A New Wave

ELECTION 2012: The battle for women's rights - Part 1

Over the next few months A New Wave will devote its blog posts to the battle for women's rights and those mobilizing and organizing to fight it. 

Part I and II are an overview of what's happening nationally and around the country in state legislatures. None of this will come as a surprise to readers of this blog, but since extremists stay busy 24/7/365, what's happening changes almost daily. So stay tuned. 

Let's start with Congress.

Example A: This year the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) came up for reauthorization, as it did in 2000 and 2005, after being introduced in 1994, when it passed both the House and Senate, and was signed into law by President Clinton.

But VAWA has become "a heavy lift" for Republicans to support: the party of the white male wants to rewrite this law to exclude Native American women, LGBTQ individuals and battered illegal immigrant women from its protections, in addition to watering down how the Act is funded.

So, two weeks ago the GOP-controlled House passed its own VAWA that eliminates these protections and sets up another battle with the Senate, which passed its version on April 26 - including these protections. 

Example B: Although there are any number of examples that qualify as extremist "war on women" measures from the U.S. House, the most recent is symbolic of how laser-focused Republicans are on dismantling women's reproductive rights.

This time they've dressed it up as "nondiscrimination": The Prenatal Nondiscimination Act (PRENDA) seeks to ban sex-selective abortions by making it a federal crime to abort a fetus based on its gender and prescribing prison time for medical providers that engage in this practice.

The bill solves a problem that is almost non-existent in the U.S. and does not one thing to solve the many gender inequities that lead to male favoritism - even in the womb.    

The rhetoric, however, is heavy with irony: The National Right to Life Committee, along with Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), chief sponsor of PRENDA, says this law is needed to "stop the war on baby girls." A truly heartwarming focus group phrase meant to soften the blow of how Republicans really feel about women - even "baby girls". See here, here and here for examples.

And, like so-called voter fraud that the GOP cites as reasons for voter ID laws that target minorities, poor, elderly, and college students, PRENDA targets Asian American women, who will risk "intense questioning" about the decision to seek an abortion if this bill becomes law.

And so, this bill is just one more missile launched in the war on women by a Party that is hemhorraging women's support as fast as it is introducing extremist anti-woman bills.

Part II will look at the battle for women's rights in states. Here's a sneak peek at one major piece of that battle: Anti-choice bills.

Doing Right By Women and Girls

The president's signing of an Executive Order creating a White House Council on Women and Girls is a small victory with great possibility for ensuring women's equality in myriad ways, from employment to health care, from education to work and family balance.

President Obama understands that this council doesn't exist in a vacuum separate and apart from the policies and programs developed and implemented throughout the federal government and that if women are ever to be on the same footing with their male peers a coordinated and interconnected effort is required at all levels of government.

The White House Council on Women and Girls will ensure that agencies across the federal government, not just a few offices, take into account the particular needs and concerns of women and girls. The Council will begin its work by asking each agency to analyze their current status and ensure that they are focused internally and externally on women.

Were the Department of Labor, for example, to develop guidelines on, say, new "green economy" jobs, there is a real possibility that women won't be forced to put up with discriminatory patterns of hiring, training, promotion and wages -- especially as they existed and became embedded into blue-collar occupations.

Or health care: imagine if HHS, Labor and Commerce were to be fully cognizant of the gender bias that exists in rates for health and other forms of insurance and finally generated changes that made such bias illegal.

Oh, the possibilities.

It's too soon to know how successful the Council will be, but Obama has the right vision: the concerns of women and girls must be integrated into every level of public policy and not treated as something separate and apart from the welfare of the country and the world.

Bush Administration continues to undermine abortion rights

The ways in which Bush & Co are shredding or completely reformulating federal laws --- as they leave office --- boggles the mind.

That they pay no heed to U.S. Senators and that they use their last months in office to weaken long-established laws and to embolden ideologues leaves little doubt that they won't leave office with a whimper.

The latest effort (which met with stiff Senate opposition several weeks ago) is a revised HHS regulation that will limit women's access to reproductive health care services, including information and access to contraceptives and abortions:

Happy 4th of July! - Part I

In keeping with the spirit of the holiday, Sen. Patty Murray has introduced legislation to provide an array of health care services at VA hospitals/clinics, for female veterans:

The legislation, the Women Veterans Health Improvement Act of 2008, seeks to prepare the VA for the unprecedented influx of female veterans who will access care there in the coming years. The legislation addresses many of the unique needs of female veterans by authorizing programs to improve care for Military Sexual Trauma (MST), increase research on the current barriers to care, and expand women veterans staff positions at the VA.

The bill was passed as part of S. 2969 – The Veterans' Health Care Authorization Act of 2008 -- a larger "omnibus" bill that incorporated a number of different veterans' health care measures.

Equal Pay Should Actually Mean Something

On April 28 the U.S. Senate failed to pass a significant piece of legislation: H.R. 2831, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007. 

This bill was a remedy to the 2007 Supreme Court decision that ruled against Lilly Ledbetter in her pay discrimination lawsuit against Goodyear Tire & Rubber The bill would have "reset the clock" for filing pay discrimination lawsuits with each and every discriminatory wage practice by employers (issuing a paycheck for example). SCOTUS ruled that workers who face wage discrimination have only 180 days to legally challenge the initial discrimination. 

Both Democratic senators and presidential candidates (Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton) voted in favor of the bill. John McCain, the Republican, missed the vote.

Typical, right?

I thought so but then I found this interesting tidbit:

Enough With The Roe v. Wade Arguments

Since Hillary Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination on June 7, I have read at least two articles a day by progressive bloggers telling Democratic women why it is in women's best interests to vote for Barack Obama. Of the numerous articles, these six are the most representative arguments.

In every case these purveyors of wisdom alternately chide us, berate us for being angry at the media, the Democratic Party system, and its leaders, and lecture us about throwing away our Freedom of Choice if we do not do the right thing and vote for Barack Obama.

First, let me get something out of the way: I'm a proponent and advocate of ensuring women's reproductive rights.

How About A Woman For MTP?

Over at the White House Project, Marie Wilson & Co. have another great idea: how about a woman to moderate MTP?

I think it's a terrific idea. Their blog, "Change Everything" asks readers for names - which will be forwarded to NBC.

Hillary Clinton: Our New Populist-Feminist Heroine

Blogs and news sites are buzzing about John Heilemann's excellent profile of Hillary Clinton in this week's issue of New York Magazine.

Above all, Heilemann's article is real journalism and not the slash-and-burn, take-down, smackdown variety of "news" practiced by Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, FOX, and so many others.

Democratic Party Kumbaya, Anybody? Hello! Hello!

Not everybody in the Democratic Party is ready to make nice and unify.

Take some of Hillary Clinton's top fundraisers, who held a meeting on Thursday with Obama Campaign manager, David Plouffe. The sit-down was cordial; lots of questions were asked and answered; several fundraisers volunteered to host parties and other events for Obama and the Democratic Party. But not all:

Draining The Ocean - Part V: Unbelievable

I never cease to be amazed at our vacuous, vapid and venal purveyors of "information" and enlightenment: the media. In all its forms it fails us miserably. Individually there are a few decent examples of honest journalism. Keith Olbermann is not one of them, no matter how much in love with him progressives have fallen. Perhaps somebody should wake me when (and if) he proves why anybody should trust or respect him, ever again. There are, however, still depths to which he can and will sink: