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.

Judge Blocks Tennessee’s Coronavirus Abortion Ban

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A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s halt on procedural abortions during the coronavirus pandemic. This decision is another victory for reproductive rights advocates fighting abortion bans across the United States, including in Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman ruled Friday that Tennessee cannot prohibit procedural abortions because they are time-sensitive procedures. Friedman also determined that the ban would not fulfill its purported goal of preserving any significant amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) for COVID-19-related care. “Delaying a woman’s access to abortion even by a matter of days can result in her having to undergo a lengthier and more complex procedure that involves progressively greater health risks, or can result in her losing the right to obtain an abortion altogether,” Friedman wrote in his opinion.

On April 8, Governor Lee halted all non-emergency medical procedures until April 30 to reduce patient-provider interactions and preserve supplies of PPEs. A spokesperson later clarified that the halt also applied to abortion care.

Several Tennessee abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi and the Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health, sought a temporary restraining order for the governor’s ban. They argued that abortion is essential healthcare that cannot be delayed without potentially severe health and economic consequences for patients. The providers also argued that the ban would actually facilitate the spread of COVID-19 by pushing patients to travel to other states for care or forcing them to give birth, a procedure that requires more PPE use and patient-provider interaction than procedural abortions.

“The court’s decision today ensures that women in Tennessee can continue to make their own decisions about pregnancy and parenting based on what is best for their families,” said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee. “Especially during a pandemic, it is crucial that women have access to a full range of health services, including abortion, to ensure their health and well-being,”

Sources: CNN 4/18/20; The Hill 4/19/20

Millions of Low-Income Individuals Waiting for Relief Payments That May Never Arrive

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Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that more than 80 million Americans have received their COVID-19 relief payments via direct deposit. However, millions of people are still waiting, or may never receive their payments.

The key challenge for the IRS is getting payments to individuals who are not typically required to file tax returns–largely low-income people, students, disabled people, and people in the prison system. For example, individuals are not required to file tax returns if they earn less than $12,200 a year. Tax experts estimated there could be 10 million individuals who are eligible for the payments but may never receive it because of this communication issue over payment information.

The IRS is making various attempts to remedy this issue, and get payments to the people most in need–on a delayed timeline. First, the IRS will dole out automatic $1,200 payments to members of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program whether or not they filed tax returns. The SSI program benefits elderly, blind, and disabled individuals with little to no income.

Second, the IRS launched an online form called “Non-filers: Enter Payment Info Here,” as a way for people to disclose basic information that the IRS would already have if they were required to file tax returns. Similarly, an online form called “Get My Payment” allows people to provide direct deposit information, instead of waiting to get their paper check in the mail. The IRS is not expected to start sending paper checks until sometime next week.

Although these online tools may be convenient for some, many low income individuals also lack the internet access necessary to learn about these tools and input their information online.

Sources: The Hill, 4/17/20; CNN, 4/8/20

Deportations Continue, Threaten Other Countries’ Health Security Amid Crisis

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The Trump administration has continued the deportation of detainees, despite the global pandemic. The Trump administration has been deporting thousands to their home country including many infected persons, despite the threat of COVID-19.

Specifically, in Guatemala dozens have tested positive for the coronavirus after returning from the United States through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On Tuesday, the country’s health minister stated that the United States was responsible for driving up the country’s total cases, according to officials on one flight 50-75% of the deportees tested positive for COVID-19.

The president utilized executive authority to shut down the southwestern border claiming it was necessary to prevent migrants from bringing the virus. This move came after he allowed European travelers back into the country despite Europe having a much higher outbreak rate than southwestern countries. In addition to these restrictions, deportations of unaccompanied children and teens have increased steeply. Previously, these children were allowed to be moved to a refuge shelter and time to apply for asylum, now they are being sent back on flights with large numbers. Authorities from Guatemala have accused the United States of sending infected people back across its borders which is hard to refute considering deportations have increased and the United States has the most coronavirus cases globally.

The administration has also recklessly continued deportations to Honduras and El Salvador knowing that these countries would be devasted by the virus because of severe poverty and poor health systems. Migrant advocates and some Central American government officials have voiced their concerns emphasizes the area’s vulnerability to the pandemic.

