Migration Category: news-10001-15000-national

The Arkansas state House voted yesterday in favor of overriding Governor Beebe’s veto of a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks.

In a vote 53-28, state Representatives approved the decision to override the veto, sending it to the state Senate. In Arkansas, a governor veto can be overridden by the state legislature with a simple majority vote in both houses. If the Senate also votes to override the veto, the bill will automatically become law, and Arkansas will join seven other states with a 20 week term limit on abortion.

“It’s disheartening that our lawmakers are knowingly passing an unconstitutional abortion ban for the sake of politics,” Jill June, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, told reporters.

The Arkansas state Senate is expected to vote on the override on Thursday.

Today, the justices of the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act for the fifth time since the law’s passage in 1965. This section of the Voting Rights Act mandates that areas of the nation with a history of barring people of color from voting must get approval from the Department of Justice or a federal court before they alter voting rules. A plaintiff from Shelby County, Alabama, is challenging section 5, saying that the discriminatory environment that once justified its enactment is much improved. Civil rights groups disagree, saying that the situation is improved because of the Act. In past challenges to the law, the Court has cited the fifteenth amendment – no governmental body can stand in the way of an individual’s right to vote – in their decision to uphold all components.

Frank “Butch” Ellis, attorney to the Shelby County plaintiff, told NPR that “The South has changed[.] There’s probably bits of [discrimination] everywhere, but there’s no evidence that it’s more prevalent in these covered jurisdictions than it is in the non-covered jurisdictions. That’s our complaint.” Ellis argues that the federal government oversteps its bounds in dictating what certain states can and cannot do with its voting rules.

A voting rights expert who has filed briefs on various voter suppression cases, Pam Karlan, said that “Shelby County still advertises itself as the heart of the Heart of Dixie, and that tells you that some things have not changed, or at least haven’t changed enough to take the bandage off the wound.”

A county or city with ten consecutive years without questionable proposed changes to its voting structure is exempt from federal monitoring.Politico notes that Shelby County has not toed the line; the city of Calera (within Shelby County) proposed a reshaping of its district in 2008 which would reduce the number of African American voters from 70.9% to 29.5%. The Department of Justice rejected the proposition, citing the rights of all people to select their representatives.

The case goes before the court after an election year that included multiple legislative attacks aimed at suppressing minority voters. Last year, 17 states passed voter suppression laws that increased wait times at the polls, decreased early voting days, and mandated state-issued IDs requirements for voting. New laws affecting the election process have already been suggested this year in preparation for mid-term elections.

On Tuesday Governor Mike Beebe (D) vetoed a bill that would have banned abortions in Arkansas after 20 weeks. The bill passed in the state Senate on a vote of 25 to 7 and passed the state House on a vote of 80 to 10 before reaching Governor Beebe’s desk.

“Because it would impose a ban on a woman’s right to choose an elective, nontherapeutic abortion before viability, House Bill 1037, if it became law, would squarely contradict Supreme Court precedent,” Beebe wrote in the veto letter. “When I was sworn in as governor I took an oath to preserve, protect and defend both the Arkansas Constitution and the Constitution of the United States. I take that oath seriously.” Originally, Governor Beebe had agreed to sign the ban into law if it was passed by the state Congress.

The Arkansas state legislation has the power to override the Governor’s veto with a simple majority in both chambers. Both the Arkansas state House and Senate have majority support for the ban. The bill’s sponsor, Representative Andy Mayberry (R), has said he is confident that there will be enough votes from supporters of the 20-week ban to override the veto.

A vote in the Oklahoma state Senate on a bill that would allow employers to deny contraception and abortion coverage for women in insurance plans passed the Senate Business and Commerce Committee. Senate Bill 452, introduced by Senator Clark Jolley (R) and Senator Pam Peterson (R), passed on a vote of nine to zero last Thursday.

The language of the bill states, “Notwithstanding any other provision of state or federal law, no employer shall be required to provide or pay for any benefit or service related to abortion or contraception through the provision of health insurance to his or her employees.”

Jolley has said that the bill is the result of lobbying by Dr. Dominic Pedulla, a constituent who calls himself a natural family planning medical consultant and women’s health researcher. His concern over contraceptive coverage stems from his belief that women are worse off with contraception because it suppresses and disables who they are, Pedulla told the Tulsa World. “Part of their identity is the potential to be a mother. They are being asked to suppress and radically contradict part of their own identity, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they are being asked to poison their bodies.”

