Author: Feminist Newswire

The Feminist Newswire has provided a daily feminist perspective on national, global, and campus news stories since 1995. You can receive a weekly feminist news digest when you subscribe here.

Doctor Prescribing Fake Abortion-Reversal Pill Shown to be Lying about Credentials

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Last Thursday, an expository report by The Guardian revealed that Doctor George Delgado has been falsely claiming an affiliation with University of California San Diego medical school (UCSD) while he has been prescribing medication that he claimed would reverse a medication abortion. Despite UCSD requesting that he stop affiliating himself with the university one year ago, he continued to use their name as a credential, listing himself as a Voluntary Associate Clinical Professor at their School of Medicine.

Delgado has been offering a reversal procedure to medication abortions that requires people to take a significant dose of progesterone after they take the first of two doses of the abortion pill. This treatment has been labeled “unproven and unethical” by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The FDA-approved abortion pill accounts for 31% of abortions in the United States, and has been proven by medical professionals to have no available research procedure.

Eight states have passed laws requiring doctors to inform patients that a medication abortion is reversible, despite repeated statements from doctors explicitly calling these claims false. North Dakota is the most recent state to enact similar legislation, passing a law that forces doctors to tell patients about the reversal procedure as well a law forcing them to tell patients that getting an abortion will end “the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.” The American Medical Association has sued North Dakota as these bills force physicians to act as mouthpieces for the government’s controversial and often untrue opinions, whether or not they agree with them.

Delgado practices his “abortion reversals” through the Culture of Life Family Services Clinic in California, a fake abortion clinic that claims to provide “Christ-centered medical care.” Fake clinics lie to women about the side effects of abortions to persuade them not to seek such a procedure. Personnel wear white coats matching the attire worn by legitimate doctors and falsely claim that abortions cause infertility or breast cancer. Deceptive advertisements in these clinics are designed to confuse women as they make time-sensitive decisions about whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term.

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 6/28/2019; Guttmacher Institute 7/2018; American Medical Association 6/25/2019; The Guardian 7/25/2019

Sudan Closes all Schools as Students are Killed in Country-Wide Protests

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As protesting students took the streets of Sudan, their cries were drowned by heavy gunfire which led to the authorities suspending all schools beginning this Wednesday. Governors of all states have been ordered to shut kindergartens, primary, and high schools until further notice.

Children in their uniform joined other demonstrators to protest horrific living conditions and food shortages. These street protests turned deadly on Monday when six people were killed and 62 were injured in demonstrations where security forces open fired in order to disperse the crowd.

The chaotic atmosphere in the country is the direct result of the recent Sudanese uprising. Rallies were held to protest rising costs of food and the shortage of basic amenities but eventually turned into a campaign calling for the removal of President Omar al-Bashir. A military council took control to oversee a transition of power after al-Bashir was removed from office, but civilians continued to protest for democratic elections.

Widespread violence has marked Sudan’s political upheaval as paramilitary groups open fired on peaceful protestors earlier in June plunging the state deeper into mass bloodshed and chaos. These protests have been largely dominated and led by Sudanese women who were ferociously oppressed under Bashir’s government. As women took part in protests, they were systemically targeted by security forces and soldiers who arrested, senselessly beat and raped women in order to deter them from protesting.

 

Media Resources: BBC 07/30/19, CNN 07/31/19, CNN 06/13/19, CNN As Equal Series

ACLU Argues Trump Separated Almost 1,000 Children in Past Year

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Yesterday, ACLU lawyers argued in a court filing in U.S. District Court in San Diego that the Trump administration has separated almost 1,000 children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border since U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the Trump administration to curtail family separations and reunite families more than a year ago.

While Acting Homeland Security secretary Kevin McAleenan has argued that children are only separated from their parents when the adults pose a risk to their children because of their “criminal record, a communicable disease, abuse, or neglect,” the ACLU has documented instances of child separation due to minor infractions, inability to communicate with border agents, a dirty diaper, or even medical issues such as the parent being HIV+ or having a broken leg.

ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt stated that the Trump administration is “taking what was supposed to be a narrow exception for cases where the parent was genuinely a danger to the child and using it as a loophole to continue family separation. What everyone understands intuitively and what the medical evidence shows, this will have a devastating effect on the children and possibly cause permanent damage to these children, not to mention the toll on the parents.”

Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, testified to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform that of the 120 separated children the organization worked with, the organization found that most of the separations were “contrary to the best interests of the child.” “DHS officials with no child welfare expertise are making split-second decisions, and these decisions have traumatic, lifelong consequences for the children and their families.”

“Forcibly separating children from their parents is like setting a house on fire. Prolonging that separation is like preventing the first responders from doing their job and letting the fire continue to burn,” argued Jack Shonkoff, a pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School in an affidavit included in the ACLU filing.

