Reproductive Health
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Servicewomen Need Access to Plan B: Focus on That, Elaine Donnelly
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Low Income Women Can't Get Abortions, But RNC Staffers Can
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Will You Have To Ask Your Employer For The "Abortion Rider"?
Does Your University Health Care Plan Cover Birth Control?
Published November 16, 2009 @ 12:45PM PT
Last Friday I received this letter (after the jump) from a young woman at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania who recently found out that her student health insurance, Consolidated Health Plans, does NOT cover birth control. This same insurance broker arranges coverage for 60 other colleges in the upper Northeast, including schools such as Brown, The New School, and Sarah Lawrence college, among others.
Take a look at the letter that this college student sent to her university administration about the policy and make sure you read the fine print in your own student health insurance plan. You can see the offending part of the Lehigh plan in this PDF, under Exclusions and Limitations, which says "No benefits will be paid for loss or expense caused by, contributed to, or resulting from: 16. Reproductive/infertility services including but limited to: birth control; family planning; fertility test; infertility (male or female), including any services or supplies rendered for the purpose or with the intent of inducing conception."
You too may need to contact your administration and student health insurance broker to protest similar restricitions.
(It should be noted that condoms, however, are issued for free at Lehigh College. So boys can use birth control, but girls can't?)
Barriers To Justice For Rape Survivors in Sudan
Published November 11, 2009 @ 07:04PM PT
This past weekend I attended and spoke at the Pledge 2 Protect Conference in Washington, DC, which served to organize and educate young people about the realities of genocide around the world. One of the panels I attended was called "Wars Against Women and the Pursuit of Peace: The Case of Darfur" which outlined, among other things, the incredibly unjust system in Sudan for rape survivors.
Despite the fact that rape has now been determined a "crime against humanity" and a "war crime" by The Hague, there is a complete inability for the Sudanese to deal with rape and domestic violence on a domestic level.
Just so we all understand how difficult a situation it is for women in Sudan, here are a few of the barriers to justice they face if raped:
Health Care Passed in House, Women Used As Political Poker Chip
Published November 09, 2009 @ 08:22AM PT
I don't know about you, but today I have a health care hangover. After the House of Representatives passed the Affordable Health Care Act this weekend, which include the vitriolic Stupak-Pitts amendment, my emotional and mental well has been completely drained.
While the 220-215 vote cleared the way for the Senate to begin debate on the bill, the battles that occurred on Saturday offered a sobering reality of just how far we have to go before women are considered as more than a political poker chip.
But before I go on about how reproductive choice is seriously threatened by the Stupak-Pitts amendment, let's go over the positive parts of the bill that were passed on Saturday night:
- Lower taxes for gay couples who receive health benefits from employers.
- Nutrition labeling requirements for snack food sold in vending machines and many restaurants.
- A new program to teach parents how to interact with their children.
- The House legislation would require most Americans to obtain health insurance or face penalties.
- Most employers would have to provide coverage or pay a tax penalty of up to 8 percent of their payroll.
- The bill would significantly expand Medicaid and would offer subsidies to help moderate-income people buy insurance from private companies or from a government insurance plan.
- It would set up a national insurance exchange where people could shop for coverage.
While these provisions certainly make me happy that we are doing something to reform America's "sickcare" system, I am ultimately disturbed that it was passed at the expense of women's access to reproductive health.
I Am Not A Pre-Existing Condition
Published October 20, 2009 @ 02:18PM PT
Perhaps the most stunning revelation in the health care reform process is the finding that being a woman is essentially a pre-existing condition in the eyes of insurance companies.
We've heard about how being a victim of domestic violence, being pregnant or having had a previous c-section can prevent a woman from qualifying for private insurance. Despite how shocking this all is, it becomes really problematic if a public option is not included in the health care reform package when and if it is ever passed.
