Migration Category: news-1-5000-national

Supporters of Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader and left-wing Democrats are conducting a last-minute campaign in various swing states, fearing that Nader could tip the election in favor of Republican candidate George W. Bush. Politicians and activists note that, with the presidential race so close between Bush and Democratic candidate Al Gore, votes for Nader could ultimately put Bush in the White House, and the costs would be heavy. With 3-4 possible Supreme Court appointments during the next presidency, reproductive rights are on the line. Bush has stated that his model Justices are Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two of the most conservative Justices on the Court, and there are indications that Thomas could become Chief Justice under a Bush administraton.

A coalition of progressive organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, will travel to five swing states – Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Minnesota, and Wisconsin – this weekend to campaign for Gore, targeting liberal voters. In addition, several environmental organizations and NARAL recently launched ads urging liberal voters to consider the urgency of keeping Bush out of the White House. According to the Washington Post, folk-rock singer and feminist Ani DiFranco, who recently performed at a Nader rally and plans to vote for him this November, told fans in an Internet letter, “ïif I found myself in a swing state, I’d remember the record number of executions Governor Bush has authorized in the state of Texasƒand I’d think long and hard about the bleak future of women’s reproductive rights in a Republican-controlled White House. And my vote would go to Al Gore.”

United Nations (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan announced yesterday that he has appointed as Thoraya Ahmed Obaid Executive Director of the UN Population Fund. Obaid, an American-educated Saudi woman, has led the Population Fund’s division for the Arab nations and Europe since 1998, and has 25 years of experience in women’s issues and development. She participated in two high-level missions to Afghanistan, investigating the treatment of women under the brutal Taliban regime. The UN Population Fund, aimed at reducing population growth worldwide, has made the expansion of women’s rights a priority.

Abortion and affirmative action are just two of many progressive issues that could be debated by the US Supreme Court in the next four to eight years. Yesterday, President Clinton campaigned for Vice President Al Gore, reminding voters that the next president will have the power to appoint three to four Justices to the Supreme Court, therefore influencing national policy beyond the years of his own presidency. Recent Supreme Court decisions on abortion, women’s rights, and gay rights were decided on a razor-thin 5-4 margin, and at least three Justices could retire within the next presidency, including ultra-conservative William Rehnquist, liberal John Stevens, and swing vote Sandra Day O’Connor. President Clinton warned voters of a possible ultra-conservative trend in the court, citing Justices Scalia and Thomas as examples. Republican candidate George W. Bush has said that he would model his appointments after Scalia and Thomas, and that he would appoint “strict constructionists” of the Constitution, a term most legal scholars agree indicates a Justice who would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

Last night, more than 500 students, faculty, and community members crowded the Glass Pavilion at Johns Hopkins University to hear “The Feminist Debate: The Role and Struggle of American Women Today” between Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal and Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly.

Schlafly painted an idealistic picture of life for women in the 1800s, saying that women in the 1800s had wonderful standing that has been eroded by the feminist movement. Smeal countered that, in the 1800s, women could not vote, own property, or go to school, and that non-whites, immigrants, and blacks enjoyed virtually no rights, and that slavery was legal and widely practiced at the time. Smeal outlined the accomplishments of the feminist movement, citing the gains it has made for women, people of color, and gays and lesbians, from winning Title IX to the Family and Medical Leave Act to the recent Violence Against Women Act. Smeal asserted that there is still much work to be done, for example, combating gender apartheid in Afghanistan, and securing the reproductive rights of women not only in the United States but around the world. Schlafly condemned the feminist movement, saying it was only about “baby killing and lesbians.” Smeal took her statement head on, saying, “Our movement doesn’t back off from what we stand for” but proudly advocates safe, legal, and accessible abortion as well as lesbian and gay rights.

When asked what role college students could play in the future of the feminist movement, Smeal responded, “Young people are the movement. Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance members from St. Mary’s College, the University of Maryland at College Park, Goucher College, and the University of Maryland at Baltimore Country attended the forum, as well as students from Shippensburg University and Johns Hopkins University who will be participating in the Feminist Majority Foundation’s campus program this year.

C-SPAN recorded the debate, and will air it in rotation beginning this evening.

Visit the Feminist Majority Foundation’s online community for campus activists.

