ObamaCare’s many contraception lawsuits
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed in protest of the Obama administration’s policy that most employers include no-cost coverage of FDA-approved prescription contraceptives in health plans.Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84302.html#ixzz2DWR46vNz
POLITICOGOP-Controlled House: Committee chairs all menAt the top of House committees, it’s a man’s world.
Not a single woman will lead any of the major House committees in the 113th Congress.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84293.html#ixzz2DWOpvNJJ
Few GOP women picked for (party) leadership spots
After getting thumped among female voters last week, Republicans returned to Washington knowing they have to narrow the gender gap to prevent another drubbing in 2014 or 2016.
But in their first official action, the House and Senate GOP chose four women lawmakers out of 14 spots for senior leadership positions. The numbers underscored the party’s struggles to recruit and promote top women at a pivotal moment for their party.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83888.html#ixzz2DWPhVJtz
Meet Gubernatorial Candidate Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s Todd Akin
By Josh Israel on Dec 3, 2012 at 10:58 am
Virginia’s Republican Party appears poised to nominate state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to be its candidate for governor in 2013 — embracing a man whose extreme political views bear striking resemblance to those of unsuccessful 2012 Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO). Ken Cuccinelli II has been, in the words of the Washington Post’s editorial board, “the most overtly partisan attorney general in Virginia’s history.” If elected, the war on women will be alive in Virginia for years to come. Cuccinelli admits his own blunt style can be “cold-blooded.” Inevitably, Cuccinelli will have to move to the center on at least some issues temporarily to get elected, just like Gov. McDonnell, who changed from anti-abortion, anti-women crusader and Pat Robertson acolyte to a “Bobs for Jobs,” son-of-northern-Virginia pragmatist.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s entire career has been an exercise in trying to reduce and deny women access to care. He has co-sponsored “personhood” measures that would give full legal rights to fertilized eggs, supported defunding Planned Parenthood, and was the first attorney general to file a lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—on the same day the bill was signed into law.
Now, he’s trying to find ways to deny women access to birth control by letting your boss decide whether you get coverage through the ACA. What’s outrageous is that he is saying that employers who want to deny women access to birth control should engage in civil disobedience. Nearly 1.4 million women in Virginia are potentially at risk of losing coverage if Cuccinelli has his way. (MLK said of health care inequality: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”)
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* * * Do Republicans have their heads in the sand when it comes to women’s health? * * *
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Republicans block reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and proposing a dramatic and dangerous rollback in its protection for immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.
Don’t gut Violence Against Women Act
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/opinion/orloff-violence-against-women-act/index.html
(CNN) — The Violence Against Women Act has protected crime victims and helped police and prosecutors take violent criminals off our streets for nearly 20 years. After it became law in 1994, it was reauthorized, with robust support from both parties, in 2000 and 2005.
Republicans played a prominent role in crafting the act, and particularly its protections for undocumented crime victims. But this time around, House Republicans are blocking its reauthorization and proposing a dramatic and dangerous rollback in its protection for immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.
– A woman is battered every 9 seconds.
– One in four girls will experience sexual abuse before the age of 18.
– Sexual assault is the most under-reported crime in the world.
– More than 1 million women are stalked each year in the U.S.
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A new report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) shows conclusively that the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is working to reduce intimate partner violence. According to the report, “Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2010,” there has been an astounding 64 percent decline in intimate partner violence from 1993 to 2010. Since it became law in 1994, VAWA has surely played a critical role in this remarkable decline.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-gandy/violence-against-women-act_b_2237264.html
Posted: 12/04/2012 10:45 am
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* * * On the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which empowered women for the first time in centuries, the Center for Reproductive Rights Releases Report on the Republican War on Women * * *
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Planned Parenthood Sues (GOP-controlled) Texas Again Over Funding Cutoff
While the state’s 49 Planned Parenthood clinics don’t provide abortions, Texas officials said their close affiliation with a national pro-choice group such as Planned Parenthood undermined the state’s pro-life public policy.
In the budget, Republicans callously took away lifesaving cancer screenings for cervical and breast cancer, access to birth control, and other basic preventive health care for women.
- Gov. Perry and the Republicans in Texas have been at the forefront of the war on women.
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Fox News Op-Ed Says a Woman Is To Be Dominated By Men
By Zack Beauchamp on Dec 7, 2012 at 10:21 am
. . .A man’s place is in the office; “his” woman should simply “surrender” to his rule, wrote the author on this Fox News feature.