Sources: The New York Times 4/18/20; Fox17 4/14/20

U.S. “Megadrought” Underway Showing Evidence of Climate Change

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Researchers confirm that a megadrought is a “naturally occurring event” which began in 2000 and is still underway. Climate change has impacted the rising temperatures, and is making the drought even worse. What’s worse, researchers now believe that the severity of this drought may be equivalent to super-droughts which have not been witnessed in over 1,000 years.

What is a megadrought? According to authors of recent research confirm that a megadrought, in North America, “refers to a multi-decade event, that contains periods of very high severity that last longer than anything observed during the 19th or 20th centuries.” Evidence in this report taken from soil moisture data confirms that in U.S. history, only 4 out of 40 droughts meet criteria for a megadrought.

The study also confirmed that even of the worst of these droughts in history, the past soil moisture records from 2000-2018 have already indicated that the current period is worse than 3 of the 4 other megadroughts on record. Plainly put, these naturally occurring events are now being exacerbated by climate change, making them both longer in duration and of higher severity.

Though research is still in relatively infantile stages, impacts of the megadrought can already be observed through the shrinking of two reservoirs in the US’s western region: Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Additionally, wildfires have increased exponentially in the area. Though scientists are not ready to declare a megadrought, that is ultimately what the future holds in only a short matter of time. As scientist Dr. Angelina Pendergrass with the US National Center for Atmospheric Research confirms, “Whether or not the western U.S. has crossed a threshold into an event that goes by any specific label, what’s been clear this century is that water is an essential resource in the western U.S., and it’s a precarious one, because the region can have long spells with little precipitation.”

 

Sources: BBC News 04/16/2020; BBC News 02/13/2015

Seven Midwest States Announce Their Plan to Partner on Reopening

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On Thursday, governors from seven Midwestern states announced that they will coordinate on reopening the Midwest regional economy. The Midwest pact joins the Northeast and West Coast in an effort to coordinate amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Midwest bipartisan effort includes Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kentucky.

In the governors’ collaboration, they announced their focus is on at least four factors to determine the best time to reopen state economies. These include sustained control of new infection and hospitalization rates, enhanced testing and tracing capabilities, adequate health care capacity to respond to a resurgence, and best workplace social distancing techniques.

Just an hour before the president introduced his phased approach, the governors released a statement stating, “We look forward to working with experts and taking a fact-based, data-driven approach to reopening our economy in a way that protects families from the spread of COVID-19.”

The coordinated efforts by the Midwest, West Coast, and in the Northeast will prove vital to the country’s effectiveness in combatting the virus. In total there are now 17 states involved in pacts to partner their states’ reopening. Although coordinated efforts do not mean all states will take the same exact measures, it does mean that the partnerships will be closely coordinating with bordering states and can plan accordingly. The Midwest states working together host nearly half of the country’s population. The governors stated that “phasing in sectors of our economy will be most effective when we work together as a region.”

Sources: CNN 4/17/20; ABC 4/16/20

Polish Parliament Postpones Vote on Restrictive Abortion Bill

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The Polish parliament has indefinitely delayed a final vote on a controversial bill that would almost completely ban abortion in the country. Poland’s current abortion laws, some of the strictest in Europe, only allow abortions in cases of rape or incest, danger to the pregnant person’s life, or severe fetal impairment. The proposed bill would remove fetal impairment, the justification for 98 percent of legal abortions in Poland, from that list.

Rather than vote on the bill, legislators sent it to two committees for further discussion. Human rights groups and activists criticized the government for considering the bill at all, particularly during the coronavirus crisis. Legislators withdrew a similar proposal following mass protests in 2016, an impossibility now due to Poland’s COVID-19 lockdown. Gatherings are limited to five people, with violations punishable by fine.

Protests occurred despite those restrictions. People hung posters on bikes and cars and posted protest videos online. On streets in Warsaw and Poznan, protesters wearing masks and standing six feet apart held signs supporting abortion access.

“They thought we wouldn’t protest at all,” Marta Lempart, founder of Women’s Strike, a grassroots women’s rights organization. “I think they thought we would be afraid of the economic persecution.”

Polish lawmakers are also considering a divisive and conservative bill that would criminalize “the promotion of underage sex,” effectively banning sex education in schools. Activists also warn that this bill would be used to persecute gay people.

“Attempting to pass these recklessly retrogressive laws at any time would be shameful, but to rush them through under the cover of the COVID-19 crisis is unconscionable,” said Draginja Nadazdin, the director of Amnesty International in Poland.