Last night, cable television network HBO premiered the documentary “Hate.com: Extremists on the Internet,” an analysis of hate groups’ presence and mobilization using the Internet. The program highlights various hate groups with a specific focus on racist extremists, but included anti-abortion, anti-gay and lesbian, and other groups. For example, Eric Robert Rudolph primary suspect in the Atlanta clinic, gay night club, and Olympic Park bombings of 1996, was featured as an individual who adheres to both anti-abortion and militia-type beliefs. The documentary, produced in cooperation with the Southern Poverty Law Center, provided a chilling account of the power for otherwise disenfranchised and geographically isolated individuals to participate in hate related activities. HBO has also produced a website in conjunction with the program that offers viewers tips on combating hate and hate violence. The Feminist Majority Foundation’s National Clinic Access Project also tracks the continuing interrelationships of the anti-abortion extremist movement and right-wing militia groups. HBO’s feature will be rebroadcast throughout the month.

In a recent debate, as well as in his ad campaign, U.S. Senate candidate George Allen (R-VA) called his support of abortion restrictions “reasonable moderation.” During the October 22 debate, in an effort to dilute the influence of the abortion issue in the Senate race where he faces pro-choice Senator Charles Robb (D-VA), Allen told the audience that, while he supports restrictions like parental notification requirements, he also supports a woman’s right to choose abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. Allen’s statements were in direct conflict with his record as former governor of Virginia, a state NARAL has highlighted as a prime battle-ground over abortion rights. NARAL placed Allen on its “Worst Choice List.” While in office, Allen vetoed a bill to protect women and doctors from anti-choice attacks and intimidation at reproductive health clinics. While in the U.S. House of Representatives, he voted to ban privately-funded abortions for U.S. military servicewomen. As governor, he issued an executive order prohibiting abortion coverage in state employees’ health insurance except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment, or severe fetal abnormality.

Preliminary data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that more mothers are returning to work within a year of giving birth, and more are returning to full-time positions. According to the Census Bureau, of the 3.6 million women who gave birth between June 1997 and June 1998, 59 percent returned to the work force within a year, compared to 31 percent in 1976 and 51 percent in 1987. In 1976, only 33 percent of couples with children were two-income households; now, both spouses are employed in 51 percent of couples with children. Flexible work schedules, family leave policies, and improved child care options have facilitated women’s re-entry into the work force, which is essential to many families’ income.

Negotiations on the $14.9 billion foreign aid bill could come to a close this week with a “compromise” on family planning funding. Representatives Sonny Callahan (R-AL) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), respectively the chairman and top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls foreign aid, have contrived two options for dealing with the family planning provision instated under Ronald Reagan in 1984. Reagan’s executive order barred aid to groups that perform abortions overseas or lobby to liberalize abortion laws. Clinton revoked the order in 1993, but the next president will decide whether to reinstate the “global gag rule.” While both proposed compromises would increase spending for international family planning from $385 million to as much as $425 million, one version would keep the Reagan-era ban in place until next year and the other would leave out the Reagan language but would not allow the money to be spent until early next year. The presidential election will ultimately decide the status of the U.S.’s aid to groups that provide family planning aid to foreign countries.

LEARN MORE Click here to read women’s narratives about barriers or successes in accessing reproductive health and family planning services.

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report for 1999 showed that, as overall serious crime continued to decline over the past year, hate crimes based on sexual orientation increased 4.5 percent between 1998 and 1999. “Somewhere in America every day at least three gay and lesbian Americans are being targeted for a crime just because they are gay,” said Human Rights Campaign Political Director Winnie Stachelberg. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation are the third highest category of bias-related crimes, after race and religion, and most statisticians and activists agree that these crimes are grossly underreported.

In June, the Senate voted 57-42 to include the Hate Crimes Prevention Act as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. The act would expand current federal hate crimes legislation to cover crimes based on gender, disability and sexual orientation. In September, the House voted 232-192 to keep the hate crimes language in place as part of the defense authorization bill. But the Republican leadership stripped that language from the bill while in conference committee negotiations, despite evidence that hate crimes legislation would improve law enforcement handling of bias-motivated crime.

Hate crimes law continues to be an issue in the presidential election, as Republican candidate George W. Bush attempts to mask his party’s stance and his own record on bias-motivated crimes based on sexual orientation. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 66 percent of voters would be less likely to vote for a candidate who does not support federal hate crimes legislation that includes race, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation. Texas Governor George W. Bush, despite asserting that his state has an effective hate crimes law, opposed a 1998 measure to strengthen Texas’ statute and add sexual orientation precisely because it protected gays and lesbians.