. . .In other words, put down your sword. It’s okay if your guy’s in charge. It’s okay if you don’t drive the car. In fact, it’s rather liberating.
. . .Fox News has a storied history of using its megaphone to broadcast sexism. Host Brian Kilmeade has said on-air that “Women are everywhere. We’re letting them play golf and tennis now. It’s out of control.”
On Nov. 16, 2012, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade referred to his female coworkers as Victoria’s Secret models who can also speak.
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Top Conservative Publication: Newtown Shooting Occurred Because Women Ran The School
By Zack Beauchamp on Dec 19, 2012 at 2:30 pm
What about all the males in Aurora, at Virginia Tech, at Columbine, at Fort Hood? This is the National Review, whose in-house editorial suggested Newtown was the price of the Second Amendment.
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House Republican Leader Blames Gun Violence On ‘Welfare Moms’
By Scott Keyes on Jan 22, 2013 at 3:20 pm
(The fact that it’s even necessary to dispel the notion that Social Security disability fraud is responsible for gun violence in the United States is a reflection of just how desperate Republicans are to blame anythingbut guns for gun violence.)
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/01/22/1479781/james-lankford-guns/
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* * * Republicans fight against sensible background checks for gun sales. * * *
Prominent Senator Ties VAWA To Gun Violence
Posted: 01/30/2013 2:52 pm EST | Updated: 01/30/2013 3:35 pm EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/30/patrick-leahy-vawa-gun-violence_n_2583458.html
Addressing panelists including NRA president Wayne LaPierre, Leahy said statistics show that women in the U.S. are killed “at alarming rates” by domestic abusers with guns, but in states that require background checks for handgun sales, 38 percent fewer women are shot by their partners. He asked one panelist, Baltimore Police Chief Jim Johnson, whether universal background checks would have a significant effect on keeping guns away from domestic abusers. Currently, background checks are not required by private gun sellers or at gun shows.
“Absolutely,” Johnson said. “Statistics show that when females are killed, it’s more likely, over 50 percent of the time, to be by a spouse or household member. A gun in a home where there is a history of domestic violence, statistics show that there is a 500 percent increase of chance that that person will be victimized by gun violence.”
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When it comes to the Violence Against Women Act, it’s really quite simple: There is no room for violence against women anywhere in our society. Not now – and not ever, said Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
While we are mired in gridlock over a bill that has always been bipartisan, each day 600 women are raped or sexually assaulted, while three women are murdered by a husband, boyfriend, or partner. It has to end!
The costs of intimate partner violence exceed $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health care services much of which is paid for by the employer.The annual cost of lost productivity due to domestic violence is estimated as $727.8 million with over 7.9 million paid workdays lost each year.
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Former Rep. Gabby Giffords testifies before the U.S. Senate on gun violence and urges action:
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The fight for women’s rights moves to India, a country were social conservatives in government and law enforcement have for years created virtual impunity for rapists and condoned violence against women. New Delhi is nicknamed India’s rape capital.
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An Indian protester shouts slogans during a protest in New Delhi, India against the gang-rape and beating of a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in Delhi, Dec. 27, 2012. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged initially to take action to protect the nation’s women. The young rape victim later died from injuries. Protests broke across India for one week against sex crimes and for better safety for women. Protesters denounced the police and government as the problem. This picture appeared front page in the Washington Post. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
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Malala was killed by right-wing zealots for speaking out.
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Trans-vaginal Ultrasound McDonnell Quietly Takes Major Step Against Women’s Reproductive Health and Rights
Bob McDonnell Quietly Certifies Revised Abortion Clinic Regulations
Richmond Times-Dispatch | By Jim Nolan Posted: 01/02/2013 7:35 am EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/bob-mcdonnell-abortion-clinics_n_2394391.html
Gov. Bob McDonnell has certified health regulations that impose strict hospital construction standards on Virginia abortion clinics — triggering the next step in a multitiered approval process that could make the revised rules permanent by this summer. These are some the most extreme state anti-abortion laws in the country, according to women’s health advocates.
Unlike the public relations ballyhoo that accompanies many executive actions, McDonnell, an anti-abortion Republican, certified the regulations and had them posted to the Virginia Town Hall website without a public announcement on the Friday between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, when few people in Virginia are paying attention.
. . .
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) threatened each member of the Virginia Board of Health into applying these unfair construction code rules onto existing women’s healthcare clinics. Among other things, he told them that each member would end up personally paying for any legal bill resulting from litigation challenging the rules.