Despite Pedulla’s concern that contraception is poisonous, oral birth control was first FDA approved in 1960 and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advocate that birth control be available without a prescription.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) could be brought up in the House of Representatives as early as next week.

According to news reports, House Republican leadership are poised to bring VAWA to the floor for discussion. As of now it is unclear if they will bring the inclusive version passed by the Senate last week to the floor or if they will propose their own version of the bill. S. 47, passed by the Senate on a vote of 78 to 22, includes provisions expanding protections for LGBTQ individuals, Native American women, students, and immigrant women. Last year, the House refused to vote on the Senate version of VAWA and proposed the “Cantor/Adams” VAWA that did not included the expanded protections. Since neither bill was approved by both chambers of Congress, VAWA was not reauthorized in 2012, the first time the bill failed to be reauthorized since it was passed in 1994.

It is imperative that the House approves the inclusive Senate bill so that all victims of violence are protected. Various organizations have called on constituents to reach out to Representatives who have not signed on to the Senate version. The National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women issued a call to action on Thursday, saying “We must remind [the House leadership] that S. 47 has victim-centered support in the House from both parties and will pass if it comes to the House floor for a vote. Any effort to weaken or delay VAWA does not reflect the will of our country, of our Congress or the desperate need of victims in our homes and communities all across the nation. Survivors of violence cannot wait any longer!”

UPDATE: House leadership announces alternative to Senate bill.

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley’s bill to abolish the death penalty has passed in the state Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on a 6 to 5 vote. The bill will now move to the Senate floor, where it is expected to pass. Twenty-six of the Maryland Senate’s forty-seven members have pledged to support the bill.

Senator Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery), who acted as the chairman of the panel, said, “Human beings make mistakes. No matter how hard we try . . . to find a way to beat all the error out of our system, I don’t believe that’s possible.”

Thirty-two U.S. jurisdictions have refrained from using capital punishment in the last five years according to a 2011 study by the Death Penalty Information Center. In fact, most executions occur in southern states. Texas, for example, is credited with over one third of all executions nationally. If the state were to pass the bill, Maryland would join seventeen other states which have outlawed capital punishment. Currently, five prisoners are on death row in Maryland.

The South Dakota state House passed a bill that could extend the time women seeking an abortion must wait before having the procedure Wednesday evening.

House Bill 1237 would exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from being included in the already-mandated 72 hour waiting period. This could greatly extend the time a woman would have to wait for her procedure and push her further into her pregnancy. The bill passed the House on a vote of 56 to 13, and now goes before the state Senate.

In 2011, the South Dakota legislature passed a bill that was signed into law requiring women to seek counseling at crisis pregnancy centers no less than three days before having an abortion procedure. Despite legal challenges and an injunction, the waiting period provision was not overturned. South Dakota currently has the longest waiting period in the country. The requirement that women seeking counseling from a crisis pregnancy center before having an abortion is still being contested in court.

Universal Orlando, a Florida based theme park based on Universal Studios films, will not offer health benefits to part time employees beginning next year, citing provisions in Obamacare.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Universal Orlando currently offers part-time employees limited insurance benefits that feature a cap on payouts. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), insurance plans can no longer place a monetary limit on necessary health benefits. As a result, Universal Studios will be terminating coverage for employees effective January 1, 2014, instead of extending benefits.

Universal Studios is not the only company that has announced they will not provide health insurance coverage to part-time employees, despite pulling in over $1 billion in revenue last year. Wal-Mart stopped providing coverage for part-time employees two years ago. According to ThinkProgress, food service companies Applebees, Olive Garden, Wendy’s and Denny’s have all announced they will not be able to provide part-time insurance coverage because of Obamacare. The governor of Virginia is also considering cutting the amount of available hours to wage employees to avoid paying for health care under the ACA.

Earlier this month six Georgia lawmakers, Representatives Dustin Hightower (R), Mike Dudgeon (R), Buzz Brockway (R), Josh Clark (R), Kevin Cooke (R) and Delvis Dutton (R) introduced legislation that would repeal the Seventeenth Amendment. The Seventeenth Amendment ensures that senators will be selected by voters rather than chosen for them by state legislatures.

House Resolution 273 states that “WHEREAS, the United States Senate was designed to protect the rights and interests of the individual states, and the repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment would help to prevent the many unfunded mandates and unconstitutional laws passed onto those states by the federal government.”

