by Miri Cypers, JWI Senior Policy and Advocacy Specialist Two years ago this week, Congress voted in support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the landmark health care reform bill, and sent the legislation to President Obama’s desk to sign. This came after months of heated debate in Washington DC and throughout the […]
HERvotes Blog Carnival: No Religious Exemption for Birth Control Coverage
by Kim Gandy, Feminist Majority Foundation 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. This demand for additional exemptions, would have denied millions of American women contraceptive coverage, including […]
HERvotes Blog Carnival: Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act
by Emily Alfano, National Council of Jewish Women The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found alarming rates of sexual violence, stalking, and domestic violence. One in 4 U.S. women has been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner, and nearly 1 in 5 […]
HERvotes Blog Carnival: Protecting Unemployment Benefits
by Hannah Gordon, Feminist Majority Foundation It is critical that Congress acts before the end of this calendar year to renew federal UI. The loss of this lifeline will hurt over 6 million people and their families who stand to lose their benefits during 2012. If Congress fails to extend the benefits, women will suffer. […]
Women, Black Workers Hard Hit by Attacks on Public Employees
by Tula Connell, AFL-CIO improved jobs figures out last Friday obscured the ongoing decline in public-sector jobs. As the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics noted when releasing the March unemployment data: Employment in local government continued to trend down over the month. Local government has lost 416,000 jobs since an employment peak in September 2008. […]
Unemployment Insurance is the LEAST We Can Offer Working Families
by Elisanta “Lisa” Batista A year ago, my husband who was our family’s main breadwinner lost his job at a manufacturing plant. This is an industry that has been hammered in the present economy. Thanks to the extension of unemployment insurance a year ago, my husband was able to continue to pay the bills for […]
Congress Should Act Now to Extend Unemployment Insurance
by Beth Scott, American Association of University Women federal unemployment insurance (UI). AAUW urges Congress to extend UI. We are committedto promoting the reduction of poverty, and UI plays a key role in reducing poverty and helping our economy recover. UI provides basic benefits to Americans who have lost their jobs and are retraining or […]
Sad Reality: New President, Same Fight
by Stephanie Drahan, National Women’s Law Center Obama’s take on the proposed regulation to expand religious restrictions was clear – “We need to restore integrity to our public health programs, not create backdoor efforts to weaken them. I am committed to ensuring that the health and reproductive rights of women are protected.” But now, here […]
Fight Against an Expanded Religious Exemption that Denies Birth Control Coverage
by Dren Asselmeier, Center for Inquiry on Campus I have my own opinions about birth control and whether it should be made available at no cost to women who want to have control over their reproduction, but I think that there is something that we can do to solve this issue that is more decisive […]
Make the Promise of Preventative Care in the ACA Real for All Women
by The Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health Back in August we were celebrating a win for women’s health – the recognition that contraception is prevention. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) required health insurers (for all new plans after August 1, 2012) to cover a number of women’s preventive health care services, […]