Yesterday in Lansing, Michigan, on the steps of the state Capitol, a crowd estimated at 2,500 to 5,000 watched in delight as women legislators help enact a performance of The Vagina Monologues, joined by its writer, Eve Ensler (see photo at bottom). What led up to this? Former Michigander Carol King reports: Michigan’s rabid anti-choice [...]
If you know that Mitt Romney once drove to Canada with his dog strapped to the roof of his car in a crate, it’s probably because you read Gail Collins’ regular column in The New York Times. She’s mentioned it in more than 60 pieces, and whenever she wickedly weaves it into a story I [...]
This week, the War on Women in Michigan moved from low-intensity combat to a full-scale firefight. Without warning, state Rep. Bruce Rendon (R-Lake City), launched a package of three anti-choice bills (H.B. 5711, 5712 and 5713) that represent an unprecedented assault on reproductive rights. Among other things, the bills would turn conscientious health care providers of late-term abortions [...]
Today, more than 17 million American women are living in poverty, and more than 7.5 million of those in extreme poverty–meaning that they survive on less than $5,672 a year. Female-headed households are really hurting: Forty percent live in poverty. These women and their families aren’t numbers. They may be you, me, our families or [...]
Update: The amendment was defeated in the Senate 51-48. That means that the Obama administration’s policy remains in place: Women who work for Catholic employers will have no-cost contraception coverage in their insurance plans if they wish it. Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate will vote on the Blunt Amendment–or, as conservatives choose to euphemize it, the [...]
This week the world was stunned by the announcement that the much-lauded, seemingly apolitical and altruistic Susan G. Komen for the Cure cut off funding for breast cancer screenings for poor women at Planned Parenthood health centers. Even though Komen is now backing off the decision, the curtain has been pulled back to reveal the [...]
I need to get this out of the way immediately: I attended an event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I know, I know. You’d sooner walk on hot coals barefoot than set a well-covered foot onto the floor of the Reagan Library, unless you were there for a protest. Normally, so would I. But [...]
For the first time in many years, poverty is news again. Newspaper headlines, television report and the blogosphere have reacted to the latest Census Bureau report showing that U.S. poverty increased last year, and that women and children are among the poorest of the poor. In fact, poverty among women is at the highest level in [...]
For eight years, I walked through the doors of my Catholic elementary school under the words “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” I haven’t thought about my grade school, Patronage of St. Joseph, in a very, very long time. But as I listened the other night to Barbara Blaine, founder and president of [...]
Women are the majority of Americans living at or below the poverty level. Deeper cuts in our federal safety net programs–Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Health Care and Family Planning–will drive those women deeper into poverty and push more women over the poverty line, along with their families. While news, this isn’t new. My friend Beverley [...]
