Migration Category: National Old Site

Unquestionably, the biggest loss is the replacement of pro-choice, feminist Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and the pro-choice Democratic leadership team of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), and Assistant to the Speaker Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). With a virulently anti-reproductive rights leadership team of John Boehner (R-OH), Eric Cantor (R-VA), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Mike Pence (R-IN), and Pete Sessions (R-TX). With the 60 plus vote Republican win in the House (four seats are still undecided), the pro-reproductive rights forces suffered big losses…43 votes in the House and 7 in the Senate. Worse yet, some extreme right-wing candidates on women’s issues have won, including Tea Party endorsed Rand Paul (R-KY), who opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest; Pat Toomey (R-PA), who was the head of Newt Gingrich’s Club for Growth and is virulently opposed to abortion; and Tea Party endorsed Ron Johnson (R-WI), who defeated pro-choice Russ Feingold (D-WI). In the House, 7 new anti-abortion rights Republican women were elected and 8 pro-choice Democratic women were defeated. All of the Democrats but one were defeated by anti-reproductive rights Republicans. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA), who is anti-choice and was a co-sponsor of the Stupak/Pitts Amendment, was also defeated by an anti-choice Republican. But when you analyze the 43 losses in the House, abortion was not the deciding factor. Thirteen of those losses were anti-choice Democrats defeated by anti-choice Republicans. Perhaps more telling, 24 House Democrats who lost had voted yes on the Stupak/ Pitts Amendment. On the plus side for abortion rights, three powerful Democrat House Chairs who were solid anti-choice supporters will not be returning: Ike Skelton (D-MO), Chair of the House Armed Services Committee who lost; David Obey, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee who retired; and James Oberstar, Chair of the Committee of Transportation and Infrastructure, who lost. Obey insisted on inserting in the House appropriations bills funding for abstinence-only programs comparable to comprehensive family planning programs. Skelton had fought the ERA extension in the late 1970s. These committee chairs, together with the late John Murtha, who was the House Defense Appropriations Chair, had been formidable opponents of women’s right to choose. Statement of Eleanor Smeal 11/4/10

There will be at least 85 voting women members of the Congress in January 2011: at least 70 members of the House plus three nonvoting delegates and at least 15 senators. Four House races with women candidates are still too close to call as are two Senate races with women candidates (Senator Patty Murray and Senator Lisa Murkowski). If women win all the remaining races, there will be neither a gain nor a loss in the percentage of women members in Congress. If they lose, there will be a one and a half percent loss. Eight Republican women newcomers won in the House — one is a woman of color. They include Martha Roby (AL-2); Sandy Adams (FL-24); Vicky Hartzler (MO-4); Nan Hayworth (NY-19); Renee Ellmers (NC-2); Christy Noem (SD-AL); Diane Black (TN-6); Jaime Herrera (WA-3). No Republican incumbents lost in the House. Four Democratic women newcomers won in the House — all four were women of color. In total, nine Democratic women House Members lost: Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-1); Betsy Markey (CO-4); Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24); Debbie Halvorson (IL-11); Dina Titus (NV-3); Carol Shea-Porter (NH-1); Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-1); Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-3); Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD At Large). All but Dahlkemper were strong supporters of reproductive rights. Five new women of color won their House races: Terri Sewell (D-AL) winning Davis’ seat, who ran for governor; Karen Bass (D-CA) winning retiring Diane Watson’s seat; Colleen Hanabusa winning Neil Abercrombie’s seat, who won his race for governor; Frederica Wilson (D-FL), who won the seat of Kendrick Meek, who lost his bid for the Senate; and Jaime Herrera (R-WA), who won an open seat of a retiring Democrat. In the Senate, the only woman incumbent to lose thus far was Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), endorsed by Sarah Palin and a strong opponent of reproductive choice, will be the only woman newcomer in the Senate.

