Ohio, Texas, and North Carolina’s lawmakers have created a new tactic in the War on Women: in an attempt to skirt around public and legislative opposition, they’ve started to introduce controversial legislation without enough time for adequate response
NC House Passes Anti-Abortion Education Bill
Last week the North Carolina state House of Representatives passed a health education bill requiring middle school students to be taught in sex-ed classes that abortion is a cause of pre-term births in future pregnancies.
HERvotes Blog Carnival: Tell Congress to Reauthorize VAWA
by Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority Foundation For the eleventh #HERvotes blog carnival, we’re joining together to urge the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Domestic violence results in over two million injuries every year. Three women die every day in the United States as the result of domestic violence. Since the passage of […]
HERvotes Blog Carnival: What Health-Care Reform Means to Women
By Cindy Pearson, co-founder of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need #HERvotes blog carnival, we’re celebrating the second anniversary of the new health-reform law, the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. Why are women so excited about the ACA? Well, for a start, the law has already started removing barriers to health care […]
Two Years Later, Reflections on the Landmark Health Care Law
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 […]