Author: Feminist Majority Foundation Blog

The Military Leadership Diversity Commission announced plans to recommend that the Pentagon change its policies to allow women in combat. The Commission, established by Congress in 2009, is comprised of senior retired and active military officers. Members of the Commission stated that the report will be given to Congress and the White House by March.

In its list of recommendations, the Commission urged the Department of Defense (DOD) to seek the help of Congress to increase the representation of women in high-level military leadership positions. The recommendations stated, “Congress should pass legislation raising the standing requirement for Equal Protection Clause claims alleging discrimination based on the use of suspect classifications to a showing that the plaintiff might have been selected or retained but for consideration of suspect-class membership or gender.”

The Commission reports that despite official military policy, women’s participation in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has increasingly included direct combat. It also notes that succeeding in combat is the most direct way to achieve a promotion in the military. The military’s failure to allow women to serve in these positions therefore limits women’s chance of promotion.

The United States currently restricts women from direct combat roles in infantry positions or in the Special Forces. A 1994 Department of Defense directive banned women from units that primarily engage in direct combat.

Medical regulators for the state of Iowa announced yesterday that they will not punish a Planned Parenthood doctor for prescribing mifepristone, also known as RU-486 or the abortion pill, remotely through telemedicine. Last year, Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group, filled a formal complaint with the Iowa State Board of Medicine arguing that the video method did not meet the state law requiring medical doctors be present for the administration of the pill.

Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa introduced a program that enables mifepristone, a drug intended to terminate a pregnancy in its early stages, to be administered to patients while videoconferencing with their doctors. This practice, known as telemedicine, is designed to provide women living in remote and rural areas of Iowa with abortion services.

In order for a woman to receive mifepristone via videoconference, she must first go to her local Planned Parenthood and undergo the required physical exam, blood test, medical history report, ultrasound, and counseling session, all administered in-person by a nurse. Women must also watch an eight-minute video describing the procedure and all possible side effects. If the woman decides to continue with the process, the doctor then clicks a button on his computer that releases a drawer containing the medicine in front of the patient. Still in the company of the clinic nurse, the patient then takes the mifepristone with her doctor watching and receives the follow-up drug, misoprostol, to take later.

Late last week, Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) introduced the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act in the House. If passed, the bill would amend Title X of the Public Health Services Act and ban any organization that performs abortions, except in cases or rape, incest, or if the woman’s life is endangered, from receiving family planning grants.

Under the current Public Services Act, Title X money is allocated to grantees to fund family planning services and preventive health services and may not be used on abortion services.

Betty Cockrum, President of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, pointed out that the cuts in family planning grants would have harmful consequences for public health. She clarified, “The more we do to educate people and provide birth control, the fewer…unintended pregnancies there are and the fewer abortions there are.”

A recent study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute indicates that the decline in abortion rate from 1990 to 2005 has leveled off. Guttmacher surveyed approximately 1,800 abortion providers and found that medical abortions, performed by giving the woman a combination of two medications by pill form, have increased. The study also showed abortions are occurring earlier in pregnancy and primarily because medical abortions via pills can be provided earlier in a pregnancy, according to the study. Today some 59 percent of abortion providers offer medical abortion services.

The study found that the abortion rate in 2008 was 19.6 per 1,000 for women between the ages of 15 and 44 and had not changed since 2005. Rates of abortion varied by region of the country and by state with the West and the Northeast having the highest rates.

Sharon Camp, the President and CEO of the Guttmacher Instituted stated, “In this time of heightened politicization around abortion, our stalled progress should be an urgent message to policymakers that we need to do more to increase access to contraceptive services to prevent unintended pregnancy, while ensuring access to abortion services for the many women who still need them.”

Yesterday, the Arizona State Legislature passed legislation to ban protestors from coming within 300 feet of the funeral services of the victims of the Tucson shootings. Governor Jan Brewer signed the bill that day.

The bill was proposed in response to the Westboro Baptist Church’s announcement of its plans to picket the funeral of nine-year-old Christina Green because Christina and her family were Roman Catholic. The group posted fliers on its website stating, “God hates Catholics” and “God Sent the Shooter.”

