Author: Feminist Majority Foundation Blog

On Tuesday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) proposed a budget that would dramatically cut teachers’ and other public employees’ retirement and health benefits, while doubling the middle-class property tax rebate. The budget reforms would cost teachers over $12,000 per year.

Barbara Keshishian, president of the New Jersey Education Association, clarified, “In this budget, the governor continues to scapegoat public education employees… He promises to make a legally required $500 million contribution to the pension system, but only if teachers and school employees pay thousands more out of their salaries – on top of their current contributions.”

Governor Christie’s proposal would force public workers to pay for 30 percent of their health insurance costs, an increase from the 8 percent that they currently pay. Christie has also proposed to alter the state’s pension system by increasing the retirement age and offering workers smaller payouts.

Christie’s budget proposal is yet another attack on public workers around the country. The New Jersey AFL-CIO announced that it will stage a rally tomorrow in Trenton in support of public workers in Wisconsin. Yesterday, tens of thousands of protestors marched to the state capitols in Indianapolis, IN and Columbus, OH to oppose proposed Republican bills that challenge public workers’ collective bargaining rights. In Wisconsin, union supporters are camping out in the Capitol rotunda and tens of thousand are gathering daily.

Over 550,000 people signed an open letter to Congress demanding that the Senate stop the amendment to the continuing resolution that would defund Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). Women outraged by the defunding of PPFA and the elimination of Title X funding are flooding Congress with communications. Women’s groups, including the Feminist Majority, the National Organization for Women, the National Women’s Law Center, and the National Partnership for Women and Families have joined PPFA in urging the Senate to strike down the amendment.

Late last week, House Republicans, led by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), voted to prohibit any federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood, even in reimbursement for services rendered. In spite of statements that the Pence amendment would prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions, such spending is already prohibited. Even payments that are akin to insurance reimbursements will be prohibited, including reimbursement to Planned Parenthood for services provided through Medicaid for low-income women’s health care, gynecological exams, HIV testing, contraceptives, and other critical services. Planned Parenthood health centers across the country conduct over one million cervical cancer screenings and 830,000 breast exams yearly. Its clinics also provide contraception to approximately 2.5 million women per year.

The Continuing Resolution would also eliminate all of Title X funding, the only federal family planning program dedicated solely to reproductive health. Title X has provided reproductive health services to millions of women yearly.

Thirty-seven of Indiana’s forty House Democrats fled the state yesterday, blocking the vote on a bill that would prohibit state workers’ right to collective bargaining. The Democrats vowed in their joint statement to remain in Urbana, IL until Republican Governor Mitch Daniels and House Speaker Brian Bosma (R) agree that the labor and education bills that died on the House floor as a result of the members’ absence will not be brought up again.

Yesterday, tens of thousands of protestors marched to the state capitols in Indianapolis, IN and Columbus, OH to oppose proposed Republican bills that challenge public workers’ collective bargaining rights. The Ohio bill would also eliminate bans on hiring alternate workers during a strike and would reduce cut public workers’ benefits.

The protests in Indiana and Ohio followed in the wake of mass demonstrations on the affront on public workers’ rights in Wisconsin. Last week, fourteen Democratic Wisconsin Senators secretly fled from the state, blocking the vote on Republican Governor Scott Walker’s anti-union bill in a strategy to make the Governor negotiate with them. Due to the senators’ absence, the state Senate lacked the 60 percent attendance rate required for the vote to occur. Moreover, On Saturday, 68,000 state and local public workers and supporters rallied in Madison, WI to protest Governor Scott Walker’s (R) anti-union bill that proposes to reduce state workers’ salaries and take away the right of unions to collectively bargain for salary benefits, hours, and working conditions.

On Monday, the Virginia House of Delegates voted 63-34 to amend the Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers (TRAP) bill to impose increased regulations on abortion providers. If passed in the Senate, the bill would require that abortion clinics that perform five or more abortions yearly be licensed by the Board of Health and comply with the regulations for ambulatory surgery centers. Previously, only abortion providers that conducted 25 abortions annually were subject to these regulations.

The bill awaits a vote in the state Senate. Reproductive rights groups, including the Feminist Majority, the National Organization for Women, and the American Civil Liberties Union, oppose the bill which would impose unnecessary and onerous regulations on abortion providers and restrict women’s access to reproductive health services.

On Friday, the Obama administration rescinded the “conscience” rules, first instituted under the Bush administration, that granted protections to medical providers who refused to provide abortions, sterilization, in-vitro fertilization, and other medical procedures, such as care to AIDS patients, due to moral objections.