Representatives from other states have also expressed support in repealing the Seventeenth Amendment. Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) wrote, “The American people mistakenly empowered the federal government during a fit of populist rage in the early twentieth century by giving it an unlimited source of income (the Sixteenth Amendment) and by changing the way senators are elected (the Seventeenth Amendment).”

Mississippi finally officially ratified the 13th Amendment to the United State Constitution, which banned slavery in 1865.

The state legislature unanimously voted on a resolution to ratify the amendment in 1995 and was the last state to do so. However, the resolution was never filed with the US Archivist in the Office of the Federal Register and therefore was never officially recorded.

The error came to light after University of Mississippi professor Dr. Ranjan Batra researched the 13th Amendment after seeing the film Lincoln. When he realized that Mississippi never officially ratified the amendment, he reached out to fellow Mississippi resident, Ken Sullivan, who was able to connect him to the Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann. Hosemann filed the necessary paperwork, and the ratification of the 13th Amendment by Mississippi became official on February 7.

While Mississippi was the last state to formally ratify the 13th Amendment, Mississippi was also the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1984, which granted women the right to vote.

Tens of thousands of people marched on Washington over the weekend in the largest demonstration on climate change in the history of the United States.

More than 50,000 people marched through the streets and demonstrated on the National Mall as part of the “Forward on Climate Change” rally organized by the Sierra Club and 350.org. While protesters chanted and held signs denouncing fracking and calling for other environmental reforms, the majority of the protest focused on the transcontinental Keystone XL Pipeline, which seeks to create a 1,700 mile long pipeline taking tar-sand from Alberta, Canada, and pumping it to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Keystone XL is a dirty and dangerous pipeline. It’s literally going to cut our country in half, carrying a very dangerous fuel, and it will cause runaway climate change,” Maura Cowley of the Energy Action Coalition said to demonstrators. “Young people across the country are the same generation that elected Barack Obama twice now, and we really want to see him reject the Keystone XL pipeline.”

Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club shared similar sentiments. “President Obama holds in his hand a pen and the power to deliver on his promise of hope for our children. Today, we are asking him to use that pen to [sic] reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and ensure that this dirty, dangerous, export pipeline will never be built,” he said. Brune was arrested last week in a protest in front of the White House against the Keystone XL Pipeline.

The Illinois state Senate voted 32 to 21 in favor of a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage on Thursday. The law would redefine marriage as the legal union of two people, not specifically a man and a woman. It would also convert civil unions to marriages within a year’s time. Religious institutions and individuals that oppose homosexuality would not be required to perform marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples.

Two years ago, Illinois passed historic civil union legislation. Now with the possibility of same-sex marriage being legalized, some conservative senators feel homosexuality is moving front and center in a threatening way. Senator Kyle McCarter (R-Lebanon) told reporters, “People have a right to live as they choose; they don’t have the right to redefine marriage for all of us.” Same-sex marriage has plenty of supporters, however, one being Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), who says that “when two people love each other, no government entity should stand in the way of letting them express that love.”

Governor Pat Quinn (D says he will sign the bill into the law if it passes in the state House, however it is unclear if the legislation will be brought to the House floor. This is the farthest a same-sex marriage bill has gotten in the Illinois General Assembly. If the bill is signed into law, it would make Illinois the 10th state to legalize same sex marriage.

Senate Bill 2795, also known as the “Women’s Health Defense Act,” [PDF] passed in the Mississippi Senate yesterday on a 39 to 12 vote. The Mississippi State Medical Association, concerned that the regulations would potentially criminalize abortion providers, released a memo which stated, “Mississippi physicians have strong and serious concerns about SB 2795.” The language of the bill was modified to address these concerns and has since lost support from some abortion opponents that consider the bill that passed to be “watered down.”

Senate Bill 2795 could force abortion providers to follow outdated FDA guidelines for the prescription of mifepristone and misoprostol, abortion-inducing medications, and requires a physician to administer all doses. This would require women to go to four doctor appointments to complete a medical abortion, which would only be available within the first seven weeks after a woman’s last normal menstrual period. The Senate bill also requires that doctors report every prescription of mifepristone to the Mississippi Department of Health.

This bill is the just the latest attempt to eliminate abortion in the state of Mississippi. Though a “Personhood” Amendment was overwhelmingly defeated in 2011, in April 2012 Mississippi’s governor, Phil Bryant, signed House Bill 1390 into law. Under House Bill 1390, doctors who perform abortions must have admitting privileges at a local hospital and they must be board certified OB-GYNs. Currently both primary physicians at the state’s only abortion clinic are board certified, but have been denied privileges by every local hospital. As a result, the clinic is currently facing the threat of closure.