Although the church has since decided to forgo Green’s funeral, Shirley Phelps-Roper, a member of the church, clarified that members still intend to picket the funeral of Judge John Roll. Westboro Baptist Church, founded by Reverend Fred Phelps, is known for its fierce anti-gay rhetoric and hate speech.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are scheduled to attend a memorial service for the six victims at the University of Arizona today. Services for Christina Green and US Judge Roll will be held Thursday and Friday.

A committee realignment will likely ensure that the marriage bill will finally move to the Senate floor for a vote. In the 2010 election, Democrats gained two Senate seats, which would facilitate the passage of the marriage bill this year. If the bill is passed by the state legislature, Governor Martin O’Malley (D-MD) has publicly declared that he would sign the bill into law.

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

Morgan Meneses-Sheetes, Executive Director of Equality Maryland, stated, “We really feel like 2011 is the year.” Equality Maryland’s website clarifies, “With the return of so many pro-equality incumbents and the addition of new leaders ready to stand up for fairness, Equality Maryland is confident that 2011 will hold new opportunities to advance equal treatment under the law.”

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.

A budding feminist and nine-year-old elementary school politician, Christina Taylor Green, was the youngest of six killed in the shooting that occurred at the “Congress on Your Corner” event sponsored by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday.

Born on 9/11 and featured in a book entitled Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11, Green expressed an abiding interest in American civic life. She attended the attended Congresswoman Giffords’ event on Saturday with her neighbor in order to learn more about politics. Green had recently been elected to Mesa Verde Elementary School’s student council.

Green was also active in extracurricular activities and had an avid interest in baseball. She was the granddaughter of the manager who led the Philadelphia Phillies when they won the World Series in 1980, Green was the only girl who played in her little league system and had a goal to play baseball professionally.

A total of 20 people were shot in the attack by what seems to have been a single gunman. Six people were killed, including federal district judge John M. Roll. Suspected shooter Jared Lee Loughner is in police custody.

Representative Giffords is now in condition. Giffords is considered a moderate “Blue Dog” Democrat. She is also the first Jewish woman elected to Congress from Arizona. Supported by feminist groups, she is pro-choice and has stood up for comprehensive immigration reform, health-care reform, stem-cell research and raising the minimum wage, among other positions.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour suspended Jamie and Gladys Scott’s life sentences on the condition that Gladys donates a kidney to her sister. Barbour cited the high cost of Jamie’s dialysis treatment, which totaled approximately $200,000 per year, in his announcement of the women’s release. The women left the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility on Friday after serving 16 years.

In 1994, Judge Marcus Gordon convicted sentenced each Scott sister to two life sentences after they were convicted of planning and participating in an armed robbery in which only $11 was stolen and no one was injured. Neither woman had a prior criminal record. The men arrested for the robbery were sentenced to eight years in jail and served only three years.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, President of the NAAP, stated, “It is a travesty that in the state of Mississippi, the lives of two Black women are valued at little more than 11 dollars. From the outset, the measures in which the Scott Sisters were convicted were questionable and pattern themselves after dubious criminal justice trends in Mississippi and nationwide.”

Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian Human Rights lawyer, received an 11 year prison sentence. Sotoudeh was arrested in September and went to trial on November 15 for allegedly acting against state security, assembling, and collusion with intent to disrupt national security. She was also charged for working with the Center for Human Rights Defenders, which was founded by Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi. In addition to the 11 year prison sentence, the court has prohibited Sotoudeh from practicing law or leaving Iran for the next 20 years.

Before her arrest, Sotoudeh was a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign and on the board of directors of the Society for Defense of Children’s Rights.

Hadi Fhaemi, a spokesperson for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, stated, “This is a transparently political sentence aimed at taking one of Iran’s leading human rights defenders out of practice via a gross miscarriage of justice. Nasrin Sotoudeh has broken no laws, but is being jailed because she has upheld Iranian and international law in a judicial system bent on violating human rights.”

Sotoudeh, who has been in Evin Prison since September 4, went on a hunger strike to protest the conditions of her illegal arrest. After ending her hunger strike for a few days, she started a dry hunger strike, protesting her deprivation of her legal rights, such as the right to telephone calls and visits from her family members and her two young children along with the gross mishandling of her case. She broke her dry hunger strike on November 11 and ended her hunger strike, which lasted a total of 50 days, following the trial.