Under the “conscience” rules, hospitals could refuse to provide emergency contraception to rape victims and pharmacists could refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills. In addition, the Bush administration rules stated that hospitals, clinics, and health plans that refused to honor workers’ “right of conscience” could face a loss of federal funding.

Susan Berke Fogel, director of reproductive health at the National Health Law Center stated, “The 2008 regulation put millions of women at risk, and undermined the ability of providers to establish clear protocols to ensure that patients get the health care they need, by intentionally confusing birth control with abortion, and extending ‘conscience rights’ to an extremely broad group of health care workers – far beyond current law.”

The revised law, which will go into effect in 30 days, will continue to allow doctors and nurses to refuse to provide abortions on religious or moral grounds.

DC Council Member David Catania (I- At Large), chair of the city’s Committee on Health, introduced a bill that would allow women to obtain birth control pills from their pharmacist without first visiting a doctor. If the DC city council votes to pass the bill, the DC Board of Pharmacy and the DC Board of Medicine would work together to develop regulation, which would include age restrictions, regarding the dispensation of birth control pills. The bill would change medical practice, which currently requires that women have a doctor’s prescription in order to obtain the pills.

Catania stated that he hoped to make birth control available to women who could not afford to pay for a doctor’s visit. He told the Washington Post, “At this point, in this city, it’s already a challenge for many women in underserved communities to get the appointments and then find a pharmacy. I think it’s a way to expand access to contraception and to conserve valuable resources.”

The Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington supports Catania’s proposal. Similar programs have been tried but discontinue in Oregon and Washington State.

Sixty-eight thousand state and local public workers and supporters rallied Saturday in Madison, WI to protest Governor Scott Walker’s (R) extreme anti-union bill that proposes to reduce state workers’ salaries and take away the right of unions to collectively bargain for salary benefits, hours, and working conditions. The bill would cut public workers’ wages between six and eight percent.

The number of protestors has been increasing throughout the week, with over 2,000 gathering on Monday, 15,000 on Tuesday, and 20,000 on Wednesday, and 25,000 on Thursday. A significant number of protestors are now sleeping in the Capitol Rotunda and are vowing to stay until the issue is resolved.

Yesterday also marked the fourth day that schools remained closed in Madison. Some two dozen other school districts also closed operation last week. In addition, thousands of students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison staged a walk out, marching from campus to the Capitol, to protest the bill.

Legislation that would limit public workers unions has also been introduced by Republican leadership in Maine, Alabama, Ohio, Arizona, and Missouri.

Fourteen Democratic Wisconsin Senators secretly fled from the state, blocking the vote on Republican Governor Scott Walker’s extreme anti-union bill in a strategy to make the Governor negotiate with them. Due to the senators’ absence, the state Senate lacked the 60 percent attendance rate required for the vote to occur.

Walker’s bill proposes to reduce state workers’ salaries and take away the right of unions to collectively bargain for benefits, hours, and working conditions. The bill would cut public workers’ wages between six and eight percent.

The number of protestors has been increasing throughout the week, with over 2,000 state and local public workers and supporters rallying in Madison, WI on Monday, 15,000 on Tuesday, and 20,000 on Wednesday, and 25,000 on Thursday. A significant number of protestors are now sleeping in the Capitol Rotunda and are vowing to stay until the issue is resolved.

Madison and Milwaukee School Districts, the two largest in the state, closed today with over 600 teachers from the Milwaukee districted calling in sick in support of the protest. This is the third day in a row that the Madison School District has been closed. Plus, some two down other school districts closed operation during the week. In addition, thousands of students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison staged a walk out, marching from campus to the Capitol, to protest the bill.

Legislation that would limit public workers unions has also been introduced by Republican leadership in Maine, Alabama, Ohio, Arizona, and Missouri.

Late into Thursday night and early this morning, the Pence Amendment to the House Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government was debated. Emotions ran high. One Republican House member after another maligned Planned Parenthood and kept saying the amendment was to stop federal funding of abortions despite the fact that no federal funding of abortion has been permitted since the passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976.

House Democrats defended Planned Parenthood and reminded everyone that millions of women depend on Planned Parenthood for basic health care, including family planning, cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and many other health care services.

The Republican-controlled House is expected to not only pass the Pence Amendment but to pass a Continuing Resolution that will totally eliminate Title X funding of $317 million and will cut $125 million out of the teenage pregnancy prevention grants ($110 million cut). Since 1970, Title X, the national family planning program, has provided reproductive health services to millions of low income women yearly.

In a vote of 7 to 4, the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceeding Committee passed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act (SB 116). The bill will go to the state Senate for a vote next week. If passed, the legislation would confer marriage rights to same-sex couples in Maryland.

Morgan Meneses-Sheets, executive director of Equality Maryland, stated, “This is a historic moment for marriage in Maryland, and truly shows that with continued work, civil marriage can be a reality for all loving and committed couples in Maryland very soon.”

Last year, an opinion from Maryland’s Attorney General Douglas Gansler recognized same-sex marriages performed in other states as valid in Maryland.

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

The South Dakota anti-abortion bill (HR 1171) that would have altered the definition of “justifiable homicide” to include killings aimed to prevent harm to an unborn child failed yesterday in the state’s House by an overwhelming vote of 61-4. Earlier this week the bill passed out of the state’s House Judiciary Committee by a vote of nine to three. Vicki Saporta, the president of the National Abortion Federation, told Mother Jones, “The bill in South Dakota is an invitation to murder abortion providers.”

Following the bill’s passage in committee, the language was amended to read, “the use of force by a pregnant woman for the protection of her unborn child is an affirmative defense to prosecutions for certain crimes.”

In the trial for the murder of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, Judge Wilbert denied Scott Roeder the right to use a “justifiable homicide” defense. The Feminist Majority Foundation conducts the National Clinic Access Project (NCAP) which is the oldest and largest national clinic defense project in the nation. NCAP’s team of experts has been working diligently to stop anti-abortion extremists’ attacks against abortion providers who work to save women’s lives and health.

Watch Rachel Maddow Monday on MSNBC to see a report from Wichita on the aggressive harassment of Dr. Mila Means, who wants to give women the choice of safe, legal abortion services in Wichita once again. Maddow is repeatedly asking, “What kind of nation do you want to live in?”

Feminist Majority Foundation Legal Coordinator duVergne Gaines will be interviewed. Please check out the new Feminist Majority Foundation blog for a story on Wichita.

The House just voted 240 to 185 to pass the Pence Amendment.

Please see the FMF Press Release for more information.

Over thirty thousand state and local public workers and supporters rallied yesterday in Madison, WI to protest Governor Scott Walker’s (R) extreme anti-union bill that proposes to reduce state workers’ salaries and take away the right of unions to collectively bargain for salary benefits, hours, and working conditions (MSNBC). The bill would cut public workers’ wages between six and eight percent. The Republican-dominated state legislature’s budget committee passed the bill late last night.

Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, responded, “It’s clear that right-wing Republicans are using the excuse of the budget to strip away the rights of public workers unions. Without unions, middle class and women workers, such as teachers, social workers, and nurses, are in grave jeopardy.”

The number of protestors has been increasing throughout the week, with 2,000 gathering on Monday and 15,000 on Tuesday. More are expected today. Forty percent of teachers called in sick yesterday in support of the protest.The second largest school district in Wisconsin closed yesterday for the second day in a row, as well as some two dozen other school districts.

Legislation that would limit public workers unions has also been introduced by Republican leadership in Maine, Alabama, Ohio, Arizona, and Missouri.

Following a lawsuit filed by Foliage Development Inc., Dr. Mila Means has agreed not to perform abortions in the office space that she leases from the company and stated that she will seek another space for her medical practice. Foliage Development claimed that by offering abortions, Dr. Means would create safety issues and a public nuisance due to the daily protests by anti-abortion groups.

Protestors have been gathering outside Dr. Means’ practice since December, when the Associated Press released a story that Dr. Means had been training to perform abortions at a Kansas City clinic. Last night, anti-abortion protestors demonstrated at Dr. Means’ home. Operation Rescue Wichita, the anti-abortion group that had plagued Dr. Tiller for seven years, had published her address on its website.

Abortion services have not been available to women in Wichita since Dr. George Tiller’s murder in May 2009.The Feminist Majority Foundation, which conducts oldest and largest national clinic defense project in the nation, had worked with Dr. Tiller and is helping besieged clinics in some 14 states. Harassment of abortion providers has increased since the election of a pro-choice President and Dr. Tiller’s assassination.

Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) will broadcast from Wichita on Monday. She is repeatedly asking, “What kind of nation do you want to live in?” Do we want to live in a nation that tolerates domestic terrorism and by force and prevents doctors from providing a constitutionally protected service that is vitally needed by women?

A survey released yesterday by the National Domestic Violence Hotline and the Family Violence Prevention Fund revealed that one in four women who agreed to answer questions after calling the hotline had experienced “reproductive coercion.” The Family Violence Prevention Fund defines “reproductive coercion” as “threats or acts of violence against a reproductive health or reproductive decision making.”

The women in the survey indicated that their partner had pressured them not to take birth control, sabotaged their method of contraception, or forced them to engage in unprotected sex. The study was based the responses of 3,169 women between the ages of 13 and 55 who called the hotline between August and September 2010.

Esta Soler, president of the Family Violence Prevention Fund, clarified, “Birth control sabotage is a serious form of control that leads to unintended pregnancy and sexual transmitted infections. While there is a cultural assumption that some women use pregnancy as a way to trap their partner in a relationship, this survey shows that men who are abusive will sabotage their partner’s birth control and pressure them to become pregnant as a way to trap or control their partner.”

On Monday, a subcommittee of the Iowa House Human Resources Committee passed an extreme anti-abortion bill (HF 153), introduced by Representative Kim Pearson (R-Pleasant Hill), that would ban abortions in Iowa even in cases of rape and incest. If passed, the bill, which defines life as beginning at conception would reverse Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, in the state of Iowa.

Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell (D-Ames) criticized the bill stating, “I believe contraception would be illegal under this bill. There are consequences when we pass legislation.”

The bill will now go to the Iowa House Human Resources Committee for a vote. The Committee is also currently considering a bill that would restrict late abortions; however the bill has not received enough votes to move to the House for a vote.

A press conference was held this morning to announce a lawsuit filed by attorney Susan Burke in the Eastern Virginia federal court against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for failing to prevent, investigate, and prosecute the sexual assault and rape of the 17 plaintiffs. The plaintiffs in the case are veteran and active-duty service members from the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, and Reserves who were sexually assaulted, raped, or harassed by active duty military members.

Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, Anuradha Bhagwati, Executive Director of Service Women’s Action Network and a former Captain in the Marines, and Keith Rohman, President of Public Interest Investigators, spoke in support of the survivors and were joined by three of the plaintiffs in the case.

Smeal explained that 95 percent of rapes and assaults are committed by serial rapists and repeat offenders and that the military system of inadequately dealing with these crimes leads only to more crime. It must be changed so that perpetrators are punished, not promoted. Smeal asserted, “There are no winners here. This lawsuit is necessary because all else has failed and it is necessary to change this pattern. We will prevail because there is no question that this injures the victims, their families, the military, and all of us. It will take time but we will and must prevail.”

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, and thirty percent of military women experience domestic violence. Moreover, rape occurs in the military nearly twice as often as in the civilian world. Members of the US House of Representatives, including Susan Davis (D-CA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), and Jane Harman (D-CA) have pressed the military to address sexualized violence, working on task forces and proposing legislation.

Bhagwati stated, “It is time to finally acknowledge that the military judicial system is broken when it comes to case of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, and that an alternative system must be created to guarantee accountability and justice for these crimes. American youth should not sacrifice their right to bodily integrity when they step forward to serve our nation. They bravely and honorably volunteer to wear the uniform with the understanding that they may make the ultimate sacrifice. That is enough to ask of them.”

In South Dakota, an extreme anti-abortion bill (HR 1171) that would alter the definition of “justifiable homicide” to include killings aimed to prevent harm to an unborn child passed out of the state’s House Judiciary Committee by a vote of nine to three. Vicki Saporta, the president of the National Abortion Federation, told Mother Jones, “The bill in South Dakota is an invitation to murder abortion providers.”

Following the bill’s passage in committee, the language was amended and now reads, “the use of force by a pregnant woman for the protection of her unborn child is an affirmative defense to prosecutions for certain crimes.” Kristin Aschenbrenner, a lobbyist for the South Dakota Advocacy Network for Women, clarified, “They always intended this to be a fetal personhood bill, they just tried to cloak it as a self-defense bill. They’re still trying to cloak it, but they amended it right away making their intent clear.”

In the trial for the murder of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, Judge Wilbert denied Scott Roeder the right to use a “justifiable homicide” defense. The Feminist Majority Foundation conducts the National Clinic Access Project (NCAP) which is the oldest and largest national clinic defense project in the nation. NCAP’s team of experts has been working diligently to stop anti-abortion attacks against abortion providers who works to save women’s lives and health.