Sources: AP News 4/16/20; CNN 4/15/20; ABC News 4/15/20; BBC News 4/15/20

COVID-19 Small Business Loan Program Runs Out of Funds as Businesses Struggle

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Funding for the Paycheck Protection Program, a new federal program part of the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill signed into law late March, is already running out of funding. With no viable proposals by lawmakers in the works as of yet, the risk of bankruptcies and additional millions of unemployed workers seems more and more plausible during this period of economic decline.

If funding for this new federal program runs out, the Small Business Administration, in turn, will have to stop approving applications. As of April 15th, over 1.4 million loans had been approved at a value of approximately $315 billion. So far, Congress and the Trump administration have failed to reach an agreement on increasing the federal funding of this program. This replenishment of funding is necessary to help keep millions of businesses afloat. The struggling loan program was one of the first measures introduced by Congress in the stimulus package, and has been riddled with problems since it first was enacted.

While some lawmakers have pushed to quickly infuse the program with cash to keep it going, others have firmly insisted that new restrictions must be implemented to ensure that money is going to minority-owned businesses and other companies which are disadvantaged in the lending market. Lawmakers in favor of these restrictions have also advocated for more money to go towards hospitals, food-stamp recipients (SNAP), and local and state governments for tax receipts. There has been no movement from lawmakers of either side of this debate. Small businesses will continue to suffer until an agreement is reached.

Sources: NY Times 04/15/2020; NY Times 04/03/2020

Masterpiece Cakeshop Owner Faces Second Lawsuit for LGBTQ Discrimination

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Autumn Scardina is the plaintiff in the second lawsuit against Masterpiece Cakeshop Owner Jack Phillips for LGBTQ discrimination. The lawsuit argues that the business unlawfully refused service to Scardina, a transgender woman, who requested a trans-themed birthday cake.

Scardina had previously filed a complaint against Phillips when the refusal happened in 2018, but Phillips sued the state claiming the state was targeting his religious beliefs. The state of Colorado settled in March of 2018 and agreed not to pursue the case. Last June, Scardina filed a separate lawsuit that cites Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act and the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. The lawsuit argues that the shop “refused to sell a birthday cake to Ms. Scardina because she is transgender despite repeatedly advertising that they would sell birthday cakes to the general public, including LGBT individuals.”

In 2018, the Supreme Court voted on Phillip’s first case in denial of a same-sex couple’s wedding cake. The court ruled 7-2 that the commission violated Phillip’s first amendment rights over his refusal to provide service. In the Supreme Court case, Masterpiece Cakeshop claimed it would serve any baked good to the LGBTQ community, but it was the religious significance of the wedding cake that prompted the refusal. Based off the owner’s own words it would seem that a birthday cake would be a normal transaction of the shop and not carry religious significance.

The 2018 Supreme Court case failed to issue a broader ruling on religious objections based on gender and sexuality. The Denver court has not yet released whether the state intends to dismiss that case, but if allowed to continue, Scardina’s lawsuit could prompt decisions that the 2018 case did not cover.

Sources: The Hill 4/15/21; NBC News 4/15/20

The Afghan Girls Robotics Team Makes Ventilator Out of Toyota Parts

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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, five girls from Afghanistan who are a part of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team have designed a cheap ventilator powered by a Toyota Corolla.

In a report by Ashleigh Stewart at The National, Roya Mahboob, tech entrepreneur and one of the first female chief executives in Afghanistan, started the project in order to “help young women build digital literacy.” According to Mahboob, her and her team “help [their] people and [their community]. [As they] will do anything to help them.” The girls have proven themselves to be quite successful as they have won international contests in Europe and have participated in science competitions in India.

As cases of COVID-19 are increasing in Afghanistan, communities are in desperate need of ventilators in order to properly treat those affected by the virus. Luckily, some of Mahboob’s students, five young-women – Somaya Faruqi, Dyana Wahbzadeh, Folernace Poya, Ellaham Mandori, and Nahid Rahimi – have been working on prototypes for about a year.

According Stewart, “one is a gear-based system based on a design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. The other uses parts from a Toyota Corolla.” Mahboob notes that “the idea of these machines is that we use them for emergency cases, when there are no professional ventilators. The thing in Afghanistan is, we don’t have enough ventilators, but that’s the case for many countries, even Italy or New York. If we don’t have access to anything professional we can use these ones.”

