Womenstake, NWLC's Blog

North Carolina’s Anti-Abortion Bill Take Two

Posted by Bethany Van Kampen, Law Student Intern | Posted on: July 16, 2013 at 12:02 pm

Déjà vu, anyone? Less than two weeks ago, we saw the North Carolina Senate pass HB 695, a sweeping anti-abortion measure that could have left just one clinic in the state. But Governor McCrory threatened to veto the bill after it passed the Senate, citing problems with both the bill’s process and content. So last Thursday, anti-abortion legislators were at it again.

They passed a very similar bill, SB 353, that changed the content only slightly. But the process was still a problem – like the first bill, the new version contains extreme abortion restrictions tacked on to completely unrelated matters. The first one was tacked onto a bill prohibiting the use of sharia law. This one? Tacked onto a bill relating to motorcycle safety. The current bill was introduced in committee on Wednesday without public notice and quickly moved to the floor, where it passed the next day. Now it heads to the state Senate for consideration, where it is expected to pass.

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Tags: Abortion, Abortion, North Carolina, Reproductive Health & Rights, Reproductive Refusals & Restrictions, Barriers to Reproductive Care, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | Add new comment

Texas Abortion Bill Sparks Outrage

Posted by Kelli Garcia, Senior Counsel | Posted on: July 15, 2013 at 05:04 pm

On Friday, the Texas Senate passed sweeping anti-abortion restrictions, that unconstitutionally ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and will unnecessary require abortion clinics to meet the standards set for hospital style-surgical centers, among other provisions. The bill now awaits Gov. Rick Perry’s signature. Once signed, it will force most of Texas’ 42 abortion clinics to close. This is certainly a sad day for women’s health.

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Tags: Abortion, Abortion, Reproductive Health & Rights, Reproductive Refusals & Restrictions, Texas, Barriers to Reproductive Care, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | Add new comment

Michigan Court: Mersino Management Bosses Do Not Get to Decide if Employees Get Access to Birth Control Coverage

Posted by Hillary Schneller, Fellow | Posted on: July 15, 2013 at 03:56 pm

Last Thursday, July 11, a district court in Michigan refused to temporarily stop enforcement of the contraceptive coverage benefit against another for-profit corporation. The company challenging the contraceptive coverage benefit is Mersino Management. Mersino Management sells water bypass systems for profit. Indeed, it states that “complete water management is our specialty.” The bosses at Mersino Management also think that they have a special right to decide whether their employees get access to birth control. Specifically, Mersino Management has been arguing in court that for-profit companies can exercise religious beliefs and that bosses’ should be able to impose those religious beliefs on their employees to determine whether employees are able to have birth control coverage.  

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Tags: Birth Control Refusal, Birth Control, Health Care, Michigan, Barriers to Reproductive Care, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | Add new comment

Women's Rights and the 2012-2013 Supreme Court Term

Posted by Cortelyou Kenney, Fellow | Posted on: July 15, 2013 at 11:59 am

This Term, the Supreme Court issued some major victories but also some heartbreaking setbacks in cases with important implications for women.

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Tags: Issues Before the Courts, Supreme Court, Supreme Court, Judges & the Courts | Add new comment

Freedom To Make Educated Decisions is a Freedom To Life

Posted by Yumhee Park, Program Assistant | Posted on: July 12, 2013 at 02:33 pm

At 11 years old, I had the privilege to dream up endless possibilities for my future. At 11 years old, I was nose deep in the Harry Potter series, dreamt of being a teacher one day, a news reporter the next, and an author in my spare time. My dreams were not limited but as expansive as my imagination would allow.

This past week, coverage of an 11 year old girl in Chile being forced to carry a pregnancy to term caused by a rape (by her stepfather) has been inducing criticism globally. Abortion in Chile is absolutely illegal even in cases of rape, incest, and danger to the mother’s life. What has been even more heart-breaking is the fact that she has been praised for her “depth and maturity” in deciding to go through the pregnancy (not that she was allowed any other option or provided any other choice) by Chilean president Sebastian Pinera.

