Migration Category: news-10001-15000-national

A poll released by the Public Religion Research Institute, which examines the views of Millennial Generation on abortion, revealed that the Millennial Generation, people ages 18-29, are more likely than other age cohorts to support having an abortion provider in the community. However, the Millennial Generation is no more likely to believe that abortions should be available in all cases.

The poll indicated that 58 percent of those surveyed believed that communities should have a health care professional available to provide legal abortions. Those who reside in metropolitan areas were more likely than those in rural areas to believe that abortion services should be available in the community.

Moreover, 19 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all cases and 37 believe that it should be legal in most cases. By contrast, 14 percent believe that abortion should be illegal in all cases and 26 percent in most cases.

Dawn Laguens, executive vice president for public policy and communications at Planned Parenthood, stated, “It Is also heartening to see that there is no gap in support among young people on issues they consider as basic human rights with support for marriage equality reaching similar majority support levels for abortion rights.”

Two studies from the Guttmacher Institute revealed the importance of offering women contraception after they obtain abortion services. The studies note that abortion patients are at high risk for additional unintended pregnancies.

The first study, “Patients’ Attitudes and Experiences Related to Receiving Contraception During Abortion Care,” conducted by Megan Kavanaugh et al., found that 66 percent of women who sought abortions stated that they wanted to leave with contraception. Moreover, of the women who had obtained an abortion in the last five years, two-thirds had been given a form of contraception at the abortion facility.

Adam Sonfield, in Abortion Clinics and Contraceptive Services: Opportunities and Challenges,” specialized abortion clinics, or those in which 50 percent or more of patients’ visits are for abortion services, performed 70 percent of all abortions in 2008, although they accounted for only 21 percent of abortion providers. Sonfield states that specialized abortion clinics may be “especially well-suited to provide the most effective contraceptive methods on the market,” such as IUDs, contraceptive implants, and surgical sterilization. Nevertheless, providing these services would place significant financial challenges on the specialized clinics.

A report conducted by Saul Hoffman, Ph.D. of the University of Delaware, released yesterday by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, revealed that in 2008, teen pregnancies cost taxpayers $10.9 billion, which includes a $2.3 billion increase in public-sector health costs and $2.8 billion in increased welfare costs. The costs of foster care, incarceration, and lost tax revenue also factor into the total.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that approximately 409,840 babies were born to women between 15 and 19 years old in 2009. Between 2007 and 2009, the teen birth rate decreased 8 percent to 39.1 births per 1,000 teens between the ages of 15 and 19. For teens 18-19 years old, the birth rate fell in 45 states and decreased overall six percent, which represents the greatest decline in one year since 1972. According to the report, the reduction in the teen birth rate saved taxpayers approximately $8.4 billion in 2008 alone.

At the 2011 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS, sponsored by UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNESCO, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), world leaders announced the launch of a Global Plan to eliminate HIV infections in children by 2015 and to help already-infected mothers. The plan aims to address the needs of HIV-positive pregnant women and their children.

The Global Plan noted that “In 2009, 370,000 children became newly infected with HIV globally and an estimated 42,000—60,000 pregnant women died because of HIV.” By contrast, the mother-to-child transmission rate in high-income countries was around zero. Moreover, approximately 15.7 million women worldwide over age 15 were living with HIV and about 1.4 million of them became pregnant in 2009.

Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of UNFPA, emphasized the need to alter gender norms and reduce gender-based violence as part of HIV prevention efforts. Osotimehin clarified during the AIDS Summit, “I would like to stress that access to resources remains a critical challenge for scaling up gender-responsive HIV programming. In fact, I think the biggest game changer that we need is increased commitment, political will and adequate resource investments to address gender inequality as part of the HIV response, translated into adequate resource investment.”

An anti-immigration bill passed in Alabama may make the state the harshest in the country on immigration. The bill, H.B. 56, was passed by large margins in the Alabama Senate and House of Representatives last Thursday. Governor Robert Bentley (R) is expected to sign the bill into law today. Similar to Arizona’s SB 1070, the bill mandates that police investigate and detain anyone believed to be undocumented.

The bill goes beyond Arizona’s anti-immigration law by additionally attacking education rights. The bill requires parents and students in primary and secondary schools to prove their immigration status to the schools with affidavits. Public schools in Alabama are required to publish figures on the numbers of immigrants who are enrolled in school, as well as any additional costs to the school due to the education of undocumented immigrant children. The law also bars undocumented immigrants from enrolling in any public college after high school.