As a new governor of Herat has just taken office, Mahboob does not yet know the immediate reality for their designs, but she does hope that the new governor will look at their work favorably. Mahboob believes that, “if these girls have access to the opportunity or the tools, their lives can be changed. But not only their lives, they can change their community too.”

Sources: The National 4/6; The Diplomat 4/7

ACLU Files Lawsuit Over Idaho Transgender Athlete Ban

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The ACLU has filed a complaint in Boise federal court on Wednesday, April 14 following Idaho Governor Brad Little’s signing of a bill banning the participation of transgender women and girls from women’s public and university sports into law on March 30.

The lawsuit challenges the new law, set to go into effect on July 1. According to Cynthia Sewell for the Idaho Statesman, this would make “Idaho the first state to impose an outright ban on participation of transgender athletes, and it’s the only statewide law regulating transgender and intersex athletes in the country.”

The ACLU’s 60-page complaint states that, “Idaho now stands alone in imposing the threat of unwanted, medically unnecessary invasions to bar and chill participation in women’s and girl’s athletics.”

Attorneys from the National ACLU, ACLU of Idaho, Legal Voice, and Cooley LLP have filed the complaint on behalf of 19-year-old Lindsay Hecox, a transgender Boise State University Student as well as a 17-year-old, anonymous, non-transgender student from Boise High School; both of whom identify as female. In an interview with the Associated Press, Hecox said that she “would like to compete as a female” and that she shouldn’t have her “privacy invaded.”

The NCAA already has a policy in place that allows transgender athletes to compete, but according to AP, “the sponsor of the Idaho law, Republican Barbara Ehardt, has called the NCAA policy “permissive.’”

According to Sewell, “Attorneys are asking the judge to enter a preliminary and permanent injunction barring the law from going into effect because they say it violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection, due process and search and seizure clauses, as well as Title IX, the 1972 law that bars sex discrimination in education.”

In a news release from ACLU of Idaho Legal Director Ritchie Eppink, he remarked that, “businesses, major employers, schools, doctors and counselors have all warned that this was is terrible for Idaho.” This comes after five of Idaho’s largest companies also decided to speak out against the state’s failure to support diversity and has encouraged the rejection of this legislation.

Sources: Idaho Statesman 4/15; New York Times 4/15; Associated Press 4/15

Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Arkansas Coronavirus Abortion Ban

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In a victory for reproductive rights advocates, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker has issued a temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement of Arkansas’ ban on abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like several other states, Arkansas attempted to stop all but emergency abortions during the pandemic, supposedly to preserve resources for COVID-19 care and reduce the virus’ spread.

As part of its coronavirus response, the Arkansas Department of Health ordered a halt on all medical procedures “that can be safely postponed shall be rescheduled to an appropriate future date.” The Arkansas Attorney General’s office declared that order applied to “any type of abortion that is not immediately medically necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.” The order would permit medication abortions but prohibit all surgical abortions.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several Arkansas abortion clinics challenged the order, requesting a temporary restraining order to allow abortion care to continue as normal. Baker granted that request, noting that the state’s order is likely unconstitutional because it would eliminate abortion access for anyone for whom medication abortion is not an option.

“With this order, the court has ensured that essential, time-sensitive health care can continue, and rebuffed Arkansas’ attempts to restrict access to abortion,” said Ruth Harlow, an ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project senior staff attorney.

This ruling is the latest in a series of legal victories for abortion advocates fighting restrictions in several states during the coronavirus pandemic. Just this week, federal courts blocked bans in Oklahoma and Alabama. On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reversed its initial decision upholding Texas’ ban, ruling that the state must allow medication abortions to continue.

Sources: The Hill 4/14/20; CNN 4/14/20

San Francisco Supervisors Order Mayor to House Homeless in Hotels

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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a pandemic-driven emergency ordinance giving the Mayor 12 days to secure 7,000 hotel rooms to house the city’s homeless population and an additional 1,250 rooms to house the city’s frontline workers.

During a Tuesday video conference, the Board rebuked Mayor London Breed’s more moderate strategy to place only the city’s most vulnerable in hotel rooms during the pandemic. The unanimously-approved emergency ordinance requires the mayor to secure rooms for San Francisco’s entire homeless population by April 26. If Mayor Breed is unsuccessful in brokering deals with hotel owners, the ordinance allows her to use emergency powers to commandeer the rooms.