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Tags: Abortion, Abortion, Reproductive Refusals & Restrictions, Health Care & Reproductive Rights | 2 comments

Women’s Employment Update: Fourth Anniversary of the Recovery Shows Job Gains, But a Long Way to Go

Posted by Abby Lane, Fellow | Posted on: July 10, 2013 at 05:16 pm

Amid BBQs and Independence Day celebrations, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the monthly jobs data for June last Friday. With these new data, we can now see how the economy is doing four years since the recovery started in June 2009. Today, NWLC released a new report on how women are faring.

So what’s the main take away? Women have made much better job gains in the recovery over the past couple of years, but there is a still a long way to go to a full recovery.

Our new report gives you all the details on the numbers, but here are a few key points:

  • Unemployment rates have declined for adult women and dramatically for adult men since the start of the recovery: from 7.6 percent in June 2009 to 6.8 percent in June 2013 for adult women and from 9.9 percent in June 2009 to 7.0 percent in June 2013 for adult men. However, unemployment rates for both adult women and men in June 2013 were still more than one and a half times higher than in December 2007.
    Unemployment Rates for Women and Men, Recession and Recovery
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Tags: Economic Recovery, Jobs, Unemployment & UI, Unemployment, Poverty & Income Support | Add new comment

Praise-worthy: HELP Committee Passes Employment Non-Discrimination Act with Bipartisan Support

Posted by Valarie Hogan, Fellow | Posted on: July 10, 2013 at 05:05 pm

Equality finally seems to be catching on – after decades of fighting. The Supreme Court struck down the 1996 law banning federal recognition of same-sex marriage, and today the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed out of Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee with bipartisan support. ENDA prohibits discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In a 15-7 vote, all 12 Democrats on the committee supported the bill along with 3 Republicans.

The bill has been introduced in almost every Congress since 1994. During this same time period, 16 states and the District of Columbia have adopted laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and 88 percent of Fortune 500 Companies have implemented non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation while 57 percent include gender identity

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Tags: 112 Congress, Senate HELP Committee, Employment | Add new comment

Seven Reasons Why the Senate’s Labor-HHS-Education Funding Bill Has Us Cheering

Posted by Ellie Klein, Intern | Posted on: July 10, 2013 at 04:30 pm

The Senate Subcommittee on Appropriations for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies just approved a funding plan for those agencies in Fiscal Year 2014. The full Committee will consider the bill tomorrow.

During the Subcommittee’s consideration of the bill, Senators voiced their appreciation of the bipartisan effort and conversations leading up to the bill. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Chair of the Subcommittee, expressed her commitment to get the bill on the Senate floor saying “If we move this bill, America and the people who live in it will be in a better place.”  Senator Mikulski explained that the appropriations bill laid the groundwork for expanding opportunity in America through empowering students, investing in education and getting people to work in the 21st century.

We agree. The bill not only rejects the painful cuts from sequestration—it provides additional funding in several key areas, especially early childhood education. Here are seven reasons we were dancing in our offices when we saw the details of the Senate Subcommittee’s FY 2014 Labor, Health and Human Services Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill:

  1. Early Childhood Education: A $1.43 billion increase for Head Start, including Early Head Start - Child Care Partnerships, plus a $171 million increase for existing Head Start and Early Head Start programs; a $176 million increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grants, including $110 million for new quality improvement grants and $66 million for child care assistance as well as $750 million for Preschool Development Grants.
  2. Implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA): $5.2 billion to the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services to implement the Affordable Care Act, an increase from $3.9 billion in FY 2013.  The ACA will help nearly 30 million Americans, including nearly 15 million women, to access high-quality, affordable health insurance.
  3. Mental Health: $40 million for Project AWARE State grants, which will focus on making schools safer and connecting young people with mental health services, and $40 million in new funding to address shortages in the behavioral health workforce.
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Tags: Affordable Care Act (ACA), Budget, Child Care & Early Learning, Early Learning, Federal Budget, FY 14 Budgets, Health Care, Senate, Social Security, Social Security, Tax & Budget | Add new comment
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