The family separation policy resulted from the announcement of a “zero-tolerance” border policy, which aimed to prosecute as many border-crossers as possible – even those who turned themselves over to Board Patrol seeking asylum. Under this policy, parents are immediately sent into criminal custody, while children are classified as “unaccompanied alien children.” This classification used to only apply to minors crossing the border without an adult relative. It allowed Border Patrol to forcefully separate the children from their parents.

 

Media Resources: Washington Post 7/20/19; Feminist Newswire 6/20/18

Federal Judge in Arkansas Delays Enforcement of Three Anti-Abortion Laws

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Last week, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued a two-week restraining order, effectively delaying the enforcement of three laws restricting abortion access in Arkansas. In the opinion, the Court found that “the threat of irreparable harm to plaintiffs and the public interest, outweighs the immediate interests and potential injuries to the defendant.”

The lawsuit was filed by Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the firm of O’Melveny & Myers, LLP, who represented two independent physicians, as well as Little Rock Family Planning Services, and Planned Parenthood Great Plains (PPGP). Today, Little Rock Family Planning Services and Planned Parenthood’s Little Rock Health Center are the only clinics in the entire state of Arkansas that provide medical abortions. Only Little Rock Family Planning Services performs abortions after 10 weeks.

The first of the three challenged laws was set to ban abortion at 18 weeks, and the second law would have prohibited providers from performing abortions if an individual is seeking an abortion solely because the fetus has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. The third law blocked by Judge Baker mandated that “a person shall not perform or induce an abortion unless that person is a physician licensed to practice medicine in the state of Arkansas and is board-certified or board-eligible in obstetrics and gynecology.”

Without the restraining order issued by Judge Baker, Little Rock Family Planning Services would not have been able to continue its work. During a hearing last Monday, the director of Little Rock Family Planning Services, Lori Williams, explained to lawmakers that her clinic would no longer be able to operate if the three laws were to go into effect, because the staff members performing abortions in her clinic could not meet all of the requirements set by the third law. Despite the victory for Williams and her clinic, she will begin searching for doctors who possess the qualifications set by the third law in case the law survives after the restraining order.

In recent years, abortion rights in Arkansas have increasingly faced legal challenges. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to an Arkansas law mandating that doctors prescribing the abortion pill had to contract with another doctor who had admitting privileges at a hospital. This law effectively banned the use of the abortion pill in Arkansas as it imposed an unnecessary burden on doctors who perform medication abortions.

Similarly, in 2017, Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas signed into law the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, which allowed the husband of a woman seeking an abortion to sue his wife’s doctor, either for monetary gain or in order to place an injunction on the procedure, essentially allowing a man to refuse his partner access to an abortion. The law banned the most common and safest method for performing a second trimester abortion, essentially blocking all abortions after 14 weeks. Lawyers for the state eventually appealed the case to federal court.

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 2/3/17, Wall Street Journal 7/24/19, The ACLU 7/24/19, CNN 7/24/19

HHS Awards $1.5 Million in Funding to Anti-Choice Organizations

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Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded approximately 1.5 million dollars in teen pregnancy prevention funding to three anti-choice organizations, Obria Group, the Women’s Care Center of Erie County, and Bethany Christian Services. All three groups are known to have a history of misrepresenting sexual health information, and two of the organizations receiving federal funding promote “medication abortion reversal” services, a practice that the American College of Obstreticians and Gynocolegists (ACOG) considers both “unproven and unethical.”

Rachel Fey, the director of public policy at Power to Decide, said that “some of the organizations that received grants most recently…promote false and scientifically inaccurate statements on their websites about FDA-approved methods of birth control.” She cited both Obria and Women’s Care Center as examples.

Mary Alice Carter (senior adviser to Equity Forward, a reproductive health care advocacy group,) said that Obria’s recent Title X grants and TPPP grants are an “antithesis to the program” as the administration is “funding an organization that doesn’t provide birth control.”

Andrea Swartzendruber, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia’s College of Public Health, also raised concerns about groups like Obria receiving Title X funding. “I think it’s entirely and very concerning that any type of crisis pregnancy centers, including Obria, would be funded through the Title X program,” she said.

Established in 2010, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP)’s mission is to “replicate programs that have been proven effective through rigorous evaluation to reduce teenage pregnancy,” according to HHS. Since TPPP was established, the rate of teen pregnancy has declined. In 2017, the Trump administration discontinued TPPPs, though court orders forced the administration to reinstate them in 2018.

Instead of eliminating the program, HSS is funding “unqualified providers,” said Michelle Kuppersmith, the director of Equity Forward (a reproductive health care advocacy group). This recent news comes in addition to a HHS announcement in March that Obria would receive 1.7 million dollars in Title X funds.