Prior to the vote, San Francisco had leased about 2,000 hotel rooms but filled just under half. The city prioritized rooms for homeless persons more vulnerable to COVID-19, old people and those with underlying health conditions. Mayor Breed had resisted advocate calls to house all or most of the around 8,000 homeless San Franciscans, calling it logistically impractical.

“It’s not as easy as everyone would like to think,” Breed said during a media briefing on Monday. Managing the roughly 750 homeless people already in hotels required hundreds of staff. Additionally, although most hotels are empty, owners have refused to offer their properties to house the homeless.

Then, a majority of the people staying at MSC-South, the city’s largest homeless shelter, were infected with Coronavirus. Over 100 staff and guests tested positive, forcing officials to rush shelter residents to hotels where they could self-quarantine and recover.

During the vote, several members of the Board of Supervisors recognized the city failed to heed warnings from experts and advocates, who warned them that shelters like MSC-South would become fertile grounds for COVID-19.

“I am sorry,” Supervisor Dean Preston apologized to shelter residents, “that after weeks of warnings, only the confirmed outbreak in your shelters spurred action from all of us.”

NPR, 4/15/2020; the Mercury News, 4/14/2020; CalMatters, 3/20/2020

Trump Administration Asks for Census Delay

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The Trump administration has moved to delay deadlines for the 2020 United States Census due to concerns over COVID-19.

The changes, requested by Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, would delay the deadline for delivering state population counts for apportionment from December 2020 to April 2021 and for giving states data for redistricting from the end of March 2021 to the end of July 2021. Because the deadlines are established by federal law, changes would have to be made with approval from Congress. Upon Congressional approval, some states would need to pass their own legislation to account for these delays.

According to Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY 12), who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, no representatives from the Census Bureau were on a call Monday morning that was organized by the White House. “Preventing the Census director from briefing the committee and then excluding him from a call organized by the White House are not encouraging moves,” she said.

Officials from the Census Bureau postponed all field operations for the massive national head count until June 1, with the final deadline for data collection pushed back to October 31, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Former Census Bureau director John Thompson noted that the timing of the census makes traditional in-person collections of questionnaires even more difficult: “If they start the census again too early, it’s going to be a disaster because you are going to get people sick, you’re not going to get people to respond.”

According to Dillingham and Ross’ statement, over 48% of American households have already responded to the Census. The Census is mandated by the Constitution and provides key data about population demographics and helps determine federal funding for schools, roads and fire departments. It also determines the number of seats each state has in the House and the borders of each congressional district.

“We need the Administration to cooperate with our requests [for more information] so we can make informed decisions on behalf of the American people,” said Rep. Maloney.

Sources: ABC 04/13/20; Politico 04/13/20; The Hill 04/13/20

Abortion Services Allowed to Continue in Oklahoma After Appeals Court Ruling

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The decision by a lower court to overturn the Oklahoma governor’s ban on abortion has been upheld by a federal appeals court. Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made a unanimous ruling to allow abortions to continue in Oklahoma, overturning Gov. Kevin Stitt’s (R) ban on abortion as part of his executive order from March 27 halting all non-essential medical procedures during the COVID-19 outbreak. District Judge Charles Goodwin granted a temporary restraining order against the state’s ban on abortion earlier this month.

The president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, Nancy Northup, stated, “It’s time for Oklahoma and other states to stop exploiting the pandemic to shutdown clinics. Oklahoma’s true motive has never been more apparent. This has nothing to do with the current pandemic–it’s purely politics.”

Governor Stitt’s attempt to undermine women’s healthcare is being replicated across the country. Multiple governors have tried to include abortion as a non-essential procedure under executive orders that are aimed at freeing up medical equipment and resources. Abortion bans are being challenged in court by organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and the Center for Reproductive Rights.

In Alabama, a district judge ruled Sunday that abortions must be allowed to continue in the state, and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio declined to hear an appeal from the Ohio Attorney General attempting to reverse a judge’s restraining order allowing abortions to proceed. Abortion advocates in Texas are taking their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court allowed the state to temporarily ban abortion.

Sources: New York Times, 4/13/20; The Hill, 4/13/20.

Jill Karofsky Defeats Daniel Kelly for Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat

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Democrat Jill Karofsky has defeated the incumbent Justice Daniel Kelly for his seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court according to results released Monday, reducing the conservative majority in the court and solidifying another seat for a woman on the bench.