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With Millions Still Waiting For Sandy Relief, Republicans Reintroduce Obamacare Repeal and Fail to Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act
By Adam Peck on Jan 3, 2013 at 2:38 pm
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor killed the the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that has done a huge amount to help victims of such violence. This is first time since its original passage in 1994 that VAWA has not been reauthorized.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/01/03/1394071/bachmann-repeal-obamacare
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Also in 2013. . .
Republicans in the U.S. Congress introduced several bills to hurt women’s reproductive health and rights — all in the first 48 hours of the new session.
Blatantly ignoring a clear message in the 2012 elections from millions of women who voted to end the GOP War on Women, they hope to:
— Block Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds for family planning
— Criminalize women for ending a pregnancy even in cases of rape and incest, and possibly go as far as banning some forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization
— Repeal ObamaCare, which helps millions of women
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In Virginia, despite the public lashing Virginia GOP lawmakers took in the 2012 elections over their push for an infamous mandatory trans-vaginal ultrasound bill, some of them are kicking off the 2013 state legislative session with a slew of new controversial bills that hurt women’s reproductive health and rights, as well as to outlaw family planning/birth control.
Virginia Abortion, Contraception Bills Proposed In New Legislative Session
Posted: 01/04/2013 1:33 pm EST | Updated: 01/04/2013 7:59 pm EST
Bob McDonnell, Ken Cuccinelli, Bob Virginia Contraception, Virginia Contraception Bill, Virginia Contraception Law————————–
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When Obama acts to reduce gun violence, Republicans talk about presidential impeachment.
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U.S. HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES: SHOW ME AND YOUR CONSTITUENTS JUST HOW MUST YOU CARE ABOUT LIFE WHEN YOU VOTE TO ADDRESS OUR GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC. Our broken gun laws and our gun violence epidemic constitute A HUGE MORAL ISSUE. What will be your legacy on this?
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Republican-controlled states now have stricter laws against pregnant women than against criminals trying to get their hands on military assault weapons.
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* * * Is the Grand Olde Party (GOP) trying to take women to another era? * * *
- * * * Is the Grand Olde Party (GOP) trying to take women to another era? * * *
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Republicans criticize a West Point Academy report pointing to increased violence from right-wing groups
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Republican Pundit Blames ‘Awful-Looking’ Women For Marital Problems
The Huffington Post | By Cavan Sieczkowski Posted: 01/15/2013 11:30 am EST | Updated: 01/15/2013 1:45 pm EST
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VA Attorney General Cuccinelli recommends breaking the law to deny family planning to low-income women.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/11/va-ag-prescribes-jail-as-contraception-protest/
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GOP bill: Abortion after rape is ‘tampering with evidence’
January 24, 2013|By Sam Wood, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
http://articles.philly.com/2013-01-24/news/36529362_1_aborted-fetus-gop-bill-new-mexico
New Mexico Bill Would Imprison Rape Victims Who End Pregnancy
By Aviva Shen on Jan 24, 2013 at 11:59 am
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Many teens are denied emergency contraception. Picture taken from the Facebook page of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.
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Right-Wing Media Turn To Absurd Sports Analogy To Attack Women In Combat
Research January 25, 2013 3:23 PM EST ››› THOMAS BISHOP
Right-wing media figures opposed to the Pentagon permitting women to serve in combat roles attacked the decision by pointing to sex-segregated sports teams. But military research has shown that women are capable of serving in combat, and the decision has the support of major political and military figures.
http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/01/25/right-wing-media-turn-to-absurd-sports-analogy/192395
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Cantor: Rape is less heinous to some women
Politics December 14, 2012 By: Jackie Chazan
http://www.examiner.com/article/cantor-rape-is-less-heinous-to-some-women
According to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va) rape against Native American women is a less heinous crime that doesn’t deserve protection.
Cantor wants to strip from the bill a key protection for Native American women.
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New Front in the War on Women
Jan 31, 2013 | By ThinkProgress
A record number of new abortion restrictions — 135 in all — were put in place during 2011 and 2012. The GOP nominated someone who has advocated for so-called “personhood” measures and co-sponsored a bill to redefine rape as their vice presidential candidate. Republican senatorial candidates made highly offensive and inexplicable comments about rape. All of this and the numerous other assaults on women’s health help explain why the 2012 election featured a historic gender gap.
Now Republicans are starting off 2013 with another major anti-abortion push in the states. This time the push is around so-called “fetal heartbeat” bills — bills that attempt to ban abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected. This means abortion could be banned after just six weeks, which is before many women even know they are pregnant.
ThinkProgress’ Tara Culp-Ressler rounds up just the latest unconstitutional effort to restrict access to abortion:
– OHIO: Anti-choice lawmakers in Ohio first advanced a heartbeat bill in 2011. After the measure was stalled in the state senate for over a year, abortion opponents pressured the legislature to take up the issue again during their lame duck session after the 2012 elections. But ultimately, the bill didn’t come up for a vote because the state Senate leader, Tom Niehaus (R-OH), acknowledged it was too controversial even among abortion opponents. Niehaus said he wanted to wait until lawmakers anti-choice communityreached consensus on the measure — which means it could be back on the agenda sometime this year.
– MISSISSIPPI: About a week into the new year, GOP lawmakers in Mississippifiled a fetal heartbeat bill virtually identical to the one that failed to make it out of committee during the state’s last legislative session. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) has already made it clear that he would sign such a bill if it ever reaches his desk. At a private anti-abortion event at the beginning of January, the governor confirmed that he supports banning abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected. “It would tell that mother, ‘Your child has a heartbeat,’” Bryant said.
– WYOMING: About two weeks ago, state Rep. Kendell Kroeker (R) introduced a measure to supersede the medical definition of viability. Current state law says abortions are prohibited after a fetus has “reached viability,” and Kroeker sought to replace those words with “a detectable fetal heartbeat.” The Republican lawmaker said the idea for his heartbeat bill just came to him one day because “it became clear that if a baby had a heartbeat, that seemed simple to me that it’s wrong to kill it.” On Monday, a House panel struck down Kroeker’s bill because it was too medically vague. But if Ohio and Mississippi are any indication, this likely won’t be the last time that fetal heartbeat legislation shows up in Wyoming.
– ARKANSAS: Republicans in Arkansas also hopped on the fetal heartbeat train this week, but they went a step further — state Sen. Jason Rapert’s (R) proposed heartbeat bill would prosecute the doctors who perform abortionsafter the arbitrary cut-off with a Class D felony, punishable by up to six years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. And thanks to the strong Republican majorities in Arkansas’ legislature, this piece of legislation has a good chance of advancing. It easily passed out of committee on Wednesday and is now headed to the state Senate, where 19 of the chamber’s total 35 members have already signed onto it as co-sponsors.
– NORTH DAKOTA: Like Arkansas, the anti-choice politicians in North Dakota want to prosecute the doctors who perform abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected — and their heartbeat ban was part of the “flurry” of anti-abortion bills that lawmakers rushed to introduce around last week’s Roe v. Wade anniversary. A House committee is currently considering the measure, along with an even more radical “personhood” proposal. North Dakota has already imposed some the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the nation, and women’s health advocates in the state warn that the passage of these new bills “would be tantamount to banning abortion” altogether.
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Conservative Pastor on Birth Control
TEApublican radio host Pastor Kevin Swanson is certainly no scientist. On his radio show he claimed that upon examination by “certain doctors and certain scientists” that “there are these little tiny fetuses, these little babies, that are embedded into the womb…Those wombs of women who have been on the birth control pill effectively have become graveyards for lots and lots of little babies.”
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Fox News: Rape On College Campuses Doesn’t Really Happen
Published on Feb 22, 2013
Fox News’ The Five recently held a roundtable discussion on a Colorado bill that would allow women to carry concealed weapons on college campuses to prevent sexual assault. Co-host Bob Beckel brought the discussion to a halt when he asked “When was the last time you heard about a rape on a campus?”
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Mail Order Bride Company President Lobbying To Weaken Protections For Abused Immigrants
Posted: 05/08/2012 4:19 pm Updated: 05/08/2012 11:36 pm
A top official at an anti-domestic violence advocacy group that has been encouraging the House GOP to roll back protections for immigrant victims in the Violence Against Women Act (or VAWA) is the founder of a controversial international matchmaking company, domestic violence workers warned lawmakers on Monday night.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/violence-against-women-act_n_1500693.html
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Only 8 out of 50 states consider anal rape to be “rape.”
