Message from FMF President Eleanor Smeal

Comprehensive health care reform is crucial. But anti-abortion lawmakers are trying to take advantage of a very close vote to further restrict a woman's right to choose. This is it. We are in the final stages of health care reform negotiation. Voice your outrage and help us stop this cynical maneuver before it is too late.

Pro-choice forces trying to save health care reform have reluctantly agreed to accepting the status quo of no federal dollars being used to fund abortions. But anti-choice Democratic members of Congress, together with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, are taking advantage of a situation -- where every Republican is voting no on health care reform and every Democratic vote counts -- to demand further abortion restrictions. This must stop.

This is not an abortion restriction bill, it is a health reform package to increase affordability and coverage for millions of people. It must not be used to cut back abortion access.

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the House bill, which bans abortion coverage even in private insurance plans in the new health insurance exchange and prevents a woman from buying abortion coverage with her own money, must not be included in the final bill. The Senate negotiated Nelson amendment, although not as bad as Stupak-Pitts, places an undue burden on people buying an insurance plan that includes abortion coverage. Some experts have warned us that Nelson creates a disincentive for health insurance plans to cover abortion. Right now, 80-85% of health insurance plans covered abortion - women can't go backwards and lose coverage they are paying for with their own dollars.

The pro-choice members of Congress are fighting back. Make sure your members of Congress and Senators know you demand health insurance reform that does not further restrict a woman's right to have an abortion. This can be fixed.

Say no to Catholic bishops, say no to Stupak and Nelson.

Fight Back Against Stupak

Letter from Feminist Majority president Eleanor Smeal. Keep checking back to our blog for more steps you can take.

Dear feminist activists,

The last 4 days have been an emotional roller coaster! We have fought and continue to fight the hideous Bart Stupak (D-MI)/Joe Pitts (R-PA) Amendment to the House of Representative's Affordable Health Care for America Act. This amendment virtually bans abortion coverage for both the public option and private plans in the to-be-created national health insurance exchange. Women would not even be able to purchase coverage with their own dollars. We lost round one, but this fight is far from over.

We must make it loud and clear to Congress that the Stupak Amendment is not acceptable and must not be used to derail critically needed health care reform.

How quickly joy can turn to outrage.

Women should have had a lot to cheer about Saturday night when the House passed the historic Affordable Health Care Act. Among other major reforms in health insurance, it would eliminate "gender rating" in insurance pricing and unequal taxation of domestic partner benefits, ban discrimination based on preexisting conditions, eliminate exclusion of maternity coverage, stop the practice of dropping or capping coverage for sick people, and extend coverage to 96% of uninsured people.

But our celebration turned to outrage because of the horrific Stupak amendment.

This amendment is a deplorable denial of choice to women, dictated behind the scenes by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and their army of lobbyists. Millions of poor and middle-class women would be denied abortion coverage and millions more would lose the coverage they already have, since 85 percent of private plans now cover abortion. Far from being abortion-neutral, the Stupak amendment is a giant step backward for women's right to choose. It's unacceptable. Let your Senators and members of Congress know.

We are not alone in this fight. Already, more than 40 members of the House, led by Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO), have signed a pledge that they will not vote yes on final passage of the Act if Stupak is not stripped from the bill. Now, as the legislation proceeds to the Senate, Senators and more Representatives must join us in the fight. Every Republican member of the House, except one, and 64 Democrats voted for the Stupak amendment. We must tell them we deplore their opposition to women's rights, obstruction of health reform, and negative politics.

This amendment can be stripped from the Act in conference committee and is currently not on the Senate Act. We can win.

We must stop vitally needed federal legislation from being used as a vehicle to cut back reproductive rights. Young women's lives cannot continue to be a political football. We must free this historic Act of abortion politics--and then we can really celebrate.

For Women's Lives,

Eleanor Smeal
President
Feminist Majority

Ellie Smeal: '09 Elections, a Wake Up Call for Feminists

In both the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races, social issues took a back seat to economic issues. This is understandable considering dismal unemployment figures, the housing crisis, fear of layoffs, and dwindling retirement investments. Bad economic times trump social issues.

What happened aside from the deep economic recession maybe tells the story more simply. Looking at the numbers the Virginia electorate of 2009 was not the same electorate of 2008. The 2009 electorate, to put it bluntly, was older and less racially diverse. In 2008, 20% of the Virginia electorate was under 30 years old; in 2009, it was 10%. In 2008, 70% was white, 20% black, 5% Hispanic. In 2009, 78% was white, 15% black, 2% Hispanic. Getting the vote out matters.

Feminists have much to worry about with both elections. The result is both states will have anti-choice leadership. In Virginia, the conservative Republicans also won solidly the Lt. Governor and Attorney General offices. Particularly troubling is the defeat of feminist and pro-choice Jodi Wagner for Lt. Governor, despite being generally acknowledged for her financial skills in navigating the state under the last two very popular democratic governors. As state treasurer under former Governor and now Senator Mark Warner and finance secretary under Governor Kaine, Wagner has been given much credit for Virginia avoiding the economic woes that most states have suffered and for being rated one of the best managed states fiscally.

Read the full version of this piece here.

Media Resources: Excerpted from Majority Speaks Blog 11/4/09

Women are the Majority

Women are the majority of the work force, according to the Shriver Report: A Women’s National Changes Everything. Women currently make up 63.3% of the nations breadwinners or co-breadwinners as reported on Feminist News.