In a strong victory for reproductive rights, the Colorado ballot initiative Amendment 62 was defeated by an overwhelming margin of 2-to-1 on Tuesday night. The measure (PDF) sought to amend the state constitution so that “the term ‘person’ [would] apply to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being.” If the initiative had passed, it would not only have put a woman’s right to an abortion in danger but also threatened the legality of oral and emergency contraception, IUDs, in vitro fertilization clinics, and stem cell research. NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado clarified in its press statement, “Amendment 62 is a dangerous and deceptive ballot proposal that seeks to extend legal and constitutional rights to a woman’s fertilized eggs. It would ban all abortion in Colorado, including in cases of rape, incest or when a woman’s life is at risk.” The proposed measure went even further than Amendment 48, which was defeated in the 2008 elections by 73 percent, and declared a fertilized egg to be a person who enjoys all constitutional rights “relating to inalienable rights, equality of justice, and due process of law.” The Fetal Personhood Amendment to the Mississippi Constitution is scheduled to be on the Mississippi 2011 ballot. A judge in Hinds County, Mississippi recently ruled against the ACLU and Planned Parenthood attempt to remove it from the 2011 ballot. The “Personhood Amendment,” an anti-abortion initiative, from ballots next year, the Personhood U.S.A. movement — founded by Keith Mason of Kansas and Cal Zastrow of Michigan, both members of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion extremist group — has nevertheless suffered defeat after defeat. In February 2010, the so-called “Personhood Initiative” suffered an overwhelming defeat after the New Hampshire House voted 219-122 against the measure. The initiative also failed to appear on Florida and Nevada ballots this year due to lack of signatures on the petitions supporting the measure. Anti-choice forces are split on the fetal personhood initiative, which has proven to be unsuccessful because it exposes that a large portion of the right to life groups would like to outlaw contraception.

Last Thursday, a federal court in Eastern Washington sentenced Donald Hertz to be confined to his home for 180 days and receive five years probation for threatening Colorado abortion provider, Dr. Warren Hern, and his family, including his 92 year-old mother. The threats followed three weeks after the tragic May 31, 2009 murder of Kansas abortion provider, Dr. George Tiller. Hertz was charged with a felony for making threats across state lines and a misdemeanor for impeding a reproductive health clinic, but received the probation sentence as part of a plea bargain. In response to the probation sentencing, Kathy Spillar, the Executive Vice President of the Feminist Majority Foundation commented, “we need to send a strong message that this is domestic terrorism, and it must be treated as seriously as international threats.” Hern remarked to the Associated Press, “We were terrified…I believed this threat, and so did every member of my family.” Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, clarified, “these are not just a threat to Dr. Hern and his family but to all women who need his services.”

A hearing has been set for May for the lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Montana against the state of Montana over its denial of birth control for teenage girls who are insured by the state’s low-income health insurance program for minors, Healthy Montana Kids. The Associated Press reports that girls insured by Healthy Montana Kids are prohibited from obtaining the drug through its public insurance program if they are using it solely to prevent pregnancy. They can obtain the drug for other purposes, such as the treatment of acne or heavy menstruation. Planned Parenthood of Montana clarifies that the “prohibition only affects young women and exclusively implicates prescription drugs used to prevent pregnancy…this denial of comprehensive healthcare for young women violates multiple sections of the Montana Constitution.” About 10 percent of the 25,000 children covered by Healthy Montana Kids are females between the ages of 15 and 19. Though the program will not cover the drug for pregnancy prevention, teenage mothers receive coverage for prenatal and postnatal care, as well as delivery expenses. Last year, the program spent $720,000 to cover the costs of 43 births to teenage mothers. State actions preventing the allocation of funds for family planning-related programs have been prominent over the course of the past month. In early October, New Jersey received $4.7 million from the federal government in order to fund teenage pregnancy prevention programs. However, the Newark Star-Ledger reports that about $1 million of this money must be spent on abstinence-only education programs. In late September, Governor Chris Christie (R) vetoed a measure that allocated $7.5 million from reaching the state’s 58 family planning clinics. Due to lack of funding, two clinics have already closed in New Jersey’s Camden County, and two more Burlington County clinics are expected to close this month.