Former President Jimmy Carter announced this weekend that he is ending his association with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Carter, a self-professed “born-again” Christian, stated in a letter to the SBC that the group’s increasingly conservative stances, including recent decisions barring female pastors and declaring that wives should “submit graciously to their husbands, “violate the basic premises of my Christian faith.” He said that “women should play an absolutely equal role in service of Christ in the church.” The SBC’s conservative positions have prompted several moderate congregations to leave the organization in recent years. The SBC opposes gay and lesbian rights as well as women’s equality, favoring an ultra-conservative image of the family that relegates women to a subordinate position.

The Los Angeles Times recently featured Ramona High School’s efforts in the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid Back to School drive. The only all-girls public school in LA, Ramona is a safe space for troubled girls who were not making it in other institutions. Its surrounding area is plagued by gang violence, drug use, and crime. Yet the students at Ramona High School are working hard to help others as part of the Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan, and recently raised $200 for the campaign. After seeing the FMF-produced video “Shroud of Silence,” the girls at Ramona immediately wanted to take action. Joining the Adopt-A-School program, they went door-to-door in their poor neighborhood, explaining the plight of Afghan women who live under a state of virtual house arrest, unable to work or go to school. They collected donations and obtained signatures on FMF’s petition to increase humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and to continue to pressure Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to renounce their recognition of the Taliban regime. Their new goal is to raise $100 a month for the school they are working with, located in Pakistan in a refugee camp, and to continue to exchange letters with the girls there.

Read the full Los Angeles Times article with interviews with Ramona High School’s Back to School Action Team.

Get more information on FMF’s Back to School Campaign and help the women and girls of Afghanistan.

Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca has vowed to combat sexual harassment and discrimination in the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department (LASD), which has been under a consent decree to examine the treatment of women in the agency. LASD’s current head Lee Baca has initiated efforts to hire and promote more women, and to effectively deal with sexual harassment cases. The LA Sheriffs Department still does not have a non-discriminatory promotion test, despite a court order to level the playing field for women and minorities by altering testing methods. The LASD is also under court order to transfer more women to specialized positions, such as detective; women continue to be left out of these positions. Furthermore, the Sheriffs Department has no policy outlining its stand against sexual harassment or its standard methods for processing harassment claims. According to FMF’s National Center for Women and Policing, the rest of the country does not fare much better than Los Angeles in gender equity in law enforcement. According to its most recent survey, women still make up only 12 percent of officers in the largest 100 law enforcement agencies in the country, despite evidence that women are better at resolving conflict without violence and at responding to domestic violence calls.

A county judge in Indiana ruled in favor of two women’s health clinics that filed a suit in August of 1999 arguing that the state’s Medicare policies discriminated against low-income women with certain health conditions. Current state law allows Medicare to cover abortions when a woman’s life is in danger and in instances of rape or incest, but under no other circumstances. According to attorneys with the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy who assisted in the case in Indiana, the clinics’ argument hinged on the fact that women who have medical conditions such as diabetes or cancer would face serious health problems if forced to carry their pregnancies to term. And because Medicare covers all necessary medical care, not covering medically necessary abortions is unconstitutional.

The first of thirty men indicted for attacking women in New York’s Central during the June 11, 2000, Puerto Rican Day parade has pled guilty. Immanuel Nunez, 18, admitted to being a participant in a throng of men who drenched women with water, tore the women’s clothes off and molested them. Nunez, jailed since his arrest on June 16, exchanged his guilty plea for a 6 month sentence, 4 and a half years of probation and 250 hours of community service. Nunez was released after serving four months of his sentence because of good behavior and no prior conviction. Fifty-three women filed complaints about being molested during the parade.

In one of the most contentious exchanges in Tuesday night’s presidential debates, Vice President Al Gore clearly stated his support of affirmative action, saying affirmative action is “taking extra steps to acknowledge the history of discrimination and injustice and prejudice and bring all people into the American dream.” Gore then challenged Republican candidate George W. Bush to take the same position after the Texas governor said he did not like quotas and would support “affirmative access.” Gore pressed the issue, stating affirmative action doesn’t mean quotas and asking Bush if he supported affirmative action without quotas. Bush said he did not support Gore’s version of affirmative action. Affirmative action has been a key strategy of advancing women and minorities in the work force and erasing past institutional discrimination.