Although women make the up the majority of the nation’s paid workers they are still discriminated against in regards to pay, social security, pensions and other benefits. Over half of all women workers do not have one paid sick day.

A hopeful Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation said in regards to the much needed policy changes, "The changes in social policies, such as paid family medical leave, universal childcare, caregiving credits for social security, and pay equity, to deal with the reality of today's employed women are long overdue… We have been working for these changes for several decades. Hopefully, women becoming the majority of the US workforce is the wakeup call needed to make the changes now."

More information and related articles can be found at
http://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=11995
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/business/media/29nbc.html
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/04/womans_nation.html
http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=11995

Image Credit: www.feminist.org

Last Day of the Women, Money and Power Summit.

Last week after the Senate Finance Committee voted down two separate proposals for a public option (see NY times article here) and approved $50 million a year federal funding to Abstinence-only programs, (reported the AP in an article posted in the Huffington Post), I was rather depressed. (Thanks Senate, it feels like you just punched me in the ovaries TWICE.)

Yesterday however, was the last day of the Feminist Majority's Women, Money and Power Summit, and with such a gathering of strong-minded women who are pro-health insurance reform (including a public option), I can definitely see that the first failure in the senate was just a stepping stone, not a wall.

Feminists such as Senator Boxer, Congresswoman Maloney, and Ellie Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority spoke at a briefing, and we then went outside to the press conference with Speaker Pelosi and several other speakers who rocked my socks off. "We will get health insurance passed this year," was the common phrase, and I certainly believe it.

A few people held up signs that were against health care reform, which reminded all present that though we can get real health care reform, it still will be a fight.

Photo Credit: ragesoss at Flickr.com

FMF helps abortion providers to keep clinics safe and open

Check out what Eleanor Smeal and Kathy Spillar have to say about the protection of Dr. Carhart's clinic in this Feminist Majority Foundation press release.

Feminist Majority Foundation Defends Targeted Nebraska Abortion Provider

The Feminist Majority Foundation joined pro-choice supporters nationwide in announcing their full support of Dr. Leroy Carhart and the Abortion and Contraception Clinic of Nebraska at a press conference in Omaha, Nebraska today. Pro-choice supporters from 16 states are defending the clinic. Dr. Carhart had traveled to Wichita each month to work with Dr. Tiller, who was assassinated in May.

Katherine Spillar, Executive Vice President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, joined Dr. Carhart and national pro-choice leaders including Terry O'Neill, National President of the National Organization for Women, at the Omaha press conference today. NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Abortion Federation, and Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health also joined in support. "Anti-abortion extremists are trying to win on the streets what they have lost at the ballot box," said Spillar. "The Feminist Majority Foundation and its thousands of supporters nationwide are determined to defend Dr. Carhart and his courageous staff to keep this clinic safe and open."

The pro-choice press conference today in Omaha was in direct response to Operation Rescue of Wichita initiating targeted demonstrations and so-called "street counseling" in Omaha and at Dr. Carhart's Bellevue clinic this weekend. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue has announced a new multi-group campaign called "Keep it Closed," which aims to ensure Dr. Carhart does not open a late abortion clinic in Wichita, any other place in Kansas, or nearby Nebraska. And Newman hoped "through the use of peaceful, legal means" that Dr. Carhart "will soon be out of the abortion business for good."

The Nebraska State Health Department has confirmed that a complaint was filed by several anti-abortion groups, including Operation Rescue, against Dr. Carhart on many of the same allegations previously used to investigate Dr. Tiller. All such complaints filed against Dr. Tiller ultimately failed.

Dr. Carhart stated emphatically at the press conference that all patients will be seen today. Wearing a "Trust Women" button, he asserted he would not be intimidated and knows he provides a vital medical service.

Katherine Spillar continued, "In this country, we must not settle political differences of opinion by what amounts to a campaign of intimidation."

"Since the election of President Barack Obama, and now even more so since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller at his church in Wichita, Kansas, threats are escalating against abortion clinics in some 14 states," said Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "For example, in Colorado, Donald Hertz has just been indicted for threatening Dr. Hern and his family. The constant vilifying of reproductive health providers as murderers is not only inflammatory, but is also contrary to established medical practices that save women's lives. Worse yet, it emboldens potential assassins."

Ellie Smeal on Afghanistan

HuffingtonPost.com is featuring a great post by FMF President and Co-Founder Ellie Smeal and FMF Board Member Helen Cho on why we simply cannot abandon Afghan women and girls.

In the past few days, there's been a lot of talk in the blogosphere, critiquing FMF for being an organization that promotes non-violence (in fact, it's a cornerstone of our mission statement!) and yet has recently rejected the call from some to pull out of Afghanistan. As Ellie and Helen so eloquently state,

"We cannot endorse this position because the cost to women and girls would be too high and the U.S. responsibility for the current failed state of affairs in Afghanistan is too heavy. If the U.S. were to pull out of Afghanistan, the United States would be once again breaking our promise to the Afghan people, and the country would likely fall under Taliban control."

Read the entire post. Tell us what you think.

For more information on the Feminist Majority Foundation's Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls, check out http://feminist.org/afghan/! To take action with our Afghan Women's Health Campaign (raising funds to support Afghan midwives combatting the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world), click here.

Photo courtesy of Norma Gattsek.