United We Rise! Pennsylvania NOW Convention on October 1, 2011

We need and will rise to fight the War on Women that is currently being waged against women in the US and here in Pennsylvania. A war that includes: 1) women continuing to earn only 78% of men’s salaries, 2) Congress and the PA General Assembly’s attempts to take away our reproductive rights;  3) Threats to public education; 4) etc.

Join us at our biennial convention October 1, 2011 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Philadelphia Bucks County, 4700 Street Road, Trevose, PA 19053 (215-364-2000).  We will be focusing on this war on women and how, United, we can fight back.

Lodging is $99 + tax/night; deadline for this rate is September 15.  To receive this rate, contact the hotel and mention Pennsylvania NOW when you make your registration.

This all-day conference will include workshops focusing on reproductive rights attacks, school vouchers, single-payer health care, maternity care, and care giving, as well as working in coalitions, voting, and election work to make sure our united voice is heard. In addition, we will be electing new officers, holding a luncheon PAC fundraiser, voting on the proposed by-laws change, and hosting a cash-bar reception in the evening.

ELECTIONS

We will be holding elections for President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, & three At-Large Executive Committee members.  The four officers must run together as a slate.  If you are interested running for office, you must contact our Elections Committee. Chairing this committee will be Cindy Purvis (814-460-3568, cindypurvis@velocity.net). Lois Herr (717-371-5721, herrlk@me.com) and Irene Boyle (215- 913-0108) are the other two members of this committee.

PA NOW PAC FUNDRAISER

We have moved the traditional PAC fundraiser from Sunday to Saturday so that more people have a chance to attend if they are not staying overnight.  The keynote speaker at the PAC luncheon will be Siobhan “Sam” Bennett, President and CEO, Women’s Campaign Forum and 2008 NOW PAC-endorsed Congressional candidate from Allentown, PA.

The luncheon will also present current and past NOW PAC-endorsed candidates to the attendees.
This fundraiser will help get out our Voters’ Guide and to also support our endorsed candidates.  Cost is a minimum $50.00/person.  You can use the form below to send in your registration. You can also register online with your credit card for the luncheon at http://panow.org/PAC_file/PANOWPAC.htm.  Then follow-up the online payment with an email to Treasurer Pamela Macklin, pmacfish@aol.com, saying your PAC donation is for the PAC luncheon. Deadline for registering for the PAC luncheon is Friday, September 23.

REGISTRATION FEES

NOW member registration fee is $50.00; early registration by August 26 is $40 in honor of Pennsylvania NOW’s 40th anniversary.  Non-member registration, including a one-year membership is $70.00.  Current members can register and attend the convention on a sliding scale down to $0.00. 

Register online with your credit card at http://panow.org/contribution.htm.  Please follow-up all online payments with an email to pmacfish@aol.com,  saying your “donations” are for your registration and/or PAC luncheon.

You may also register by printing out and mailing in the registration form pictured below.  You can also contact us at panow@panow.org and we will email you a full-size copy of this registration form.

Registration Form for PA NOW Convention

We've Had Enough!

Across the country, women’s reproductive rights are being attacked. In some cases it’s shouting and harassment when a woman seeks treatment at a women’s health clinic for either an abortion or for other reproductive health services. In other instances, it’s legislative attacks that attempt to deny a woman access to all forms of reproductive health services, including screenings, contraception, and abortion services.
In some states and at the Federal level, this has taken the form of funding restrictions on Planned Parenthood. The federal effort fortunately failed in the US Senate. Some states, including Indiana, New Hampshire, and Texas, have unfortunately restricted this funding.

Other states, including Pennsylvania, have attacked women’s reproductive health by passing TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Provider) laws which require extensive renovations that may be physically impossible in existing facilities and which are different and more burdensome than for other medical facilities; they also often include unannounced inspections. SB 732 has passed the PA Senate and the House Health Committee. A full House vote is expected in September or early October. This bill, if and when it becomes law (the Governor has said he will sign it) will shut down the 22 free-standing abortion clinics throughout PA. This amendment requires all free-standing abortion clinics to meet the standards for the Ambulatory Surgical Centers in addition (and in some cases, in contradiction) to the Abortion Control Act, the Ambulatory Gynaecological Surgery Facility Regulations, and the MCARE Act which they already have to follow. Take a moment and go to the Pennsylvania NOW blog to compare what the current abortion clinic regulations are and what this TRAP law would do.