Survivor of brutal attack by police officer heads to Albany to expand state’s definition of ‘rape’ to include forced oral and anal sex: ‘Rape is rape’
BY KENNETH LOVETT / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2013, 11:07 PM
UPDATED: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013, 2:00 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/survivor-expand-ny-rape-statutes-article-1.1260437
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Arkansas Republicans Override Governor To Enact 20-Week Abortion Ban
By Tara Culp-Ressler on Feb 28, 2013 at 10:33 am
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/02/28/1650401/arkansas-override-governor/
* * * Transvaginal Ultrasounds Are Back!! * * *
Wisconsin Republicans: Forcing Women To Undergo Transvaginal Ultrasounds Is Our ‘Priority’
By Tara Culp-Ressler on Feb 15, 2013 at 9:00 am
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/02/15/1597701/wisconsin-forced-transvaginal-ultrasound/
Example of a transvaginal ultrasound procedure
Another ignorant, reckless Republican leader claims that girls who are raped don’t get pregnant.
On Friday, March 1, head of the California Republican Assembly Celeste Greig, pictured right with Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), told the media(1) that pregnancies by rape are rare “because it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized.” Ironically, she said this while criticizing former Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin for his comments last fall about “legitimate rape.”
I am disgusted by scientifically illiterate Republican leaders attempting to defend rape related anti-choice policies. These uneducated and fanatical politicians attempt to minimize the horrific consequences of rape in order to pursue a twisted political agenda and, in so doing, degrade women along with adding trauma to victims of violent crime.
We need to put people like Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, and now Celeste Grieg on notice. Demand Celeste Greig’s resignation now.
Thanks for standing with me to get the truth out about rape and women’s bodies.
Sarah Callahan
COO, CourageCampaign.org
Conservative School Fires Teacher After She Becomes Pregnant, Offers to Hire Boyfriend Instead
By Annie-Rose Strasser on Mar 4, 2013 at 9:00 am
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/04/1663581/christian-school-teacher-premarital/
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GOP Congresswoman: I Opposed Domestic Violence Bill Because It Protected Too Many Groups
By Annie-Rose Strasser and Josh Israel on Mar 4, 2013 at 2:22 pm
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/04/1669601/blackburn-vawa/
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The law (VAWA) has been credited with reducing domestic violence by as much as 67 percent in the past two decades.
Why did the GOP-led U.S. House finally approved VAWA? In November 2012, voters across the country — including millions of women — made their voices heard. They voted against extremism that said we don’t need a minimum wage, and that women don’t need equal pay for equal work or access to emergency contraception. And they voted against a Republican Party leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives that decided the Violence Against Women Act just wasn’t important enough to renew.
When President Obama signed the expanded VAWA into law, he said:
“All women deserve the right to live free from fear.”
And when Republicans in the U.S. Senate filibuster a highly qualified judge for no apparent reason other than her gender, it’s the GOP War on Women showing its ugly head again.
Republicans filibustered President Obama’s outstanding nominee — Caitlin Halligan — to fill an urgent vacancy on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Once again, Republicans keep putting their own partisan interests above the will of American voters and the health of our system of justice.
Caitlin Halligan is an exceptionally qualified, widely respected and unquestionably mainstream nominee.
March 2013 — One year ago, Rush Limbaugh launched an invective-filled tirade against Sandra Fluke. This started a chain reaction. Hundreds of advertisers fled not just Limbaugh’s show but all right-wing radio – and continue to flee to this day. This caused millions in losses to the industry, and all of right-wing talk radio is suffering as a result.
March 6, 2013 — Right now, 11 Republican lawmakers have tacked their names on to a legal brief in support of Hobby Lobby, a major retailer currently suing the Obama Administration. What’s this all about? Hobby Lobby wants to deny its women employees insurance coverage for birth control.
It’s clear that congressional Republicans haven’t stopped their assault on women’s rights — even after a walloping at the ballot box from women voters, where we showed just how much we care about making our own healthcare decisions. Now they’re taking it to the courts and it’s time for us to stand up and fight, or else we could live in a world where our bosses get to make our healthcare decisions.
The fact is: birth control is a personal, medical decision and no politician or employer has the right to dictate how women use it.
At Hobby Lobby alone, the care of thousands of women in 42 states is at risk. And if the courts side with them, that means millions of women face losing basic health coverage. It’s too dangerous for us to sit by and not make our voices heard loud and clear.
* * * Republicans Again Go After Family Planning * * *
House Republicans Propose Rolling Back Access To Birth Control To Avert Government Shutdown
By Tara Culp-Ressler on Mar 5, 2013 at 3:30 pm
In order to avert a government shutdown later this month, Congress and the Obama administration must negotiate a continuing resolution to maintain federal funding — and a group of House Republicans is suggesting that deal should also roll back Obamacare’s effort to expand women’s access to affordable contraception.