According to Partick Marley for USA Today, Karofsky has “served as the state’s first violence against women resource prosecutor and later oversaw crime victim services for the state Department of Justice. In that role, she helped change the law to make it easier for victims to get restitution and helped change court rules to better protect victims’ privacy, such as by having court documents refer to them by their initials instead of their names.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court vote took place last week despite Governor Tony Evers’ efforts to postpone the vote until at least June in light of COVID-19 closures and distancing measures. According to BBC, “voters braved long queues at a limited number of polling stations where some staff wore hazmat suits.”

Wisconsin was the first state in over a month to hold an in-person primary since the U.S. began to implement stay-at-home orders. Voting turnout was extremely high despite the pandemic. Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, noted that, “despite the result, the fact that this in-person election took place was a searing loss for Wisconsin.”

Wisconsin has reported over 3,400 positive coronavirus cases and 154 deaths.

“Look, we shouldn’t have had the election on Tuesday,” Karofsky commented following the vote. “It was an untenable decision (on whether to vote), but the people of the state of Wisconsin rose up.”

Justice Kelly’s defeat came as a shock due to his presidential support and the fact that he is only the second incumbent state Supreme Court justice to be voted out of a seat since 1967. However, Kelly did congratulate Karofsky and said that he still plans on working hard for the remainder of his term.

Sources: BBC 4/14; USA Today 4/13

Judge Affirms Abortion Access in Alabama During Coronavirus Pandemic

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A federal judge has ruled that Alabama cannot ban abortions during the coronavirus pandemic. District Judge Myron Thompson decided that the state must allow abortion providers to exercise “reasonable medical judgment” in deciding whether a procedure can wait until after the COVID-19 crisis.

Alabama, like many other states, ordered a halt on non-essential medical procedures until April 30 to conserve medical supplies and hospital beds and reduce the strain on healthcare personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the state refused to say whether abortion care could proceed under that order, abortion clinics sought an injunction to prevent an abortion ban.

On Sunday, Thompson granted that injunction, writing, “The defendants’ efforts to combat COVID-19 do not outweigh the lasting harm imposed by the denial of an individual’s right to terminate her pregnancy, by an undue burden or increase in risk on patients imposed by a delayed procedure, or by the cloud of unwarranted prosecution against providers.”

Reproductive rights advocates and clinics are fighting similar legal battles in several states, including Texas, Ohio, and Oklahoma. Just last week, a federal appeals court upheld Texas’ abortion ban, while a district judge blocked Oklahoma’s ban.

Clinics argue that banning abortion does not provide health benefits. Instead, it denies patients access to vital reproductive care and facilitates the spread of COVID-19 by forcing patients to travel to other states for abortions. “Preventing someone from getting an abortion doesn’t do anything to stop the COVID-19 virus, it just takes the decision whether to have a child out of their hands,” said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.

Sources: CBS News 4/12/20; The Guardian 4/13/20; Montgomery Advertiser 4/13/2

Virginia Governor Signs Abortion Protections and Gun Reform Into Law

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On Friday, Governor Ralph Northam signed bills into law that roll back state abortion restrictions, specifically the state’s TRAP (Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers) laws. The removal of abortion restrictions comes at a time when reproductive rights are being restricted under the current administration and during the COVID-19 crisis.

Northam’s spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky stated that the Reproductive Health Protection Act, sponsored by Del. Charniele Herring in the state House and Sen. Jennifer McClellan in the state Senate, will go into effect on July 1. Overall, the bills remove restrictions that have long been in place to limit easy access to abortion. The legislation removes restrictions that require healthcare seekers to receive an ultrasound at least 24 hours prior to receiving an abortion and to get counseling on alternative options. The measures remove the requirement that only physicians can provide abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy. The bills also eliminate the requirement that facilities that provide more than five abortions per year be designated as hospitals.

State Senator Jennifer McClellan stated, “Today, we have finally put an end to these medically unnecessary barriers to women’s reproductive health care. Politicians should not interfere in women’s personal medical decisions, period.” The passing of bills expands abortion provider pools significantly. Northam made his stance clear, stating, “No more will legislators in Richmond — most of whom are men — be telling women what they should and should not be doing with their bodies… [the bills] will make women and families safer, and I’m proud to sign it into law.”