The Northeast School Cooperation will not discipline a teacher who told media sources that LGBT students have no purpose in life.

Earlier this week Sullivan High School came under scrutiny as students, parents, and faculty rallied to create a “traditional” prom that would exclude gay students. The group met last Sunday at Sullivan First Christian Church to plan and discuss the event. Sullivan High School special education teacher, Diana Medley, was interviewed by local media about her strong support for a separate event. When asked if she believed gay students had a purpose in life, Medley told NBC 2, “No I honestly don’t. Sorry, but I don’t. I don’t understand it. A gay person isn’t going to come up and make some change unless it’s to realize that it was a choice and they’re choosing God.”

On Tuesday, the Superintendent for the Northeast School Cooperation, Mark Baker, released a statement [PDF] that defended Medley’s remarks. He wrote, “In regards to the story that WTWO aired on February 10, 2013, the Northeast School Corporation employee that was interviewed was expressing her First Amendment rights. The views expressed are not the views of the Northeast School Corporation and/or the Board of Education.” The statement made no indication of any disciplinary or remedial action against Medley on how her views could impact students or any position on a separate prom excluding gay students.

In an announcement made last week, Brown University announced it will join 35 other US colleges that cover gender-reassignment surgery in their student health plan starting in August. The new health insurance plans covers “14 different sexual reassignment surgery procedures” reports the Brown Daily Herald. Jeanne Hebert, Director of Insurance and Purchasing Services, told the school paper that “We identified this as an important benefit for students to have access to,” and expressed that their policy change was consistent with “Brown’s efforts to support all students.”

Brown’s decision is an indicator of how transgender students are gaining more visibility on campus. According to the New York Times, six years ago no university or college in the United States offered gender reassignment surgery or hormonal therapy through their health insurance plans.

The Transgender Law and Policy Institute has compiled a list of US colleges and universities that cover the medical expenses of transition for transgender students under their student health insurance policies. This list includes some of the top ranked schools in America such as Harvard, Stanford, and the University of California system. This listing includes the 36 colleges that cover both hormones and gender-reassignment surgery, an additional 25 colleges that only cover hormones, and a single university that covers just gender-reassignment surgery.

In his first State of the Union message since his reelection, President Obama urged quick passage of legislation the women’s movement has supported for many years. This legislation includes: passage by the House of the Senate’s Violence against Women Reauthorization, for Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act (which was filibustered in the Senate by Republicans in the last session), to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 and to index to the cost of living, to pass Universal Pre-School for three and four year olds, to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and to pass gun control (at least the victims deserve a vote in Congress). The president also stressed we will “join with our allies” in the effort to eradicate extreme poverty in many parts of the world “by connecting more people to the global economy, by empowering women.”

The President urged colleges/universities to keep the costs of tuition down for students, indicating that the federal government must change higher education policies to encourage affordability. In addition, the President announced that his Administration will release a “college scorecard” for students and parents to use when selecting a college/university.

The President indicated he would be for “modest reforms” of Medicare that would “achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission…. We will reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors.” He said we cannot “simply” shift “the cost of health care or college onto families that are already struggling or by forcing communities to lay off more teachers, cops, and firefighters.” Thus far, cuts to Medicare under the Affordable Care Act include cuts in the subsidies to insurance companies and in the administration of the program, but not cuts to seniors’ benefits.

In addition, the President urged a bi-partisan, market-based solution to urge climate change while also addressing the economy. He also announced that he will be preparing executive actions that can be used to address pollution and the use of more sustainable energy.

He again urged a balanced approach in reducing the deficit with cuts as well as increases in revenue from “the wealthiest and the most powerful.” The President laid out an ambitious plan to increase jobs, to encourage free enterprise and to make the nation more competitive by increasing investments in education and research while rebuilding and modernizing the nation’s infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Senator Marco Rubio (FL) in a Republican response concentrated on a limited role for the federal government. Rubio painted an either/or situation of pitting government and cutting taxes against a larger role for small business. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) in the Tea Party’s response to the State of the Union emphasized the need for even more cuts in federal spending. Both Senator Rubio and Paul were part of the group of 22 Senators, all of whom are Republicans, who did not vote for the Senate Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act yesterday. Voters chose the President’s balanced approach of increased revenues together with cuts in spending in the November election.