Criminalizing nearly every aspect of their lives, the bill also makes it a crime to rent housing to undocumented immigrants and bars businesses from receiving tax deductions on any wages they receive. The chief sponsor of the bill, Republican Representative Micky Hammon argued, “This is a jobs-creation bill for Americans.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center, along with other civil and immigrant rights groups are planning to challenge the bill if it becomes law. Cecilia Wang, director ACLU immigrant’s rights project, calls the bill “outrageous and blatantly unconstitutional.” “The bill invites discrimination into every aspect of the lives of people in Alabama,” she said. “We will take action if the governor signs it.”

After an order by Detroit Public Schools’ Emergency Manager, the Catherine Ferguson Academy will permanently close June 17. Catherine Ferguson Academy (CFA), established in 1986 and one of only three like it in the country, is a high school for pregnant teens and young mothers. CFA provides early education and day care, the young women maintain a farm on school grounds, receive parenting classes as well as support to graduate and continue with higher education.

In April Detroit’s Emergency Financial Manager, Roy Roberts, called for closure of the school, along with 17 others, during the summer of 2011 unless an acceptable proposal was made to convert it to a charter school. On Friday, April 15, several students were arrested while peacefully occupying the school after hours in protest. This week it was announced by the Emergency Manager that CFA would close this month.

CFA boasts a 90% graduation rate with all graduates continuing on to college. According to Principal Asenath Andrews, there is tremendous support from the community in Detroit and they have made several attempts to demonstrate the school’s value to the community. “They tried everything: talking to the media, sending letters, even sending fruit from the school’s garden, nothing worked. This is just another example of how the United States isn’t a democracy. How the working class doesn’t have a voice.”

This news comes in the same week that the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released findings that the state of Michigan’s economy grew 2.9% last year, and economists declare Michigan’s recession over and in a state of recovery and growth.

On Monday, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-28) and Senator Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Military Access to Reproductive Care Act (MARCH) that would remove the ban preventing servicewomen from obtaining an abortion in cases of rape and incest. Anu Bhagwati, executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), indicated her support for the measure: “This legislation would not only restore abortion coverage to our military women who are survivors of rape and incest, but it would also bring the Department of Defense in line with the policy that governs other federal programs.”

Currently, Department of Defense policy does not permit military health insurance to cover abortions, even in cases of rape. It also prohibits military women from using their private money to obtain abortion services in US military facilities.

Congresswoman Slaughter stated, “As our servicewomen risk their lives defending our country, it is deeply unfair that they are denied the rights of the Constitution that they defend. Imagine being a victim of rape on a United States military base overseas being denied the abortion coverage, and then having to turn to a potentially unsafe local facility. It’s preposterous and incredibly unjust to the women who serve our country so proudly each day.”

According to a 2003 study by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, at least one-third of all women veterans have experienced rape or sexual assault during their service, primarily from US service personnel, and thirty percent of military women experience domestic violence. Moreover, rape occurs in the military nearly twice as often as in the civilian world.

Yesterday, the Ohio Senate Finance Committee voted for a two-year state budget after attaching two anti-abortion amendments to it. One amendment would ban abortion services in public hospitals and the other would prohibit public funds for health care plans that cover abortions. The bill is expected to go to the state Senate for a vote today.

Kelly Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice, condemned the amendments saying, “Instead of letting doctors provide the best medical care for women, the Ohio Senate is imposing their anti-choice political agenda on providers, and forcing hospitals to put politics before patients’ needs. Without knowing every woman’s situation or why she is considering abortion, these politicians are proposing a budget amendment that would take away that option even if her health is at risk or when a much-wanted pregnancy goes terribly wrong.”

The Ohio budget plan would also allow for charter schools for students considered gifted.

AstraZeneca, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies worldwide, will pay $250,000 in a sex discrimination settlement filed by the US Department of Labor. The amount will be divided equally between 124 former and current women employees. Following an investigation, the US Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFFCP) found that the company had violated Executive Order 11246, which states that federal contractors cannot discriminate on the basis of gender in their hiring and employment practices.

Patricia Shiu, director of the OFCCP, stated, “Forty-eight years after President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, women are still fighting for fundamental fairness when it comes to how we are paid. I am glad AstraZeneca finally has agreed to pay its employees what they’ve earned.”

The women experienced pay discrimination while working at AstraZeneca’s location in Wayne, PA and received salaries that were approximately $1,700 than male employees. AstraZeneca will also work with OFCCP to analyze the base pay of 415 full time employees.

Thirty years ago on Sunday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the first-ever report on the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), although the disease was not officially named until the following year. The AIDS epidemic in the US has shifted from primarily affecting gay men in the 1980s to disproportionately affecting minority women in the 1990s and 2000s. According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, racial and ethnic minorities are 58 percent of the cases of AIDS reported to the CDC since 1981; however, they constitute only 12 percent of the population in the US.

Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, stated, “Although the numbers in the decades have been stable, the rates of the disease are unacceptably high. New diagnoses are 19-22 times of white women in the US. That’s a startling statistic.”

Since 1981, over 25 million people have died of AIDS worldwide, and about 33 million are living with the infection. In the United States every year, approximately 56,000 people are infected with HIV and 16,000 die of AIDS. As of 2001, 1.4 million people have started taking protease inhibitors. Less than half of the 15 million people who should be taking the drugs actually have access to them.

Secretary for Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius stated, “This battle is not over. As long as the AIDS virus threatens the health and lives of people here and around the globe, our work will continue to connect people to treatment, educate them about how to protect themselves, battle discrimination, and to keep the country focused on our collective fight against this pandemic.”

San Francisco City Supervisor Malia Cohen is currently working with NARAL Pro-Choice California on legislation that would require that crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) to display signs indicating whether they offer comprehensive reproductive health services, including abortions and contraception, and whether a licensed medical professional is on staff.

Cohen stated, “Legislation is a priority because there are clinics using misleading advertising tactics. Women need and deserve to know the whole truth about their health care options.” Currently two CPCs are operating in San Francisco. If the legislation becomes law, San Francisco would be the first city in California to require that CPCs post such signage in their entrances and waiting rooms.

Cohen indicated that she will model legislation on laws in Austin, TX and New York City, both of which require that reproductive health facilities post signs describing which services are offered and whether a licensed physician is on site.

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.

Last week the Louisiana Senate Health and Welfare Committee approved a bill that would require that clinics providing abortion services post signs indicating that a woman cannot be forced to obtain an abortion and that her partner is legally obligated to pay child support. The signs must also state that services are available to help women during and following their pregnancies and that adoptive parents may be able to offer financial assistance with the pregnancy.

Moreover, if the bill passes, abortion providers would be required to notify women about a state Department of Health and Hospitals abortion alternatives website that includes information about adoption services, so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs),which do not offer women neutral or comprehensive medical advice, fetal development, and fetal pain, which is discredited by medical experts.

The bill has already passed the state House and will go to the state Senate for a vote. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) has announced his support for the bill.

State legislators approved a bill Saturday that requires employers to provide paid sick leave for its employees, making Connecticut the first state in the nation to do so. Governor Dannell Malloy is set to sign the bill that allows employees to earn up to five paid sick days per year. San Francisco and the District of Columbia already require employers to give paid sick days to all workers, and similar measures are pending in Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, and New York City.

More than 40 million workers in the U.S. – 80% of low-wage workers – do not receive any paid sick days. Organizations such as the National Partnership for Women and Families, Working Families Organization, and Everybody Benefits Coalition worked to promote the bill and are calling it a landmark victory for workers’ rights. The bill was denounced by business interests, along with Republicans and about a dozen fiscally conservative Democrats.

The Connecticut bill only applies to businesses with 50 or more employees, exempting certain kinds of employers, and only covers service workers that receive an hourly wage. It requires employees to earn sick days, one hour of sick time for each 40 hours worked.

Last month, Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) reintroduced a bill in Congress called the Healthy Families Act, which would require seven days of paid sick times on a national level. The United States is one of the only industrialized nations in the world without mandated paid sick time for workers.

Yesterday, White House officials announced that current Principal Deputy Counsel to the President Kathryn Ruemmler will replace White House Counsel Bob Bauer, who announced that he will be returning to private practice. Ruemmler is the second woman to serve as White House Counsel. In 2005, Harriet E. Miers became the first woman White House Counsel under George W. Bush.

President Obama remarked in a statement, “Kathy is an outstanding lawyer with impeccable judgment. Together, Bob and Kathy have led the White House Counsel’s office, and Kathy will assure that it continues to successfully manage its wide variety of responsibilities.”

Ruemmler has served as Principle Deputy Counsel to the President since January 2010, and prior to that, she served as the principal associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice in 2009. Before working as a litigation partner at Latham & Watkins 2007 to 2009, Ruemmler served as a prosecutor in the case against former executives of Enron. Moreover, Ruemmler served from 2000 to 2001 as Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton.

Ruemmler earned a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington.

The United Nations and the World Bank released a joint report, “Opportunity in Crisis: Preventing HIV from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood,” which, for the first time, offers data on HIV infections in young people. It also identifies risk factors for the infection and strategies for prevention. According to the report, 2,500 youth are infected with HIV daily, with a higher rate for girls and women, and people between 15 and 24 constituted 41 percent of new infections in 2009.

The report attributes the higher rate of HIV for young women and to their biological vulnerability, as well as social inequality and exclusion. Women account for over 60 percent of all young people who are living with HIV, and in sub-Saharan Africa, women are 72 percent of those infected.