On Friday, the governor also signed five gun control measures into law. Overall these measures include greater background checks and a new “red flag” law which permits stricter enforcement for those classified a danger to themselves or other.

Sources: CNN 4/10/20; The Hill 4/11/20

Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Texas Coronavirus Abortion Ban

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A federal appeals court upheld Texas’s ban on abortion services during the coronavirus crisis less than 24 hours after a district judge struck down parts of the ban. This latest decision blocks medication abortions but allows abortions for those who would be past Texas’s legal gestational limit at the end of the ban.

In late March, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order halting all “non-essential” medical procedures until at least April 22 to conserve supplies for COVID-19-related care and reduce strain on the healthcare system. State Attorney General Ken Paxton then declared that all non-emergency abortions are elective procedures and ordered providers to stop performing them. Doctors who violate the order could receive jail time or fines of up to $1000.

The attorney general’s order quickly became the center of a legal battle as Texas abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, went to court to fight the ban. Providers and reproductive rights advocates argue that banning abortion, beyond being a violation of patients’ constitutional rights, is dangerous because it forces people to travel out of state during a pandemic to get the care they need.

On March 31, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a federal district court’s initial injunction that allowed Texas clinics to continue providing abortion care, sending the case back to the district court. Last Thursday, District Judge Lee Yaekel ordered that Texas allow medication abortions and and surgical abortions for patients who would pass the state’s gestational limit during the ban. “A ban within a limited period becomes a total ban when that period expires. As a minimum, this is an undue burden on a woman’s right to a previability abortion,” wrote Yaekel.

This small victory for Texas abortion providers was short-lived. On Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas could entirely halt medication abortions. Following the appeals court decision, Planned Parenthood submitted an emergency request for the Supreme Court to take up the case.

Sources: CBS 4/10/20; NPR 4/10/20; Quartz 4/13/20

Insurance Companies Say Action Must Be Taken to Avoid Collapse of Insurance Industry

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Representatives of the insurance industry took action and wrote a letter to some congressional lawmakers in California, revealing that insurance companies do not have the foundations necessary to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Insurance coverage works by spreading risk, but that model simply cannot account for a situation in which losses are catastrophic and nearly universal,” the April 2 letter noted. “Standard business interruption policies do not, and were not designed to, provide coverage against communicable diseases such as COVID-19, and as such, were not actuarially priced to do so.”

The letter added that the groups are ready to work with Congress to find solutions beyond the CARES Act, which provides for loan programs that will give down payments for Main Street businesses. The CARES Act, or the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, is a $2.2 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress. The organizations said that further liquidity will be necessary to avoid an “unprecedented, systemic economic crisis.”

According to insurance experts and regulators, many companies are finding it difficult to get an insurance payout due to policy changes after the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak. Many insurers added exclusions to standard commercial policies for any losses due to viruses or bacteria. This language could allow insurance companies to not have to pay billions of dollars to companies because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Robert Gordon, a senior vice president at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said, “Insurers realized they would not be able to cover such a broad-scale event.” This is an issue that is widely expected to be settled in the courts.

Sources: The Hill, 4/8/20; Washington Post, 4/2/20.

Activist Phyllis Lyon Passes Away at Age 95

Posted on by Feminist Newswire

LGBTQ+ rights pioneer, Phyllis Lyon, died at age 95 yesterday of natural causes.

Lyon co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the United States’ first lesbian organization in 1955. She and her wife, Del Martin, were the first couple to married in San Francisco’s “Winter of Love” in 2004, a time when the mayor of San Francisco issued thousands of marriage licenses to same-sex couples, despite it being illegal.

Lyon and Martin also created a publication called The Ladder, a monthly publication that ran from 1956 to 1972, which had content on politics, fiction, poetry, and connecting lesbians across the country. Lyon and Martin were also the first lesbian couple to join the National Organization for Women (NOW), and worked to have the organization expand to fight for lesbian rights.

California State Senator Wiener memorialized her saying, “We lost a giant today…Phyllis Lyon fought for LGBTQ equality when it was neither safe nor popular to do so. Phyllis and her wife Del Martin played a crucial role winning the rights and dignity our community now enjoys. We owe Phyllis immense gratitude for her work. Rest in power.”

Sources: TowleRoad 4/9/20; San Francisco Bay Times 2019; SFist 4/9/20

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