The two candidates also discussed Social Security privatization–a Bush plan that would be particularly harmful to women, who live longer than men, typically earn less, and are more dependent on social security because very few women have pension plans. Gore pointed out that Bush’s plan would cut into the money set aside for current Social Security beneficiaries, 60 percent of whom are women. And 25 percent of elderly women who live alone depend on Social Security as their only source of income. Gore also advocated for universal preschool as a part of his education policy.

A federal grand jury has indicted fugitive anti-abortion extremist James Charles Kopp in the 1998 sniper killing of Dr. Barnett Slepian in Amherst, New York. Slepian, an abortion provider in upstate New York, was killed in his home by a single shot from a high-powered rifle on October 23, 1998. Dr. Slepian was the fifth doctor shot by sniper fire in the weeks preceding the November 11 Canadian holiday Remembrance Day since 1994. The two-count indictment charges Kopp with using deadly force to prevent Dr. Slepian from providing reproductive health services and using a firearm to commit a crime of violence. Kopp is one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted fugitives with offers of rewards for his arrest totaling $1 million. Kopp is also wanted in Canada on an attempted murder charge in the 1995 shooting of a doctor in his Ontario home.

According to a new study, mifepristone can be used beyond the 49-day gestational limit approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A multi-center trial of 2,295 women, conducted by Dr. Eric Schaff of the University of Rochester in Minnesota, found that the pill could be taken within 56 days of intercourse with a success rate of 96 to 98 percent. European experience shows that mifepristone’s efficacy remains as strong at 63 days, the current limit in the United Kingdom.

The study also showed that the three doctor’s visits required by the FDA are unnecessary. Currently, a woman must visit a doctor’s office once to pin point the date of conception, a second time to administer Mifeprex, and a third time to receive misoprostol. Sometimes a fourth visit is required to assure the abortion is complete. The study suggests misoprostol can be taken up to three days after taking Mifeprex, and still be 96 to 98 percent effective. The study also showed that self-administration of misoprostol at home could cut down on the number of doctor’s visits and the cost of receiving a medical abortion.

While abortion rights advocates are fighting to make RU 486 affordable and accessible, universities in Florida have decided not to offer the pill through on-campus health centers. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the University of Central Florida, University of Florida and Florida State University decided they would not offer the pill for medical or religious reasons.

The pro-choice community mourns the loss of ally Governor Mel Carnahan (D-MO), who died in a plane crash on his way to a campaign rally on Monday night. The popular governor was running for the U.S. Senate seat against John Ashcroft (R-MO) in one of the closest races of this election year. Carnahan, a long time supporter of abortion rights, had been endorsed by National Abortion Rights Action League, and stood up for choice in the race against Ashcroft. Carnahan was 66 and died with his son and a campaign advisor.

According to a report published by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) using the Environmental Protection Agency’s figures, Texas has the worst air pollution problem in the entire country. Ninety-three smog polluters in Texas are in violation of federal air standards„2.5 times as many violators as the second worst state, Illinois. The EWG has pointed its finger at Texas Governor George W. Bush, saying the violations are not a result of a heavily industrialized state, as Bush claims, but a state government that fails to enforce the laws.

In the last of the 2000 presidential debates, feminist leaders are urging the Commission on Presidential Debates to give women’s issues a greater voice. In the first debate, abortion and mifepristone (RU 486) received just a few minutes of attention before being redirected to other topics. In the second debate, the world “woman” was uttered three times„once by Bush in opposition of gay civil unions; once in relation to a woman’s contribution to gun violence and once in reference to Texas being ranked 49th in health care for women. The third debate is the last opportunity for topics such as violence against women, pay equity and the Family Medical Leave Act to receive any focus. “The lack of focus on women’s issues is appalling,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

The gender gap will play a significant role in the election of the next president, and with women voters still fluctuating in their opinion more than male voters, discussing women’s issues is of critical importance. Also, civil rights advocates are concerned with the paucity of minority issues being discussed in the debates. According to the Los Angles Times, analysts at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, an organization focusing on black issues, worry that black voters are apathetic and voter turnout will be low. The NAACP is financing a get-out-the-vote drive in several states and has also urged for more focus on minority groups in the final debate. The organization has proposed questions for the “town hall” format that include judicial nominations, police brutality, gun violence and economic justice.