On Monday, a federal appeals court three judge panel ruled two to one that the US military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy will stand indefinitely until the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) appeals process concludes. CNN reports that the ruling, issued by the Ninth District Court of Appeals, granted the DOJ’s request that the court place a stay on US District Court Judge Virginia Phillips’ October 12 ruling, which declares the military’s policy unconstitutional and orders the military to immediately drop any pending investigations or proceedings related to the policy. The panel’s ruling may be now appealed to the 9th District Court or the Supreme Court by the Log Cabin Republicans, the group which originally filed suit against DADT. The DOJ is in the process of appealing Judge Phillips’ ruling because it alleges that the injunction would interfere with an ongoing Pentagon study of the potential effects of a DADT repeal. The DOJ instead encourages the courts to wait until the extensive Pentagon survey is presented to President Obama in December. Obama and other key officials such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen support a repeal of the policy. President Obama and Admiral Mullen, however, asserts that the policy should not be repealed through the judiciary. Despite these temporary legal setbacks, it is likely that a repeal of DADT will be passed after the Pentagon review is completed. In May, the Defense Spending Bill passed in the House and was filibustered in the Senate. The Bill contains an amendment by Representative Patrick Murphy (D-PA) that repeals “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” if military readiness, effectiveness, and unit cohesiveness are determined. DADT was instituted by former President Bill Clinton in 1993 and prohibits the military from inquiring about a service member’s sexual orientation, and also calls for the discharge of anyone who acknowledges being lesbian or gay. Thus far, the policy has led to the expulsion of more than 13,000 troops.

As we close the midterm election season, public opinion polling in close races shows significant gender gaps–“the measurable difference in the way women and men vote for (or favor) candidates and in the way they view political issues” (see Eleanor Smeal, Why and How Women Will Elect the Next President). For example, the L.A. Times just last week revealed a massive 19 percent point gender gap in the race between Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) versus Carly Fiorina (R) and a 24 percent gap in the California gubernatorial race between Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) and Meg Whitman (R). Without the women’s vote, Brown and Boxer would not be leading their Republican opponents in the pre-election day polls. The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers the State University of New Jersey released on October 25, 2010 their “Women Voters Less Likely than Men to Support Republican Women Candidates: Gender Gap Remains a Force in Election 2010.” CAWP found gender gaps in some 22 races. In every case, women favor Democrats more than men. “In some races,” CAWP did add, “both women and men favor the Republican candidates, but women do so at a lower rate than men.” The Hill (Largest Circulation of Any Capitol Hill Publication) newspaper reported gender gaps in key toss up races, such as in IA-3, North Dakota At Large, PA-11, and South Dakota At Large districts.

In Arkansas, Midland School District Vice President and state board member Clint McCance, who wrote on his personal Facebook page that he encourages gays to commit suicide, announced his resignation yesterday. He also promised to disown his children if they were gay, and said that he enjoys “the fact that [gay people] often give each other AIDS and die,” according to CNN. McCance offered apologies to the families of the students who committed suicide but nevertheless told CNN, “If they decide after five or ten years to vote me back in, then I’ll run again.” In a recent statement, the Midland School District sought to disassociate itself from the outrageous comments made by McCance. Tom Kimbrell, the Arkansas Education Department Director, remarked to the Arkansas Times, that “every student in Arkansas must be educated in a nurturing environment, free from discrimination or harassment.”

Yesterday, US District Judge Glen Davidson ordered Itawamba County school district in Mississippi to cover the legal fees and expenses of Constance McMillen, who filed a lawsuit after she was banned from taking her girlfriend to prom and from wearing a tuxedo. According to the New York Times, the legal fees amounted to $81,000. In July, the school district agreed to pay McMillen over $35,000 in damages as a result of her lawsuit against the school district’s anti-gay policies. The agreement also requires the school district to adopt a non-discrimination policy that includes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In February, after McMillen requested that her school lift the ban on same-sex couples attending prom, a memorandum was sent to all students, stating that all prom dates must be of the opposite sex. McMillen’s school eventually cancelled the prom based on the “the education, safety and well-being of [its] students,” according to CNN after the American Civil Liberties Union became involved. In April, McMillen was invited to a decoy prom, in order to prevent her from attending a separate prom parents had organized. According to McMillen, “They had two proms and I was only invited to one of them. The one that I went to had seven people there, and everyone went to the other one I wasn’t invited to,” reported the Advocate.