None of the Title X funds that Obria receives will go towards contraceptives; instead, they will go towards abstinence education and a natural family planning program known as the Fertility Education and Medical Management (FEMM). Serving an estimated 12,000 patients at twenty-one sites in California, Obria Medical Clinics oppose contraception and teach abstinence and natural family planning methods. Thirteen of their twenty-one sites do not offer contraceptives such as the birth control pill, condoms, or IUDs, and they refuse to refer patients to clinics that provide those services.

Obria became the first group of its kind to receive federal funding through Title X. Established in 1970, Title X is the only federal domestic program that is exclusively concerned with providing funds for family planning and reproductive health services. Title X funding is awarded to support clinics and organizations providing low-income women with critical access to birth control. According to the Center for American Progress, women’s health centers that receive money from Title X prevent 1 million unintended pregnancies each year.

 

Media Resources: Guttmacher Institute 5/24/18, Feminist Newswire 7/22/19, Rewire News 7/23/19, The Hill 7/24/19

Kamala Harris’ Proposal Provides a Middle-Ground on Healthcare

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This morning, two days before she takes the stage for the second Democratic presidential debate, Senator Kamala Harris released her new Medicare For All plan, calling for a government-run health insurance system that includes provisions for private insurance plans.

Though Harris originally signed onto Senator Sanders’ Medicare For All legislation, which details an expedited path to government-run insurance and an elimination of private insurance plans, her proposal is more moderate, giving a longer window of time in which to transition to the new system. Harris’ proposed plan also clearly supports a continued role for private health insurance companies within the requirements set for Medicare plans.

A significant debate surrounding the Medicare for All proposals introduced by multiple presidential candidates involves the immediate transition from private healthcare plans to a government-run health insurance system. This morning’s proposal seeks to address these concerns and provide a method to incorporate the benefits of a government-run system with the familiarity of private health insurance plans. Progressive critics often argue against proposals similar to Harris’, citing the support for large corporations and the proliferation of corruption in the healthcare industry.

Senator Harris’ plan will likely still include the protections for reproductive health care outlined in Senator Sanders’ Medicare for All bill, which includes “comprehensive reproductive, maternity, and newborn care.” The bill ensures that the Hyde amendment will not restrict Medicare funding for abortion services, noting that the existing plan would not apply to the newly proposed program.

Both existing and proposed Medicare for All plans provide a stark contrast to the proposed restrictions to Medicare under the Trump Administration. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), proposed a new abortion restriction in February under the Affordable Care Act in their “2020 Payment Notice.” The rule is meant to deter insurers from covering abortion services, requiring insurance companies that have plans covering non-Hyde abortions to also have at least one matching plan that does not cover these abortions. Non-Hyde abortions are abortions for pregnancies that are not a result of rape or incest and do not threaten the mother’s life.

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 2/11/19; Politico 4/10/19; Medium 7/29/19; Politico 7/29/19

White Male University Of Mississippi Students Posed with Guns in Front of Emmett Till Sign

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***Warning: graphic topics of violence and racism***

On July 25, 2019 ProPublica unveiled an Instagram photo posted of three young white men in front of Emmett Till’s sign commemorating his brutal death and the ignition of the Civil Rights Movement. The students were suspended on Wednesday from their fraternity, Kappa Alpha, a historically racist institution, amidst the outcry from the ProPublica news article. University of Mississippi’s spokesman Rod Guajardo stated that the student’s photo is “offensive and hurtful” but it did “not violate the school’s code of conduct.”

Someone reported the disturbing image to Ole Miss Office of Student Conduct,  and the complaint states, “The photo is on Instagram with hundreds of ‘likes,’ and no one said a thing […] I cannot tell Ole Miss what to do, I just thought it should be brought to your attention.” Their actions reporting the Instagram photo, with 274 likes, is the reason the university and the public were made aware of the issue. The photo was posted by Ben LeClere on his private Instagram account in March 2018 for John Lowe’s birthday with the caption “one of Memphis’s finest and the worst influence I’ve ever met.”

This picture eerily echoes the distributing history of Emmett Till who was shot in the head by a band of white supremacist men. Emboldened by Trump’s open racism, events such as these have surfaced in the media, such as the well-known Charlottesville riot in 2017, one of the most visible displays of hatred from the new so-called “alt-right” movement. The President responded to the violence by condemning hatred “on many sides,” and arguing that he was not responsible for the rise in racist hate groups. Richard Spencer, notorious white supremacist, chanted “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory” to a cheering crowd preforming Nazi Salutes after Trump’s taking of power in 2016.

Since the sign’s commencement in 2007, it has been the target of white supremacist hate crimes ranging from bullet holes, theft, KKK vandalism, and throwing the sign into the river Emmett Till’s body was discovered in. The Emmett Till Memorial Commission has ordered a bullet proof sign to replace the current sign. They proclaimed “We believe it is important to keep a sign at this historic site, but we don’t want to hide the legacy of racism by constantly replacing broken signs […] The commission hopes this sign will endure, and that it will continue to spark conversations about Till, history, and racial justice.”

