortion services.

Following the bill signing, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a request for an injunction in the US District Court to block the bill from being enforced. Betty Cockrum, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana stated, “PPIN will continue to fight on behalf of the thousands of patients at our 28 health centers around the state who count on PPIN for health care. We have an obligation to stand with our low-income patients who rely on government funding to receive Pap tests, birth control, STD testing and treatment. We want to ensure that they receive care from their preferred provider – Planned Parenthood of Indiana.”

Lawmakers in Kansas and North Carolina are attempting to pass similar legislation that would take away all funding for Planned Parenthood, and are expected to vote on their proposed budgets in the coming weeks. In February, the U.S. House Republicans, led by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), voted for a Continuing Resolution that would prohibit any federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood, even in reimbursement for services rendered. In spite of Republican claims that the purpose of the Pence amendment was to prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions, such spending is already prohibited by federal law.

Following vocal condemnation from US political leaders, human rights groups, and activists, the Uganda Parliament decided to drop an anti-gay bill, which would impose life sentences or the death penalty for gay people. The bill went before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee on Friday and was originally scheduled for a vote today before it was dropped from the Parliament’s agenda.

David Bahati, a member of the Ugandan Parliament and one of the principle leaders of the Family or Fellowship of C Street fame (see Jeff Sharlet’s latest book on C Street), first introduced the bill in 2009. Bahati stated that a new version of the bill exists, which does not call for the death penalty, although that version has not been publically released.

Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Africa, stated, “It is deeply alarming that the Ugandan parliament is again considering this appalling bill, which flies in the face of human decency and violates international human rights law.”

Graeme Reid, LGBT rights director at Human Rights Watch, clarified, “The Anti-Homosexuality Bill and the government’s violent crackdown on peaceful protests seen in recent weeks are evidence of a diminishing space for human rights in Uganda. We strongly urge the Ugandan parliament to reject the bill immediately.”

Homosexuality is illegal in most African countries with the exception of South Africa, which recognizes gay marriage, but even there, anti-gay practices such as “corrective rapes” on lesbians, are commonplace.

Also in Uganda yesterday, hundreds of anti-government protestors, participating in “Walk to Work” demonstrations against the high prices of commodities and fuel, were sprayed by police and military officials with a pink liquid. Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for 25 years, announced his plans to change the law to deny bail to arrested protestors.

The Obama administration defended the constitutionality of the 2010 health care act Tuesday before a panel of three federal appeals court judges in a Virginia courtroom. All three randomly selected judges, two of which were appointed by President Obama himself, indicated they are likely to uphold the healthcare law.

Supporters and opponents of the law gathered outside of the federal courthouse throughout the proceedings. The hearing centered on the question of Congress’ constitutional authority in regulating interstate commerce in the health care law’s mandate that individuals obtain health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty.

The lawsuits, brought separately by the state of Virginia and by Liberty University, a private religious school founded by Jerry Falwell, are just two of 30 filed across the country challenging the federal law. An Atlanta appeals court is set to hear oral arguments next month on a challenge filed jointly by 26 states. This particular provision has been previously challenged in Virginia, as well as in Florida and Michigan. This hearing, however, marked the first time any of the lawsuits filed against the law has reached the appellate level.

Currently under the health care act, certain preventive procedures, such as mammograms, colonoscopies, pap smears, tobacco cessation services, and obesity prevention services, no longer require a co-payment or other direct costs. President Obama signed the final version of the health care act in March. The final law will eventually add coverage for 32 million people, increasing access to family planning and preventive care.

Di Tzeitung, an Orthodox Jewish newspaper based in Brooklyn, released a statement yesterday to apologize for deleting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Counterterrorism Director Audrey Tomason from a photograph of President Obama and the national security team in the White House Situation Room during the capture of Osama bin Laden. Di Tzeitung stated that it does not publish pictures of women, in accordance with its editorial policy, but apologized for violating a White House policy that prohibits alterations to the pictures.