On Tuesday, Hinds County Judge Malcolm Harrison ruled against the ACLU and Planned Parenthood in a case that sought to remove a “Personhood Amendment,” an anti-abortion initiative, from ballots next year in Mississippi. The measure “would amend the Mississippi Constitution to define the word ‘person’ or ‘persons’, as those terms are used in Article III of the state constitution, to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof.” If the initiative passes, it would not only put a woman’s right to an abortion in danger, but also threaten oral and emergency contraception, IUDs, in vitro fertilization clinics, and stem cell research. According to the Clarion Ledger, 106,325 signatures on the petition supporting the measure were verified by the Secretary of State’s office, well beyond the approximately 90,000 signatures required to place the measure on the ballot. However, some Mississippi residents expressed concerns about the initiative appearing on the ballot, claiming that if abortions become illegal, education rates will be negatively impacted. Shelby Raines told News Channel 12 that “there’s uneducated people because they didn’t have the chance to go to college because they had to be a mother…Others didn’t get to finish high school because they had to raise a child.”

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a ruling stating that breast pumps and other breastfeeding supplies are not subject to the tax breaks offered for other medical expenses. However, the IRS will not recognize the cost of breastfeeding supplies to be eligible for these tax breaks, despite the fact that costs for products such as acne medications and denture adhesives are eligible for the exemptions, the New York Times reports. According to the United States Breastfeeding Committee, breastfeeding expenses can cost mothers between $500 and $1,000 annually. The ruling denies the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) request that the IRS consider costs related to breastfeeding as medical care expenses on the grounds that the IRS believes breastfeeding does not provide sufficient health benefits, the New York Times reports. Breastfeeding advocates and the AAP have emphasized the preventative health benefits of breastfeeding, backed by recent research. According to a study published in April of this year, breastfeeding will prevent more than 900 infant deaths each year and will save an additional $13 billion in health care costs. The risk of infant death due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), respiratory infections such as pneumonia, and necrotizing enterocolitis is nearly eliminated if mothers breastfeed their infants until at least six months after birth. In addition, the US Department of Health and Human Services reports that breastfed infants have a lower risk of contracting ear infections, stomach viruses, atopic dermatitis, type 1 and 2 diabetes, childhood leukemia, and other health problems. Mothers also benefit from a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and postpartum depression (PPD). Women can ask their doctors for a document stating that breastfeeding is medically necessary if they want to try to use their tax-exempt healthcare account to cover breastfeeding, reports the New York Times.

On Tuesday, a federal appeals court has ruled against ruled against Proposition 200, a law that requires people to show proof of U.S. citizenship before registering to vote. The decision did, however, uphold the portion of the law that requires voters to show identification before entering the ballot box, CNN reports. According to CNN, Governor Jan Brewer and Secretary of State Ken Bennett of Arizona rebuked the court’s decision in a joint statement stating the decision “is an outrage and a slap in the face to all Arizonans who care about the integrity of their elections.” Arizona has undergone multiple legal battles concerning its immigration laws including SB 1070, which was passed in April and allows law enforcement officials in Arizona to request proof of legal immigration, residency, or citizenship of anyone they suspect might be an illegal immigrant.