Anthony Lake, executive director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), stated, “For many young people HIV infection is the result of neglect, exclusion, and violations that occur with the knowledge of families, communities, social and political leaders….We must protect the second decade of life, so that the journey from childhood to adulthood is not derailed by HIV-a journey that is especially fraught for girls and young women.”

Yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notified Indiana state officials that an Indiana law prohibiting state agencies from contracting with clinics offering abortions violates federal law. Governor Mitch Daniels (R) signed the law on May 10, and 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. HHS Medical Administrator Don Berwick clarified, “Medicaid programs may not exclude qualified health care providers from providing services that are funded under the program because of a provider’s scope of practice.”

Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, stated, “By issuing a letter to the state of Indiana rejecting its proposal to bar Planned Parenthood from providing preventive health care through Medicaid, HHS is sending a clear message that states cannot play politics with women’s health and prevent Medicaid patients form choosing their preferred health care providers. The new law in Indiana prevents nearly 10,000 women from accessing preventive health care, such as contraception, cancer screenings, and STD testing and treatment, from Planned Parenthood health centers.”

Last week, US Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and twenty-nine other Senate Democrats issued a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requesting that HHS officials advise Medicaid directors not to implement measures to prevent Medicaid or Title X funding from going to clinics that offer abortion service.

Following the HHS decision to block the Indiana law to defund Planned Parenthood, Senator Blumenthal stated, “This step is a powerful, prompt rebuke to Indiana- and a strong warning to other states considering similar ill-advised and illegal action denying essential health care to women… I hope other state legislatures considering similarly misguided attempts to block women, teens, and families from the health care and family planning services they need and deserve will reconsider these dangerous proposals, and I remain committed to standing up for women’s health.”

Yale University may be fined or experience funding cuts for failing to include a complete list of sex crimes that occurred at the university in its annual report to the government. Moreover, according to the US Department of Education, Yale did not issue timely notifications regarding incidents that potentially posed a threat to members of the university community. Yale is the recipient of hundreds of millions of federal dollars.

Yale University is currently under federal investigation for violating Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sexual discrimination, violence, and harassment, based on the claims filed by 16 Yale students claiming that the university is a sexually hostile environment. Lisa Maatz, director of public policy and government relations for the American Association of University Women (AAUW), remarked, “Yale right now is in a world of hurt in terms of campus climate. Clearly they have some issues going back several years.”

Yale University Dean Mary Miller announced in May that the university’s chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity will be suspended after its pledged chanted “no means yes, yes means anal” at an initiation event last fall. DKE will be barred from holding any activities on Yale’s campus for five years. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are both former members of this DKE chapter.

Statement by Eleanor Smeal, Publisher of Ms. and President of the Feminist Majority:

The selection of Jill Abramson, an accomplished feminist, as executive editor of The New York Times, which is not only the most influential newspaper in the United States, but also the premier online news platform, smashes a barrier to women’s achievement in print and digital media.

This is all the more important because it comes at a time when women’s rights are under attack in Congress and state legislatures. Additionally, women are still only one-third of executive editors and one-fifth of presidents, publishers and CEOs of major U.S. newspapers. Globally, women hold only 27 percent of top news management positions. Hopefully the elevation of Jill Abramson to the pinnacle of The New York Times will spur the advancement of women in management throughout the industry.

Republicans in the Tennessee state Legislature have abandoned attempts to defund Planned Parenthood by attaching an amendment to the state budget after they were advised by the Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey (R) and House Speaker Beth Harwell (R) that it is unconstitutional to do so. In Tennessee, the state constitution does not allow changes to be made to general law through appropriation bills.

Senator Beverly Marrero (D-Memphis) stated, “Generations of women in Memphis and West Tennessee have relied on Planned Parenthood for preventative health care they could not receive anywhere else. To attack women’s rights and health care access for political gain is shameful and should not be tolerated by Tennessee voters.”

Had Senator Stacey Campbell’s (R) amendment not been declared unconstitutional, it would have blocked $747,900 in annual Title X funding from going to Planned Parenthood for the Greater Memphis Region and $335,000 from the Planned Parenthood Nashville Health Center. The Republican legislators have pledged to introduce separate bills to defund Planned Parenthood in next year’s session.

Today a law will go into effect in Illinois allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions and attain some of the same benefits enjoyed by married couples, such as the right to visit a partner in the hospital and the right to make decisions about the partner’s medical care. Hundreds of same sex couples went to the courthouse this morning to obtain licenses for civil unions.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) signed the law in January. The bill would not, however, allow same sex couples to obtain marriage licenses.

Currently, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Washington DC allow marriage of same-sex couples. Seven states, California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Delaware, and Hawaii allow same-sex couples to form civil unions or domestic partnerships, which carry some of the legal benefits of marriage.