Puerto Rico Governor Expected to Resign Amidst Mass Protest

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Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rossello announced he will resign in early August after weeks of public protests over recently revealed homophobic and sexist messages Rossello sent government officials. His chief of staff as already resigned and Rossello has also resigned from his position as president of the new Progressive Party.

The massive city-wide protests erupted earlier this month in response to a series of messages in a group chat between governor Rossello and his inner circle. The remarks made in private were homophobic and misogynistic in nature with crude language and comments that jokingly mocked the victims of Hurricane Maria. This came after recent corruption related arrests of high-profile government officials.

Puerto Rico’s politics have long been dominated by the governor’s Progressive Party and this recent published transcript has forced the people of Puerto Rico to rethink the administration elected to serve their best interests. The frustration and recent tumultuous atmosphere of Puerto Rico comes out of the decade long disconnect between government officials and the common people. Protesters want the immediate resignation of Rossello and want to get rid of the unelected oversight board created by Congress aimed at managing the finances of the island’s government.

Grievances have been building as the quality of life after Hurricane Maria deteriorates drastically for many people. The US territory’s economic recession has forced employers to lay off workers while public services are being cut off. Many schools are forced to shut down, tuition are rising, and the island’s government has failed to help rebuild communities that are still suffering the debilitating effects of Hurricane Maria.

 

Media Resources:  CNN 06/24/19, NYT 06/18/19, NYT 06/19/19

School District Threatens to Send Children into Foster Care over School Lunch Debt

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Forty parents in the Pennsylvania Wyoming Valley West School District received letters this week from district officials threatening to remove their child from their home and place their child in foster care if they do not pay their child’s school lunch debt. Out of the district’s annual 80 million dollar budget, $22,000 dollars is owed in school lunches; a small fraction of the budget that is being used to threaten to separate children from their families. The families that received the letter were families that had a school lunch debt of $10 or more.

Luzerne County Manager David Pedri told NPR that “the foster care system should never be viewed as a punitive agency or weaponized to terrorize children and families” in response to the letter. County officials have criticized the school district’s decision to threaten families and have asked district officials to stop using the language in the letter.

The Wyoming Valley West school district is one of the poorest districts in the state and many parents are struggling to pay bills on low-wage jobs. Bill Vinsko, a lawyer in Pennsylvania, stated that the letter is “really scary for parents who are trying to work for the best interests of their kids.” Not paying for a school lunch on time is not “neglect” and only further vilifies poor and working class families. “No child should have to imagine the horror of being ripped away from their parents because their family is struggling economically,” Senator Bob Casey said.

This past month, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) and Sen. Tina Smith (D) introduced the No Shame at School Act—a bill that would provide solutions for districts struggling with large school lunch debts. The bill would prohibit schools from publicly identifying and shaming students with outstanding lunch balances. Under this bill, schools would also no longer be able to employ debt collectors in an attempt to collect school lunch debt. However, schools will be able to apply for reimbursement from the federal government for up to 90 days of an unpaid school lunch debt.

As of now, there are many school districts across the country that provide free meals regardless of family income. In Boston, the largest city to have one of these programs, public schools have been providing free meals since 2013.

 

Media: NPR 7/22/19, ABCNews 7/19/19, The Hill 6/19/19, CNN 6/19/19, Feminist Newswire 9/5/13

Trump Administration Delays Enforcement of Title X Abortion Restriction

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On Saturday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent out a notice to federally funded family planning clinics, stating that clinics would be given extra time to comply with a Trump administration rule announced last week that eliminated Title X funding for clinics that provide abortion referrals.

The notice stated that the government “does not intend to bring enforcement actions” against family planning clinics that have demonstrated “good-faith efforts to comply.” According to the notice, clinics receiving Title X funding must send a compliance plan to the department by next month and must separate their office spaces from exam rooms where abortions are performed by March of next year.

After the Trump administration’s rule was announced on Monday, HHS originally ordered immediate compliance. Consequently, Planned Parenthood, which controls over 400 clinics nationwide, responded by stating that its clinics would not comply with the order.

In addition to cutting Title X funding for clinics that provide abortions, the rule mandated that abortion counseling at clinics be performed only by physicians or advance practice clinicians. It also stated that abortion counseling would be optional instead of standard medical protocol.

Clare Coleman, CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, told NPR that the order goes even further, because for Title X recipients, it “changes the rules around how [they] can speak to patients about their contraceptive care. It allows providers to select the range of contraceptive methods that are offered and would allow providers to exclude methods that they object to, even if patients are interested in those methods.”

Established in 1970, Title X of the Public Health Services Act is the only federal domestic program that is exclusively concerned with providing funds for family planning and reproductive health services. Title X funding is awarded through competitive grants to healthcare providers that prove they are the most qualified for meeting the needs of the communities they serve.