Robin Bodner, executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, told CNN, “This picture by [an ultra-Orthodox] newspaper goes a step further by revising history to remove important women leaders from the historic room in which they were present. It reminds us of how much work is still to be done!”

Di Tzeitung stated, “Because we wanted to honor the President and our armed forces for the historical significance of the moment, we opted to publish the photo, but without the women included, as is our long standing editorial policy. Our editorial policies are guided by a Rabbinical Board and because of laws of modesty, does not allow for the publishing of photos of women.”

Yesterday Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) announced that she will file a request that the US Supreme Court overturn the April ruling of the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which upheld US District Judge Susan Bolton’s ruling to block portions of Arizona’s immigration law. The three judge panel ruled that Judge Bolton “did not abuse” her power in her decision to block portions of the law.

Governor Brewer stated that the federal government failed to effectively enforce immigration law and that the Arizona immigration law would assist federal authorities in doing so. However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals clarified that the Supreme Court will likely find the Arizona immigration law unconstitutional since it challenges the Congressional right of the federal government to be the sole authority over immigration.

In July, Judge Bolton ruled against multiple sections of the Arizona law, including a requirement that police check the immigration status of criminal suspects that they had stopped while enforcing other laws and a provision that would make it a crime not to carry immigration papers. She also ruled against a section that would make it a crime for undocumented workers to seek a job.

A New York City audit released last week revealed that women seeking mammograms from New York public hospitals have to undergo harmfully long waits. The audit recorded the waiting times at 9 hospitals for the 2009 fiscal year and found that Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens to have the longest waits for women seeking mammograms. At Elmhurst, some women waited almost five months for routine mammograms and 50 working days for diagnostic mammograms, performed when breast cancer is suspected.

New York City policies recommend that people seeking routine screenings wait no more than two weeks. John Liu, the city comptroller stated, “For years, City policy has emphasized the need for women to get mammograms. Unfortunately, significant shortfalls and lapses at City hospitals have undercut that intent and worse yet placed women in jeopardy.”

The National Cancer Institute recommends that women over the age of 40 receive annual mammograms.

Iowa legislators are scheduled to vote this week on a bill (HF 657) that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. The bill, which passed the House last March but stalled in the Senate, is aimed at preventing Dr. LeRoy Carhart from opening a clinic in Council Bluffs, where he would offer late-term abortions. 26 state Senators signed a petition last week to move the bill to the Senate for a debate as early as Thursday.

Senate Majority leader Michael Gronstal (D), from Council Bluffs, could still block the debate on the bill. He released a statement saying he supports abortion rights but opposes abortion provider Dr. Carhart’s efforts to open a clinic in Iowa.

According to the AP, Gronstal’s decision could decide the fate of the bill, which Governor Terry Branstad (R) has said he would sign.

According to a study published in Fertility and Sterility, since emergency contraception (EC) became available to women without a prescription, the number of women using EC has doubled. The study, written by Megan Kavanaugh, a senior researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, found that after EC became available without a prescription in 2006, 10 percent of the 6,300 sexually active women studied, between 15-44, reported using it, as compared to 4 percent prior to 2006.

Only 3 percent of the women reported that their doctors had discussed EC with them. Kavanaugh encouraged women to consult with their doctors about the use of EC in pregnancy prevention. She noted that the use of emergency contraception, “still seems relatively low, given that it’s easy to access.”

Levonorgestrel, sold under the brand name Plan B, is a form of emergency contraception that must be taken within 72 hours of sexual activity. Emergency contraception or the “morning-after” pill is available over the counter to women over the age of 17 in the United States.

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. Malnourishment and the neglect of girls also contribute to this unequal sex ratio. This is the largest imbalance between boys and girls since the country gained its independence in 1947.

Sandeep Chachra, executive director of ActionAid India, stated “This confirms our worst fears. Something that we and many others have been warning about for several years now, it is a shame for the entire country. It is time to move away from patchy responses and look at the larger picture to evolve a stronger strategy to change the status quo.” According to a 2007 study published by ActionAid India, sex-selective abortions occur more frequently in wealthy areas, among high-caste people, which discredits the argument that parents seek sex-selective abortions solely due to the cost of dowries for their daughters.