An amendment which would have severely restricted protections for Native American women under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was defeated yesterday evening.

The amendment, proposed by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), would have removed a new provision of VAWA that would allow Native American tribal courts to try non-Native Americans for cases of violence against women that occur on tribal lands against members of the reservation. The amendment was defeated in a 59 to 31 vote.

Senator Coburn proposed the amendment and argued that the new provisions would eliminate the constitutional rights of non-Native Americans if they go before a tribal court. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) explained that Native American women experience abuse at a rate of two and a half times the national average, and argued that the new provisions extend constitutional rights to tribal courts. “This is about the life and death of women who need a better system to help prosecute those who are committing serious crimes against them,” she said.

In late January, Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) reintroduced a bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The bipartisan-supported Senate VAWA includes expanded protections for Native American women, LGBTQ individuals, students, and immigrant women. Last week, an amendment that would have removed the expanded protections was defeated in a 65 to 34 vote.

On Friday, a federal judge overturned an Arizona law that prohibited funds from the state’s Medicaid program from going to Planned Parenthood because they are affiliated with abortion providers.

U.S. District Judge Neil Wake wrote in his ruling, “The Arizona Act violates the freedom of choice provision of the Medicaid Act precisely because every Medicaid beneficiary has the right to select any qualified health care provider.” He determined that the law blocking funding of Planned Parenthood by saying that any provider that performs abortions cannot be considered a “qualified provider” was an attempt by legislators to defund Planned Parenthood regardless of what funds were used.

Wake issued an injunction against the law in October 2012 while the case was pending. In July 2012, Planned Parenthood sued the state of Arizona in an effort to overturn the law that blocked it from receiving government funds. The law was signed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer in May 2012 and was designed to prevent the allocation of public funds to clinics that also provide abortion in the state. The law would have effectively cut funding for all health services provided by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, impacting the nearly 4,000 women receiving Medicaid-funded health care in the state. Arizona does not currently provide tax dollars for abortion and these funds were all allocated for other health services.

The Senate, by a wide margin of 78-22, passed a strong inclusive Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act today. All 55 Democratic Senators and 23 Republican Senators voted to pass a bill that will strengthen protections for students, immigrants, Native American women, the LGBT community, and also aid victims of sex trafficking.

Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, remarked, “Although the Tea Party, Heritage Action, and FreedomWorks tried to politicize VAWA, the Senate led the way for common sense to prevail. VAWA works. Its prevention provisions work to reduce incidents of domestic violence, date violence, sexual assault and stalking crimes and its protective provisions help the victims of these crimes. Now the House must act immediately and pass the inclusive Senate reauthorization with a bipartisan vote. It currently has 194 cosponsors in the House. The political games that have caused well over a year’s delay in passing this VAWA Reauthorization must stop. VAWA has been and must remain a bipartisan effort. Violence against women cannot, must not be politicized, trivialized, or tolerated.”

Although Heritage Action, the 501(c)(4) affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, and Freedom Works announced they were scoring the VAWA vote, giving any Senator who voted for VAWA negative marks, three-fourths of the Senate defied the threat and voted yes. Though some opponents argue VAWA is vague, the act is very specific. VAWA deals with felony and misdemeanor crimes of violence including domestic violence, sexual assault, date violence, stalking, and sex trafficking. It even has clauses to protect against family violence such as child and elder abuse.

Students, parents, and faculty at Sullivan High School in Sullivan, Indiana, are rallying to create a “traditional” prom that would exclude gay students. The group met last Sunday at Sullivan First Christian Church to plan and created a Facebook invite-only group to discuss the event. The group has since been taken down, though screenshots of members’ comments have been circulating on the internet.

Sullivan High School special education teacher, Diana Medley, has been outspoken in support of the separate prom, though the event would have no affiliation with the school itself. When asked if she believed gay students had a purpose in life, Medley told NBC 2, “No I honestly don’t. Sorry, but I don’t. I don’t understand it. A gay person isn’t going to come up and make some change unless it’s to realize that it was a choice and they’re choosing God.”

Students have been speaking out on both sides. “If we can get a good prom then we can convince more people to come and follow what they believe,” one student, Kynon Johnson, told NBC in support of a separate prom. Another student wrote in the deleted Facebook group, “Sullivan High School is ACCEPTING the same-sex couples and the staff at SHS is for the same-sex couples going and so are the majority of student and people in the community.”