According to a report released Monday by the MIT Center for International Studies and the International Civil Society Action Network, women still have not been fully included in peacemaking and peace-building processes in many countries. The study was released the day before the tenth anniversary of the enactment of United Nations Resolution 1325, which calls for nations to ensure women’s “full involvement” in peacemaking and national security decision-making, according to the Associated Press. The report focuses on six nations and regions affected by conflict, including the Indonesian province Aceh, as well as Colombia, Israel, Liberia, Sri Lanka, and Uganda. The Associated Press reports that although legislation was passed in some of the countries to increase women’s participation, it was either never implemented or was ineffective. The report identifies three main problems in the implementation of Resolution 1325: the UN’s failure to create an education campaign about its goals; the failure of governments and international conflict resolution bodies to actually integrate women; and aid donors’ failure to support female participation in peace processes. Nevertheless, women have begun to break into the peacemaking process in some of the countries, the study reports. For instance, in Sri Lanka and Uganda, women participated in peace negotiations, though the negotiations ultimately failed. The report also asserts that the peace in Liberia, though unstable, is “largely thanks to the mass action of its women literally sitting outside the negotiations, and not giving up on peace,” as quoted by the Associated Press. In addition, women’s groups have led peace movements in Colombia and been at the forefront of peace advocacy in the Middle East, though they have been excluded from all peacemaking efforts in that region. UN Resolution 1325 was passed unanimously on October 31, 2000. In addition to its call for women’s participation, the resolution asserts that women and children are most adversely affected by armed conflict and calls for special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence and other forms of violence in situations of armed conflict. The Associated Press reports that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated, “Resolution 1325 will never be implemented successfully until we end sexual violence in conflict,” while US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called women’s participation in peacemaking “a necessary global security imperative.”

At a public comment session late last week, abortion opponents requested the Iowa Board of Medicine prevent Planned Parenthood from using telemedicine to administer abortion medicine. The Board did not issue a decision on the telemedicine issue, which remains under study, though an update is expected in December, according to the Des Moines Register. In June, Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa introduced a program that enables mifepristone, a drug intended to terminate a pregnancy in its early stages, to be administered to patients while videoconferencing with their doctors. This practice, known as telemedicine, is designed to provide women living in remote and rural areas of Iowa with abortion services. In order for a woman to receive mifepristone via videoconference, she must first go to her local Planned Parenthood and undergo the required physical exam, blood test, medical history report, ultrasound, and counseling session, all administered in-person by a nurse. Women must also watch an eight-minute video describing the procedure and all possible side effects. If the woman decides to continue with the process, the doctor then clicks a button on his computer that releases a drawer containing the medicine in front of the patient. Still in the company of the clinic nurse, the patient then takes the mifepristone with her doctor watching and receives the follow-up drug, misoprostol, to take later. In May, the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue filled a formal complaint with the Iowa State Board of Medicine. The group argued that the video method did not meet the state law requiring medical doctors be present for the administration of the pill. Operation Rescue President Troy Newman said his group heard about Planned Parenthood’s system through an anonymous tip, reported 9News. According to Newman, his organization is offering a $25,000 reward to anyone who provides information that results in the legal conviction of an abortion provider.

On Thursday, the US Navy announced that women will start serving on US submarines in December 2011. Twenty-four female officers began training in July and will become the first women to serve on American submarines, according to CNN. Though women have served on the Navy’s non-combat surface ships since 1973 and its combat surface ships since 1993, they have never been allowed to serve on submarines. The Associated Press reports that women were previously barred from submarine duty due to the extended deployments and the close quarters required for submarine service. The female officers were chosen from US Naval Academy graduates, ROTC programs, and Officer Candidate School, reports CNN. The women will serve on four submarines, including the USS Wyoming and USS Georgia, which are based in Kings Bay, Georgia, and the USS Maine and USS Ohio, based in Bangor, Washington. The 560-foot submarines were chosen for their large size, which will allow the Navy to create accommodations for women onboard. The Associated Press reports that the Navy is currently allowing only female Officers to serve on submarines.

Last week, the National Economic Council released a report called Jobs and Economic Security for America’s Women, which addresses the effects of the recession on women and the benefits of the Obama administration’s economic policies for women. The report details the steps that the administration has taken to “promote economic expansion and job growth for women, train and educate women for quality jobs, support working women at home and in their jobs, and support women in retirement and in between jobs.” According to a White House press release, women are the majority of college graduates, nearly 50 percent of the workforce, and increasingly becoming their family breadwinners. Nevertheless, in a press release the ACLU argues that women’s increased presence in the workplace causes them to be heavily impacted by the recession. The ACLU thus argues that the White House Report points to the need for the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would enable workers to fight unequal wages, in particular women who typically earn 77 cents to each dollar earned by men. Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, Laura Murphy, commented, “the administration deserves credit for all they have done to enhance women’s equality, including the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and establishing the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force, but equality can’t truly be achieved until the Paycheck Fairness Act becomes law.”