Although in 1994 the India government prohibited the use of sonograms to reveal the sex of the fetus, laws and government initiatives have had little effect at reducing the sex disparity. Ravinder Kaur, Sociology professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, clarified, “in a society that values boys over girls,” laws to prevent sex-selective abortions are of limited value.

Yesterday all House Republicans and 16 Democrats voted to pass HR 3, the “No Tax Payer Funding for Abortion Act.” The bill, which purports to prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions and ensure that healthcare reform law does not cover the cost of abortions, is misleading and punitive. Currently, because of the Hyde Amendment, there is no federal funding of abortion. The bill will now go to the Senate for a vote, where it likely will not pass.

HR 3 prohibits a military person from paying for an abortion with her own money in a military hospital. Moreover, employers who have private insurance plans that include abortion coverage would have to pay tax penalties, and federal workers who pay their own insurance premiums out of pocket would nonetheless be prohibited from having abortion coverage in their insurance. HR 3 would take the premium assistance promised by health reform away from people who choose a private insurance plan with abortion coverage.

Reproductive Rights activists, including Feminist Majority Foundation organizers, and members of the organizations DC Vote and the DC Abortion Fund, along with several city council members, protested the bill on Wednesday evening at Capitol Hill. The protest was focused on HR3’s permanent ban on the District’s ability to use local funds for abortions, as well as the general federalizing of D.C. government and funds. Council member Mary Cheh and 7 other women activists were arrested for blocking traffic during the protest. The groups hope to continue putting pressure on Congress and plan to hold a similar protest next Wednesday, May 11.

Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, stated “True to form, the House majority has cast a wide net in its attack on women’s health and rights – this time, trying to use the tax code to eradicate all insurance coverage for abortion. This move is the height of hypocrisy, because politicians who regularly rail against big government today voted to raise taxes on millions of families and small businesses – merely to stop them from purchasing insurance plans that cover abortion.”

In Illinois, a bill requiring sex education teachers to instruct students about both contraception and abstinence fell short by one vote in the state Senate yesterday. Conservative groups protested a provision in the bill that would require the information presented in sex education to be age appropriate and “medically accurate,” claiming that pre-marital sex should not be taught in the classroom. The legislation would not have required schools to teach sex education.

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.

In honor of Mother’s Day, Save the Children released its 12th annual Mothers Index report,“Champions for Children: Why Investing in Maternal and Child Health in Developing Countries is Good for America,” which rated 164 countries to determine the best countries in which to be a mother. The rating was based on maternal and child mortality rates, women’s life expectancy, maternity leave, and women’s education. It found Norway to be the best place to be a mother and Afghanistan the worst.

In Afghanistan, women have an average life expectancy of 45 and approximately 1 out of every 11 (which was 1 out of 8) women dies during childbirth. Moreover, Afghan women are 200 more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than from bombings or bullets. Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, stated, “Thirty years of war in Afghanistan has destroyed the health care system. Plus there is an acute shortage of clear water and sanitation and adequate nutrition in Afghanistan.”

Mary Beth Powers, chief of Save the Children’s Newborn and Child Survival Campaign, stated, “In many countries, vaccines, antibiotics, and care during pregnancy are hard to reach and as a result child and maternal death rates are very high. This Mother’s Day, world leaders should honor mothers everywhere by ensuring they can celebrate what they want most- healthy children. That means helping all families, moms and babies be within reach of a trained health worker.”