Last week, Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in Florida and Representatives Annette Dub (D-NE) and Beau McCoy (R-NE) in Nebraska proposed bills that, if passed, would ban abortion coverage in insurance policies sold in state health insurance exchanges. The state exchanges are scheduled to begin operating in 2014. Representative McCoy’s bill, which was endorsed by Nebraska Right to Life, also proposes prohibiting private health plans from covering abortion services unless the women’s life is threatened.

Representative Gaetz (R-FL) said that he intended for the bill to serve as an extension of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion services except in cases of rape, incest, or impending death of the woman.

Stephanie Kunkel, executive director of the Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, pointed out that the bill is unnecessary because federal restrictions on abortion funding already exist. She clarified, “Our hope is elected officials will agree this (Gaetz bill) is simply unnecessary and will let it die.”

Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords is fighting for her life in a Tucson hospital after having been shot in the head by a gunman while she conducted a “Congress on Your Corner” event in front of a market.

Although she was listed in very critical condition after surgery, Dr. Peter Rhee, medical director of the trauma and critical care unit at the University Medical Center where Giffords is being treated, said he was “very optimistic about her recovery.”

A total of 20 people were shot in the attack by what seems to have been a single gunman. Six people were killed, including federal district judge John M. Roll. Police have in custody the suspected shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, at a press conference this afternoon, said that law enforcement are also looking for a possible second suspect, a white man in his 50s.

Dupnik had critical words about the climate in the country and his state surrounding this act of violence:

“When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”

“Let me just say one thing, because people tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol that we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech. But it’s not without consequences.”

Giffords’ office had been the target of vandalism last year after she voted for health-care reform. She was also targeted “quite literally” for defeat by Sarah Palin’s political action committee before the November 2010 midterm elections. SarahPAC put forth a map of the U.S. with 20 locations marked with the crosshairs of gun sights to indicate 20 House Democrats, including Giffords, who voted for the health-care bill and thus should be turned out of office. Responding to that, Giffords told MSNBC:

“We need to realize that the rhetoric, and the firing people up and for example, we’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list, but the thing is, the way she has it depicted, we’re in the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they’ve got to realize that there are consequences to that action.”

Further extending the “target” metaphor, Giffords’ unsuccessful Republican opponent in the November election, Jesse Kelly, held a $50-per-ticket event last June 12 that was thus advertised on the Pima County Republican website:

“Get on Target for Victory in November[.] Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office[.] Shoot a fully automatic M15 with Jesse Kelly[.]”

Giffords, the first Jewish woman elected to Congress from Arizona, is considered a moderate “Blue Dog” Democrat. Supported by feminist groups, she is pro-choice and has stood up for comprehensive immigration reform, health-care reform, stem-cell research and raising the minimum wage, among other positions.

Yesterday the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women protested an anti-abortion press conference, held by New York City clergy. Archbishop Timothy Dolan joined religious leaders in his call to reduce the number of abortions in New York City. Sean Fieler, an investment banker and the chair of the Chiaroscuro Foundation, coordinated the press conference.

Although city health department statistics indicated a decline in the number of abortions in New York City in the last decade, Dolan and Fieler declared that they will renew efforts to reduce abortions. In recent years, Archbishop Dolan has protested outside of the US Supreme Court for the overturn of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Fieler has announced his foundation’s plans to donate $1 million in 2011 to open crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in New York City.

Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) pose as comprehensive women’s health clinics and advertise under “abortion” and “family planning” services, but do not offer abortion services, contraeption, or referrals. CPCs often provide false information about abortion, birth control, and the effectiveness of condoms for the prevention of STIs and HIV. These CPCs too often lie to women in need. A Congressional investigation of CPCs revealed that 87% provided false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion. The Congressional report found many of these federally funded centers grossly misrepresent the medical risks of abortion by telling women that having an abortion could increase the risk of breast cancer, result in sterility, and lead to suicide and “post-abortion syndrome.”

The Office of Personnel Management released updated breast-feeding guidelines for federal employees in the executive branch. The new guidelines are consistent with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which requires that employers allow nursing mothers “a reasonable break time to express breast milk” for up to a year after giving birth.