Title X provides over $260 million to family planning clinics and serves over 4 million people annually. Since the inception of Title X, statutory law has explicitly outlawed the use of Title X dollars for abortion procedures. Instead, Title X grant money has gone towards other sexual and reproductive health services. In 2016 alone, health centers used Title X funding to provide 720,000 Pap tests, more than four million STD tests (including HIV tests) and nearly one million breast exams. According to the Center for American Progress, women’s health centers that receive money from Title X prevent 1 million unintended pregnancies each year.

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 3/31/19, Feminist Newswire 6/19/19, The New York Times 7/21/19, NPR 7/21/19

Dr. Leana Wen Removed as Planned Parenthood’s President

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After less than a year on the job, Dr Leanna Wen M.D. has been removed from her position as Planned Parenthood’s president. Per the statement released by Dr. Wen, the ousting occurred after disagreements between Dr. Wen and Planned Parenthood’s board on the direction of the organization following the severe blows from the far right on reproductive rights, especially on the front of abortion access. Wen also stated that she was ousted after a secret meeting despite having been in good faith negotiations regarding her departure.

One of the main issues between the two parties was the framing of abortion as a healthcare issue rather than a political one. There were also reports of disagreements over Dr. Wen’s management style. Following her ousting, The New York Times reported that the organization wanted a more aggressive political leader, and as such, decided to appoint Alexis McGill Johnson as acting CEO and president of both Planned parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Dr. Leana Wen was the first Asian American as well as the first physician in 50 years to become the president of Planned Parenthood in 2018 after Cecile Richards announced her resignation. Previously, Wen was the Baltimore City Health Commissioner, leading the oldest health department in the United States and improving the city’s overall well-being. During her four years as the commissioner, Wen issued a blanket prescription for naloxone, which reverses opioid overdoses, to all residents of Baltimore, saving about 3,000 people in three years. In addition to combating the opioid epidemic, Wen also led initiatives to support transgender-related medical services; reduction of infant mortality; coverage for children who need glasses; medication and food access to seniors; expansion of trauma and mental health service; and programs to treat gun violence as a public health issue.

 

Media Resources: Democracy Now 07/16/19; Refinery 29 07/16/19; The New York Times 07/16/19; Feminist Newswire 03/12/19

Four Democratic Congresswomen Call Trump’s Racist Tweets a Distraction

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Yesterday, four democratic congresswomen of color held a joint press conference to address a series of racist tweets made by President Trump in which he called for the women to “go back” to the countries they came from. The four women, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, condemned his words as hateful rhetoric, emphasizing that his tweets were simply part of his weak attempt to divide the country on the basis of race, gender, and immigration status.

Three of the four women were born in the United States, and Rep. Omar has been an American citizen since she was a teenager. Ocasio-Cortez commented that she was not surprised by Trump’s words, stating that “weak minds and leaders challenge loyalty to our country in order to avoid challenging and debating the policy…He does not know how to defend his policies, so what he does is attack us personally.”

Pressley emphasized that Trump was using his tweets as a political tool. She told reporters that the attacks were “simply a disruption and a distraction from the callous, chaotic and corrupt culture of this administration.” Tlaib underscored Pressley’s point, stating that “we cannot allow these hateful actions by the President to distract us from the critical work to hold this administration accountable.”

Trump’s racist tweets came just one day before he instructed the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to issue a rule that would end all asylum claims for migrants who had to travel through another country to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border. This rule effectively chips away at existing immigration law, which allows migrants to request asylum if they fear persecution or torture in their country of origin.

Trump’s tweets are also a clear attempt to distract the public from recent developments involving his transition staff as well as his cabinet. Yesterday was the first day of the second criminal trial resulting from Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Bijan Rafeikian, a former Trump transition official in charge of intelligence matters, is now on trial for operating as an unregistered agent and receiving payments from a foreign country. In addition, last week, Alex Acosta formally resigned as labor secretary amid controversy stemming from a lenient plea deal he offered as US Attorney to billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was indicted on charges of sex trafficking and abuse.

Trump’s racist tweets came as no surprise to the congresswomen, because he continued to further his racist agenda on Friday when he confirmed that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would begin raids to deport thousands of undocumented immigrants in 10 major cities, including Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles. His announcement on ICE came amidst reports about horrendous conditions at immigrant detention facilities at the Texas border. In fact, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was one of the most outspoken members of Congress to address the conditions. She took to Twitter, writing that “This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying.” A team of lawyers, doctors, and advocates noted that children are being held past the legal time limit, people are going weeks without showering or changing clothes, and most do not have access to quality food or medical care.

