“We’re here to express the outrage of literally millions of American women,” announced Feminist Majority president, Ms. publisher and long-time activist Eleanor Smeal at the National Press Club in Washington yesterday. That outrage is being channeled into a massive get-out-the-vote (GOTV) mobilization of women. Organized by a coalition of more than 50 women’s groups under […]
HERvotes
The #HERvotes campaign for women to vote in 2012 to preserve our health and economic rights
Blocking the Vote: Voting Rights Under Attack
In the wake of the 2010 elections, states all over the country enacted legislation that will make voting more difficult for an estimated 5 million people. Most of the laws, which experts say will make it harder for women, African Americans, Latinos, students, low-income voters, the elderly and the disabled to participate in elections, will go into effect just in time for the 2012 presidential election.
Boehner Ups the Threat Against Contraception Coverage
This morning, House Speaker John Boehner vowed in a House floor speech to overturn the provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that would require faith-affiliated hospitals and universities to include birth-control coverage in their employee health benefits. The provision, Boehner argued, “constitutes an unambiguous attack on religious freedom in our country.”
11 Doctors Explain Why All Employers Should Cover Birth Control
Some religious institutions are objecting to new federal rules requiring that they cover contraception for their employees in their health insurance policies. Today, Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health (PRCH) physicians remember patients whose stories show the importance of affordable birth control for all women, no matter where they work.
Where’s the Bipartisan Support for the Violence Against Women Act?
VAWA was originally passed in 1994 and currently has the bipartisan support of a third of the full Senate. In a nod to harsh economic times, the money authorized has been lowered to the 2000 level, programs have been consolidated, budgets tightened and accountability emphasized.
So why have two of VAWA’s former champions failed to sponsor this year’s bill?
How Economic Insecurity Enables Abuse
One in four women has been a victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in her lifetime. While violence may not be ‘contagious,’ it is certainly infectious, leaving our country with a pandemic affecting more than just victims, but also sweeping across communities and destroying lives and livelihoods. To fully address this problem, we must take a deeper look into the economics that enable and encourage this abuse to be so pervasive. economics abuse
No Religious Exemption for Birth Control Coverage
Despite enormous pressure from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Obama Administration recently decided not to broaden the religious exemption for contraceptive coverage under the Preventive Care package of the Affordable Care Act. The Bishops are now leading a backlash against this decision, and women are speaking out.