Today, the National Women's Law Center is trying to raise awareness about these issues and more by announcing a new public awareness campaign called "Being a Woman is Not a Pre-Existing Condition." The goal of the national campaign is to educate women about the disparities they face in health care coverage and rally them to contact their Members of Congress to demand that Congress pass health reform legislation that works for women.
The "A-Word"
Published October 18, 2009 @ 03:51PM PT
Recently, I spoke at Perinatal: A Symposium on Birth Practices and Reproductive Rights at George Mason University. The task for the featured round table panelists was to determine legal and political strategies to advance reproductive rights in childbirth. My contribution included noting that childbirth rights advocates need to involve our work into the more mainstream causes of human rights and reproductive rights, including abortion rights.
The audience, fellow childbirth advocates, ignored my comments on abortion. Apparently, the "a-word" is not acceptance language among childbirth reformers. I discussed the abortion debate from a mother's perspective in a prior post, and understand that women who devote their lives to improving birth outcomes and lowering infant mortality rates are invested in the life of the fetus. However, my comments never took a side on the abortion debate. I merely observed an unfortunate consequence on childbirth rights from this debate.
I observed that one unexpected effect of the abortion debate was to give more importance to the choices and beliefs of third parties regarding the medical care of pregnant and laboring women than to the choices of the women themselves. Doctors and hospitals have relied upon Roe v. Wade and subsequent law to impose medical treatment on pregnant women in utter disregard of their legal rights to informed consent and informed refusal. Pregnant women's rights are ignored while the fetus receives legal representation after the 26-week gestation period. The justification has consistently been that the government's interest in the life of the fetus found in Roe overrides a woman's decision in her own healthcare and medical treatments.
Friday Femme Fatale: Astronauts, Welfare & Real Women
Published October 09, 2009 @ 04:21PM PT
It's been yet another crazy week. From live-tweeting at the United Nations conference on disarmament to meeting Women for Women International founder, Zainab Salbi, to being surprised (but not shocked) at how far anti-choice lawmakers will go to take away reproductive choice - I can say with a lot of relief, "Thank GOD it is Friday."
In case you had a busy week just like me, here are some of the stories you may have missed from the fem-o-sphere. Enjoy.
- Flipping the Script on Poverty (Color Lines)
- California's Zigzag on Welfare Rules Worries Experts (New York Times)
- Dear Mom, Beck has history of sexist comments (Media Matters)
- Daylight Lessons from Letterman's Late Night Escapades (Women's Media Center)
- Universities Target Rape Prevention Through Alcohol Awareness Program (RH Reality Check)
- Sakena Yacoobi's Vision for Afghanistan (Women's Media Center)
- Army's 'Resiliency' Training Misses The Point (Nancy Goldstein)
GOP Lawmakers Want to Put Your Abortion Records Online
Published October 09, 2009 @ 08:57AM PT
In case you missed this story yesterday, yes it's true: Republicans in the state of Oklahoma are trying to mandate the collection and online publication of abortion medical records.
Here's a list of some of the items that will be published ONLINE if this law passes:
- Date of abortion
- County in which abortion performed
- Age of mother
- Marital status of mother (married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)
- Race of mother
- Years of education of mother (specify highest year completed)
- State or foreign country of residence of mother
- Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
- Number of pregnancies that ended in live births
- Number of pregnancies that ended in miscarriages
- Number of pregnancies that ended in induced abortions
The law is intended to "prevent abortions" - not through accessible contraception or comprehensive sex education - but public shaming. Why not just add on another item on this horrific list that says, "Every woman who has ever had an abortion must wear a red A on their shirt" as well? Perhaps we can even get Nathaniel Hawthorne to rise from his grave and write a sequel to The Scarlet Letter.
Talk about government interfering with your privacy. This is one of the most absurd legislative attacks on women I've ever seen. It disgusts me that Republicans are actually considering this as a tactic to block women from having an abortion and move their anti-choice agenda forward.
My colleague at Air America, Megan Carpentier, gave a great explanation of this f*cked up legislation on the Rachel Maddow show last night. Check it out here.
Photo credit: quinn.anya