The United States placed 31st out of the 44 industrialized countries that were rated, primarily due to its higher maternal and infant mortality and morbidity rate in its highly populated inner city areas. According to the report, women in the US are 7 times more likely to die during childbirth, especially women of color, than women in Italy or Ireland. In addition, 8 out of every 1,000 children born in the US die before reaching age 5. Current maternity leave in Europe, which is paid, far surpasses the Family and Medical Leave Act in the US, which only provides for 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled last week in favor of a woman who was shackled while giving birth at a Tennessee jail in 2008. Juana Villegas had been arrested and charged with careless driving and driving without insurance in July of 2008 when her immigration status showed that she had a prior deportation order to her native Mexico. She was taken into custody and went into labor two days later.

Villegas sued the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office after being shackled by the arms and legs throughout giving birth, including the final stages of labor and directly after. She was not allowed to have a breast pump or cream for lactating mothers in her cell, and was separated from her newborn son for two days. The judge ruled in her favor, saying that shackling Villega during the final stages of her labor violated her civil rights, and noting that she was “neither a risk of flight nor a danger to anyone.”

In their effort to combat the lawsuit, Davidson County sheriff’s office justified her shackling by citing testimony on the “danger of illegal immigrants fleeing and engaging in illegal activities.” Davidson County participates in a controversial program 278(g), which deputizes local police to investigate the immigration status of people they’ve arrested. Villegas’ attorney, Elliot Ozmet, said that typically when someone is unable to produce a driver’s license, they are given a citation, but in this particular case the officer decided to take her into custody.

“I was in jail when my water broke,” Villegas recalled. “They took me in an ambulance and cuffed my hands and feet. When we got to the hospital, they moved me to the bed and cuffed this hand and foot to the bed.” The medical staff requested that she not be restrained at all, warning that she may get blood clots from the leg irons, but the officers refused.

The National Women’s Law Center released a report in 2010 on the status of mothers in prison, and reported that 36 states fail to comprehensively limit, or limit at all, the use of restraints on pregnant women during transportation, delivery and postpartum recuperation. Only ten states have laws that address shackling. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention currently has no prohibitions on shackling pregnant detainees. Amnesty International and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights are leading nationwide efforts to end the practice of shackling pregnant women during labor.

Although Villegas has won her case, she has been denied a request to stay in the U.S. by the 6th Court of Appeals, so she once again faces the threat of deportation.

HR 3, the “No Tax Payer Funding for Abortion Act,” will go to the House floor for a vote this afternoon. The bill, which purports to prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions and ensure that healthcare reform law does not cover the cost of abortions, is misleading and dangerous. HR 3 goes way beyond the Hyde Amendment, which has prohibited federal funding of abortion since 1976.

Donna Crane, policy director of NARAL Pro-Choice America, stated, “The statement about ‘no taxpayer funding’ is a complete nonsequitur. Public funding sadly is not available for women today for abortion care, period. No piece of legislation could make it more banned than it already is.”

If passed, the bill would permanently ban women in the military from obtaining an abortion in a military hospital overseas, even if they pay for it with their own (not federal) money. Moreover, Americans who have private insurance plans that include abortion coverage would have to pay tax penalties, and federal workers who pay their own insurance premiums out of pocket would nonetheless be prohibited from having abortion coverage in their insurance. HR 3 would take the premium assistance promised by health reform away from people who choose a private insurance plan with abortion coverage.

NARAL Pro-Choice America states that approximately 13.5 million women who get health coverage through Medicaid and other federally sponsored programs would lose access to abortion services if this act would become law.

On Friday night, Ms. magazine was awarded the Maggie Award for Best Feature Article/Consumer from the Western Publishing Association, which represents the publishing industry west of the Mississippi River. The feature was chosen from among 10 finalists in the category.

The award was given for the article in the Spring 2010 issue of the magazine, “Not a Lone Wolf,” written by Amanda Robb. The article lays out in detail the interconnection between Scott Roeder, who murdered Wichita abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in 2009, and a network of anti-abortion extremists.

Robb has a personal connection to the topic: her own uncle, abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian, was murdered by anti-abortion extremist James Kopp in 1998. In addition to multiple in-person and telephonic interviews of Roeder, Robb’s article utilizes a wealth of research gathered over the years by the Feminist Majority Foundation about the network of extremists who promote the murder of doctors and their use of violence against abortion providers.