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 7/12/19, New York Times 7/15/19, YouTube 7/15/19, Los Angeles Times 7/15/19, YouTube 7/15/19

Justice Denied Once Again as Eric Garner’s Murderer Goes Free

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Five years after the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man whose last words “I can’t breathe” started a rallying cry, the Justice Department has decided that they will not bring federal charges against the New York City police officer allegedly responsible for strangling him to death. The announcement came exactly when the deadline on the statue of limitations ran out, and no charges were pressed on Garner’s alleged murderer, Daniel Pantaleo.

On July 17th, 2014, Garner was stopped by NYPD officers on a street corner in Staten Island for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. Garner’s friend, who was with him at the time, captured the encounter, which depicted Garner pulling his arm away from the Pantaleo and Pantaleo putting him in a chokehold and forcing him to the ground. In the video, it can be heard that Garner repeated “I can’t breathe” eleven times as officers continue to restrain him. After falling unconscious, officers left him on the sidewalk as they awaited an ambulance to arrive. He was announced dead at the hospital an hour later.

Despite the medical examiner ruling Garner’s death as a homicide and the NYPD having a specific policy prohibiting the use of a chokehold, Pantaleo was neither indicted nor pressed charges. Immediately following the announcement that Pantaleo would not be indicted in 2014, hundreds of demonstrators spilled into the streets in New York City, blocking traffic in the Lincoln Tunnel and on the Brooklyn Bridge and staging a die-in at Grand Central Station. “We All Witnessed Murder” one protester’s sign read.

Eric Garner’s death highlighted police violence and led to anti-police violence demonstrations across the country. In the wake of the decision not to indict Ferguson Police Department officer Darren Wilson in the killing of unarmed teen Michael Brown, and the decision to not indict the officer responsible for Garner’s death, protesters sought an end to excessive and lethal force by police officers.  On Twitter  after Garner’s death, the hashtag #CrimingWhileWhite rose to trending status as people shared personal examples of how they benefited from their white privilege in police encounters. The hashtag #AliveWhileBlack emerged in response, as people shared stories of racial profiling despite having committed no crime.

Media Resources: New York Times 07/16/19; The Daily Beast 07/16/19; Feminist Newswire 11/1//15

Amazon Workers Strike during Prime Day

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Amazon workers across the globe are striking because of grueling production demands, unsafe working conditions, and many other issues during the company’s largest two-day sales event—from July 15 to July 16th—known as Amazon Prime Day.

Amazon released a statement in response to workers striking, claiming, “Events like Prime Day have become an opportunity for our critics, including unions, to raise awareness for their cause, in this case, increased membership dues. These groups are conjuring misinformation to work in their favor, when in fact we already offer the things they purport to be their cause—industry leading pay (full-time employees at our Shakopee facility make $16.25– $20.80), benefits, and a safe workplace for our employees.”

But many workers within Amazon vehemently disagree with this statement. As reported by Business Insider, an anonymous employee stated, “It is shameful that while Amazon chooses to be the industry leader in so many aspects of their employment policies, and yet continues to allow other aspects of their policies to be worthy of being called ‘inhumane.’”

In the past, Amazon has faced criticism for unsafe and unsanitary working conditions. Many workers have shared their experiences of working at Amazon—claiming that unsafe working conditions resulted in major injuries. For the past two years, Amazon has been named as a part of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health “dirty dozen”—a list of the top 12 companies in the United States with the most unsafe working conditions.

Amazon had originally intended to open a new headquarters in New York City, but had to change their plans in February following intense backlash from activists and lawmakers in the community.

Unions and labor rights have recently been challenged in the Supreme Court. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled against public-sector unions in Janus v AFSCME, deciding that unions can no longer collect fees from public employees who opt not to be union members yet are covered by and profit from all of the benefits that unions achieve.

 

Sources: Feminist Newswire 7/2/18, The Guardian 7/30/18, The Guardian 2/14/19, COSH Network 4/24/19, Business Insider 7/12/19, Quartz 7/15/19, The Independent 7/15/19

Black Maternal Health Caucus Holds Stakeholder Summit at the Capitol

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Last Thursday afternoon, the Black Maternal Health Caucus (BMHC), composed of Congress members, such as co-founders Lauren Underwood (IL-14) and Alma Adams (NC-12), Jackie Speier (CA-14), and Ilhan Omar (MN-5), gathered to hear the opinions of the stakeholders involved in developing a course of action to how to best deal with the issue of discrepancies in the maternal mortality rates for Black women. Many organizations were present, ranging from Planned Parenthood and the American Medical Association to SisterSong and the Black Mamas Matter Alliance.

The BMHC was founded on April 9th of this year to increase awareness of Black maternal health and to develop strategies to provide more culturally-competent care. For the United States as a whole, the maternal mortality rate has actually increased by 26% from 2000 to 2014 and currently has the highest mortality rate of the industrialized nations. The outcomes worsen when taking into account race: Black women are three to four times more likely to die of pregnancy complications than non-Hispanic white women. In New York, Black women are 12 times more likely to die from complications.