The automatic spending cuts that will take effect under sequestration will already compromise programs that disproportionately impact women, including slashing $86 million from critical family planning and reproductive health services. But that’s not enough for Republican lawmakers, who want to use the upcoming budget negotiations as yet another opportunity to keep attacking women’s health:
GOP lawmakers reintroduced a bill Tuesday to repeal the contraception mandate. They also pressed their party’s leaders to roll back the provision as part of a continuing resolution later this month to keep the federal government operating.
“This attack on religious freedom demands immediate congressional action,”the 14 lawmakers wrote. “Nothing short of a full exemption for both nonprofit and for-profit entities will satisfy the demands of the Constitution and common sense.”
The continuing resolution that House appropriators released Monday would not cut off funding for the Affordable Care Act, despite years of conservative pressure to defund the healthcare law. But Tuesday’s letter, led by Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), indicates that fights over the health law could still roil the funding debate.
Obamacare’s birth control provision, which went into effect on August 1, helped eliminate the gender-based disparity in health costs by eliminating co-pays for women’s contraceptive services. Studies have proven that increasing access to cost-free birth control lowers the rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion, as well as provides women with greater economic autonomy to achieve their personal financial goals. Nevertheless, right-wing Obamacare opponents misconstrue the law as a threat to religious freedom, despite the fact that it already contains an exemption for faith-based organizations that oppose covering contraception.
Despite Republicans’ insistence that Obamacare is an affront to religious liberty, most Americans don’t agree. A diverse coalition in support of the health reform law’s expanded access to contraception — including religious groups like Catholics for Choice, Jewish Women International, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the United Methodist Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Association — is already urging the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations to reject a deal that would restrict women’s access to birth control.
Unfortunately, Rep. Black is no stranger to targeting women’s health. So far this session, she has also introduced a measure to defund Planned Parenthood, as well as called for an unnecessary government study to justify her continued effort to strip funding from the women’s health organization.
100 Years Of Women’s Rights
February 28th, 2013 7:24 pmAllison Brito
Sunday, March 3 will mark the 100-year anniversary of the Woman Suffrage March on Washington by brave women demanding the right to vote. The fight for women’s rights didn’t begin in 1913; in fact, the movement had over 50 years of history prior to this momentous event led by the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
Two prominent women in American history—Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton–fought to give women the right to vote.
On March 3, 1913, led by American suffragist activists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, men and women from across the country met in Washington, D.C. to march down Pennsylvania Avenue in support of women’s rights. The marchers were heckled, insulted and ridiculed. The police ignored orders to protect the marchers; men who supported the movement were targeted as well.
From groups who resisted the movement came unrelenting assaults on women’s femininity—painting them as either lesbians or unattractive, lonely women incapable of finding husbands. Such misogynist propaganda infiltrated the news, portraying suffragists completely unfairly. Opponents claimed that women should remain out of politics and find a man to speak for them, since allowing women into the political process would be detrimental to the state.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/100-years-of-womens-rights/
* * * The Sequester, which took place because the GOP’s obsession with protecting tax loopholes for millionaires, disproportionaly will impact women and children * * *
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/226471_10151548361118573_648296588_n.jpg
Koch Brothers Revel In Sequester
March 5th, 2013 3:26 pmHenry Decker
Although everyone from President Barack Obama toHouse Speaker John Boehner has lamented the negative impact of the $85 billion budget sequestration, at least two major Washington figures are thrilled about the severe cuts. For Charles and David Koch, the sequester accomplishes the goal that motivated the billionaire brothers to help launch the Tea Party movement in 2010: weakening the federal government. And now that the cuts have begun to take effect, the Koch brothers are reveling in their success.
Americans for Prosperity, the right-wing dark money group founded by the Koch brothers in 2004, sent out an email to supporters over the weekend claiming credit for sequestration. The email, from AFP President Tim Phillips, claims, “While Speaker Boehner and the GOP deserve credit and thanks for taking a gutsy stand, it’s important to realize what an incredible impact AFP activists like you” have had in convincing Congress to slash the federal budget across the board.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/koch-brothers-revel-in-sequester/
GOP’s Speaker Boehner thinks the cancellation of White House tours is the greatest tragedy of the sequester.
* * * The War Continues – La Guerra Continúa * * *
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forwardNOTbackward 