In accepting the award, Ms. Executive Editor Katherine Spillar, noted the impact the article has had on the way news media reports on anti-abortion violence and the interconnection between anti-abortion extremists.

Yesterday, the Texas state Senate passed a bill (SB 16) that would require women to have a sonogram within 24 hours prior to having an abortion. The woman would then be required to listen to her doctor’s description of the fetus, which would include information about which organs have developed; however, she could choose not to view the sonogram or listen to the fetal heartbeat. Following the sonogram, women, except those living over 100 miles from an abortion provider, must then undergo a 24 hour waiting period.

The Texas Medical Associate stated in a letter to the Chairman Robert Duncan (R-TX) of the Senate Committee on State Affairs, “TMA is concerned about the dangerous precedent SB 16, and related legislation, would set for health care in Texas – a precedent that would lay the foundation for future lawmakers to establish the details of the interaction between physicians and patients, and allow non-physicians to mandate what tests, procedures, or medicines must be provided to patients and in what timeframe.”

The bill makes exceptions in the cases of rape and incest. It will now go to the state House for a vote.

In honor of International Day of the Midwife on May 5, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released a statement highlighting the important role of midwives during childbirth and noting the shortage of approximately 350,000 professional midwives worldwide. According to the UNFPA, more than one in every three women in developing nations gives birth either alone or with only the help of a family member.

Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, stated, “I commend the important work of midwives. Midwives deliver – and not only babies. They save lives and promote good health in societies as a whole. They are an essential workforce in an effective healthcare system.” In June, the UNFPA is scheduled to release the first-ever report on the State of the World’s Midwifery.

In September, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank released a report stating that although maternal mortality rates have decreased by 34 percent since 1990, the decline in the rate of pregnancy-related deaths is not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal target for 2015. Currently, there are approximately 1,000 maternal deaths per day caused by easily preventable conditions that include severe bleeding after childbirth, infections, hypertensive disorders, and unsafe abortion.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced late last week that a revision of the Equal Opportunity policy now ensures protections of federal government employees based on gender identity and pregnancy. Both protections have been added under sex discrimination, and will apply to hiring, disciplinary action, and promotion for agency employees.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis updated policies on gender discrimination as part of an annual requirement for a written policy statement expressing its commitment to equal opportunity in employment. “I am expressing my personal commitment to ensure that the U.S. Department of Labor is a model workplace, free from unlawful discrimination and harassment, which fosters a work environment that fully utilizes the capabilities of every employee,” said Secretary Solis. “It is my goal that we achieve and maintain a high-quality, diverse workforce at all organizational levels throughout the department.”

Masen Davis, Executive Director of the Transgender Law Center, said “We applaud Secretary Solis for acting with fairness and equity for its employees. We look forward to continuing to work with the administration to respond to the employment-related needs of all Americans – including transgender Americans – and ensure equal access to federal employment programs for everyone.”

According to the Department of Labor, these policies will be distributed to all current employees and will be available to all new employees.

Today the White House is hosting the first-ever meeting to focus specifically on transgender issues. The Office of Public Engagement (OPE) will meet with transgender activists and leaders to discuss federal policy on trans issues. Topics to be discussed include employment policy, access to health care, military policy, and immigration detention standards.

Some activists have expressed concern in the past week that the meeting was to be held behind closed doors and without any press invited to cover the event, though OPE pointed out that most stakeholder meetings are off the record. Still, advocates are happy to be able to address the issues facing the transgender community. Michael Silver, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, said “At this point, employment is the top priority of the community. A recent survey showed 47% of transgender people have been denied a job or a promotion – or fired from a job – just because of who they are.”

The National Center for Transgender Equality was among the groups invited to attend the meeting. Executive director Mara Keisling noted the historical nature of the meeting. “This is the first president who has allowed trans people – really allowed LGBT people – to bring forward problems and then advocate for them,” she said.