The range of organizations present showed that solving this issue will require the work of those across many fields as finding a solution is interdisciplinary. CEO and founder of AncientSong, a doula service based in Brooklyn, New York, Chanel Porchia-Albert’s statement focused on the important role that doula’s play in the community and how their skills could be used to aid in the reduction of maternal deaths. Her suggestion to the caucus was to recognize doula’s as a viable healthcare option and to expand Medicaid to cover their services to give patients a wider-range of options when going through childbirth. She also acknowledged how culturally-competent, community-based doulas actually help to reduce the number of deaths associated with childbirth.

 

Media Resources: Rep. Alma Adams 6/11/19; Rep. Alma Adams 4/09/19; American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist; Feminist Newswire 4/17/18

Afghan Director Roya Sadat’s Movie Wins Best Screenplay at SAARC Film Festival

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

On July 7, “A Letter to the President” by renowned Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat won Best Screenplay at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Film Festival in Sri Lanka. Afghanistan’s Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Mohammad Ashraf Haidari, received the award on Sadat’s behalf.

The festival featured 34 films from the eight SAARC countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. “A Letter to the President” was one of four films from Afghanistan.

“A Letter to the President” chronicles the life of Soraya, a powerful police chief in Kabul. The film sheds light on the abuse Soraya suffers by her abusive husband whom she eventually kills. When she is sentenced to capital punishment, Soraya writes to the President of Afghanistan in an attempt to save her own life.

Sadat directed the film over a period of two years and reported that filming was extremely difficult at times due to threats of violence she received. While filming “A Letter to the President,” she was chased at gunpoint by individuals who were angry that her film featured a woman who did not cover her head. Consequently, the US Department of State honored her as a recipient of the International Women of Courage Award. The State Department highlighted Sadat’s activism, mentioning that she founded the Afghanistan International Women’s Film Festival to encourage more women to enter the filmmaking industry.

Sadat’s film also recently won the One Future Prize at the Munich Film Festival. The prize is presented to a director whose film demonstrates “that our world has one common future.” The group presenting Sadat’s award, speaking of the film’s main character, stated that “her integrity and her courage to resist are an example to us all. All this is told by the equally brave young Afghan director Roya Sadat, the first female practitioner of her craft in the post-Taliban era.”

Other Afghan activists have also used art to create social change and engage international audiences. ArtLords, a group of Afghan artists, recently painted a mural in London outside of the Defend Media Freedom Global Conference where Afghan officials were in attendance. Omaid Sharifi, the chairman of ArtLords, told TOLO News that he wanted the mural “to reflect the role of freedom of the press in Afghanistan.” Sharifi also took to Twitter, stating that “this is our statement for protection and support of journalists and free press all over the world.”

 

Media Resources: Tolo News 3/23/18, Tolo News 7/8/19, Tolo News 7/9/19, Tolo News 7/11/19

Parliament Votes to Protect Same-Sex Marriage and Abortion in Northern Ireland

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

Last week, U.K. members of parliament (MPs) voted to extend same-sex marriage and abortion rights in Northern Ireland via two measures that will go into effect as long as the regional government in Northern Ireland remains defunct.

The Chief Executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, Ann Furedi, told CNN that Tuesday’s vote on abortion was a “truly historic moment” and that she is “extremely grateful to all those MPs from across the UK who made clear that they would no longer turn a blind eye to the injustice and suffering faced by the women of Northern Ireland.”

Current abortion laws in Northern Ireland are among the most restrictive in the world: those who receive an abortion may face life in prison, and the legislation does not include exceptions for rape, incest, or fetal abnormalities. In fact, the UN Committee overseeing CEDAW has stated that Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion law “constitutes violence against women.”

The UK government reported that in 2018, over 1,050 individuals from Northern Ireland traveled to England and Wales to receive an abortion, an increase of nearly 200 people from last year. In an attempt to make abortions more accessible, the British government announced in 2017 that it would begin funding abortions for residents of Northern Ireland through the Government Equalities Office.

While Northern Ireland is a member of the United Kingdom where abortion and same-sex marriage are legal, the Northern Ireland Assembly, a regional government, has traditionally had legal control over both issues. The Assembly collapsed in 2017 between the Democratic Unionist and nationalist parties over whether to remain a part of the United Kingdom or create a united Ireland. If the Assembly does not regroup and repeal the measures approved on Tuesday, the measures will become law.

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 2/3/19, New York Times 7/9/19, CNN 7/10/19

Women Make up 25% of the Student Population at Afghanistan’s Higher Education Institutions

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

At Afghanistan’s higher education institutions, 25% of the student body population are women, including Tehmeena Painda, one of the highest achievers of the ‘Kankor’ University entrance examination- earning her a spot at Kabul Medical University. 