Federal employees must also be allowed accesses to a private room, other than a restroom facility, to breast feed or express breast milk. Federal employees will not, however, be compensated for breaks taken to breast-feed. The Office of Personnel Management has not announced a deadline for when the changes must be implemented. The legislative branch has already updated its policies.

The United States lags behind most other industrialized countries in failing to provide breastfeeding breaks, as well as paid sick leave, paid paternal leave, and other policies to support workers.

Tina Tchen will replace Susan Sher as Michelle Obama’s Chief of Staff, the White House announced yesterday. Tchen currently serves as the Director of the Office of Public Engagement and the Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls. Valerie Jarrett, Chair of the Council of Women and Girls, described Tchen as “a tireless advocate for women and families, [who] brought that wealth of experience and dedication to the White House Council’s efforts.” Tchen plans to continue to head the Council.

Tchen has known Michelle Obama for over 20 years. Michelle Obama stated, “Tina’s tenure at the White House has focused on ensuring that communities across the country have a voice and a presence at the White House, and her office has worked closely with mine to develop many of our outreach efforts, so she was the natural choice for this role. We particularly share a commitment to nurturing young women and utilizing the White House as a platform for education and inclusion, and I look forward to continuing that work together.”

Prior to working for 2008 Obama campaign, Tchen served as partner at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for 23 years.

John Boehner (R-OH), an opponent to women’s reproductive rights, was sworn in as the House Speaker yesterday. Boehner has made campaign promises to be the most “pro-life speaker in history.”

Anti-abortion rights groups, including Susan B. Anthony List and Americans United for Life (AUL), announced plans to pressure Congress to pass the No Tax Payer Funding for Abortion Act, sponsored by Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL), and the Title X Abortion Provider Act, introduced by Representative Mike Pence (R-IN).

The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act would prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions and would ensure that healthcare reform law does not cover the cost of abortions. The Title X Abortion Provider Act would prevent tax dollars from being sent to abortion providers receiving Title X family-planning grants. AUL has drafted 38 additional model anti-abortion bills.

Nancy Keenan, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America spoke out against Boehner’s anti-abortion agenda, “Boehner and other like-minded politicians campaigned on limiting the role of government in our lives, yet their actions prove otherwise. They want to shrink government to be just small enough to fit inside our bedrooms and our medicine cabinets.”

Today, as the U.S. Constitution is being read aloud on the floor of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Senator Robert Menendez, chief sponsors of the Equal Rights Amendment, called a press conference together with Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Co-Chair of the House Women’s Caucus and women’s rights leaders to draw attention to the absence of the Equal Rights Amendment. Congresswoman Maloney pointed out that the press conference was even more important because Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently commented that the U.S. Constitution does not protect women from sex discrimination.

Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority President, Terry O’Neill, NOW President, Susan Scanlon, Chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, Karen J. See, President, Coalition of Labor Union Women and Lulu Flores, President of the National Women’s Political Caucus also spoke at the conference.

Every speaker cited the recent interview of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the California Lawyer in which Scalia stated that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees equal justice under the law for all persons does not prohibit sex discrimination under the laws of the United States or its states.

Smeal added that Scalia is frequently viewed as the intellectual light of the conservative wing of the Supreme Court which can all too often gain a majority vote of the Justices. “All modern Constitutions adopted since WWII have explicitly included provisions guaranteeing women equal rights. The U.S. is lagging behind in explicitly guaranteeing equal rights for women and prohibition of sex discrimination,” Smeal pointed out.

“We are way past due for a constitutional amendment explicitly acknowledging women’s rights in the United States, said Terry O’Neill. “Nothing less will do, as long as sexists like Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia feel completely justified interpreting women’s rights as unprotected in the U.S. Constitution.”

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) will set a record as the longest woman to serve in the Senate when she is sworn in today. Senator Mikulski first took office in 1987 as one of only two women Senators. Currently, 17 women serve in the Senate.

Senator Mikulski will begin her fifth term as senator, exceeding the 24 year term of Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME). Mikulski was the first Democratic woman to serve in both the House and the Senate and the first woman elected to the Senate who did not succeed her father or husband.

Senator Mikulski is a champion of abortion rights and women’s health. She sponsored the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which helps not only women, but all workers who are victims of wage discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age, or disability.