This is an amazing achievement for young women in Afghanistan, where girls were prohibited from going to school during the Taliban regime, and a multitude of female students cannot finish high school due to lack of security, poverty, and cultural barriers. 

On July 10th, the Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education released the Kankor’s scores, resulting in 147,000 out of 189,000 graduating students will attend one of the 240 universities in Afghanistan. Those students who did not do well on the Kankor will seek education elsewhere at private universities. 

Since 2015, USAID have been providing the Ministry of Higher Education with heavy-duty printers, scanners to score the marked exams, portable biometric kits, laptops, and trained ministry staff on how to use them. The equipment also records each applicant’s photograph and fingerprints as proof to their identity, which is verified when they return to take the exam.

Although there has been a significant increase in the numbers of university students, there has not been much improvement on Afghanistan’s employment. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), Afghanistan has the highest unemployment rate in the world- between 25 and 30%.

 

Media Resources: Tolo News 7/10/19,  The Global Post 7/2/18, USAID 11/1/17

Federal Appeals Court Blocks Trump Administration’s Birth Control Exemptions

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

Last Friday, the 3rd U.S Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a nation-wide injunction to block the Trump administration from enforcing new rules that would allow employers to obtain exemptions from an ACA requirement that insurance must cover women’s birth control. This decision upheld a district court decision issued in January that blocked regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services allowing employers with religious and moral objections to seek exemptions from this ACA requirement.

In Friday’s decision, the three-judge panel agreed with the Democratic state attorneys general from Pennsylvania and New Jersey arguing that the Health and Human Services rules had “serious substantive problems.” The Trump administration itself cited that up to 126,400 women nationally would lose contraceptive coverage due to the rules issued by Health and Human Services.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro commended the ruling as a “huge victory for women’s rights and the rule of law.” Shapiro, along with New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, brought the lawsuit against the Trump administration’s regulations. In a statement, Shapiro further added that “contraception is medicine—pure and simple.”

Louise Melling, the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, also praised the court for its decision. In a statement, she wrote that “yet another court has stopped this administration from sanctioning discrimination under the guise of religion or morality.”

This decision is a huge legal win for access to legal birth control across the country. Melling further noted that the ACLU “applaud[s] the order to enjoin the enforcement of these discriminatory rules.” When the rules were first proposed at the end of 2018, Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, argued that “women across the country see these rules for what they truly are: a misogynistic effort by self-righteous politicians to give employers control over their bodies.”

 

Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 11/8/18, The Hill 7/12/19, Reuters 7/12/19, ThinkProgress 7/13/19

Oklahoma Judge Upholds Ban on Second-Trimester Abortions

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

The Center for Reproductive Rights has vowed to take an Oklahoma abortion-ban to the state Supreme Court after an Oklahoma district judge upheld a law banning second-trimester abortion procedures last Friday. The Oklahoma Supreme Court has previously rejected multiple anti-abortion bills similar to this ban.

The Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the Oklahoma law after it was first passed in 2015. The legislation prohibits the use of common instruments employed in second-trimester abortions, effectively banning the procedure entirely. It has been kept on hold for the past four years as the legal challenge went through the court system. Julie Rikelman, director of litigation for the Center for Reproductive Rights described the bill as a “back-door ban on abortion itself,” explaining how the procedure is “the standard of care for abortion after approximately 14 weeks.”

Multiple other states have attempted to pass similar laws; however, the Oklahoma judge is the first one to not block the ban. Laws in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, and Texas that have issued a ban on the same procedure have all been blocked due to the Supreme Court precedent that stops states from placing an undue burden on any individual seeking an abortion within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The Oklahoma ruling comes amidst a surge of anti-choice legislation within the Oklahoma state legislature. This past February, lawmakers advanced two bills through committee that restrict an individual’s access to reproductive care. One requires doctors to inform women who have decided to have a drug-induced abortion that the procedure is reversible. Pro-choice advocates have argued that this can negatively affect doctor-patient relationships and promote a policy that has not been proven to be medically safe.

The second law states that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, Oklahoma will automatically ban abortions and make the procedure a felony. Similar legislation has been passed nationwide as the threat to Roe increases. These laws are often referred to as trigger bans as they are automatically “triggered” if Roe is overturned. Oklahoma is already one of the 19 states with laws that could restrict the legality of abortion. If this ban passes, it would become the ninth state to implement a trigger ban. In 2019 only, over 250 restrictive abortion bills have been introduced in state legislatures. Several states such as Kentucky and Mississippi have attempted to pass “heartbeat bills,” which would ban abortions as soon as the sixth week of pregnancy before most women even know they are pregnant.

 

Media Resources: KOSU 2/26/19; Feminist Newswire 4/3/19; Guttmacher Institute 7/1/19; Washington Post 7/12/19; Vice 7/12/19

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