Other legislative attacks occurring across the country—e.g.,in Tennessee and Missouri as well as here in Pennsylvania—are attempting to pass “Stupak on Steroids” bills that will, starting in 2014, prohibit women who purchase health insurance through the new federal health insurance exchanges, from purchasing, WITH THEIR OWN MONEY, coverage for abortion services and, depending on how it is interpreted, possibly even the purchase of contraceptives. Specifically Senate Bill 3 will deny insurance plans participating in the insurance exchange from covering abortion services except in the cases where the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or where the life of the woman is in danger. Note that this legislation is not necessary. The question of whether abortion will be covered in federally subsidized insurance exchanges has already been settled. In response to concerns raised by US Senator Ben Nelson, a staunch opponent of abortion, women who want to use their own money to purchase a health insurance plan that covers abortion services must send a separate payment so the funding for abortion coverage is completely separate and paid entirely by the individual.

And against the backdrop of this wave of anti-abortion legislative assaults previously mentioned, Operation Rescue/Operation Save America are targeting abortion clinics in Orlando, FL and Germanantown, MD, in an attempt to shut these clinics down via efforts to block clinic entrances and harassment of women attempting to receive treatment at abortion facilities in these two cities. In Orlando, Operation Rescue/Operation Save America attempted, but failed to shut down six clinics during the week of July 22. In Germantown, Operation Rescue has announced plans for a “Summer of Mercy 2.0″ targeting the brave and outspoken Dr. LeRoy Carhart in Germantown, MD, July 31-August 7. Operation Rescue is the same organization that hounded Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, KS, for years (until he was assassinated by one of their associates in May ’09). Their original “Summer of Mercy” in 1991 shut down access to the Dr. Tiller’s clinic for six weeks and resulted in 3,400 arrests, they are invoking this alarming history again in their “Summer of Mercy 2.0” event.

WE’VE HAD ENOUGH!

You can show your support for women seeking abortion services by helping out in Germantown this week. Between July 31 and August 7, activists will be needed from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. outside of Dr. Carhart’s clinic, located at 13233 Executive Park Drive in Germantown, Maryland. These shifts will kick off with the Summer Celebration of Choice Kick-Off Walk on Sunday, July 31 and continue through the evening of Sunday, August 7. To sign up for a shift, please go to www.summerofchoice.com or contact NOW Field Organizer Anita Lederer at fieldorg@now.org.

You can also speak out against the legislation winding its way through the Pennsylvania General Assembly by participating in Pennsylvanian’s for Choice “We’ve Had Enough” rally on September 27 in Harrisburg in the Capital Rotunda. Join us in telling the PA Legislature to STOP the attacks on women’s health in Pennsylvania! You can sign up at http://www.wevehadenoughpa.org/take-action.html to join in our effort to stop this legislation. Help us fight these dangerous bills and join us in declaring that…

WE’VE HAD ENOUGH!

Action Alert: Two Anti-Choice Bills Up for Vote on Monday May 23 in PA Senate

We have just been advised that the Pennsylvania Senate is scheduled to vote on two abortion-related measures on MONDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 23rd.
The first bill is SB 3 which would ban abortion coverage in any health care plan in the new health care exchanges created with the new Federal health care law. The second bill is SB 732. It would license abortion providers, create a consumer complaint system, and provide for unannounced Department of Health inspections prior to licensing and in response to any reported serious events.
Please contact your state Senator and tell him/her to vote NO on both SB 3 and SB 732. The message for each bill is slightly different. You can find your Senator's contact information at http://bit.ly/FindPaLeg. See below for details.

Messages to Give to Your Senator on SB 3

SB 3: This bill would ban abortion coverage in the insurance exchange to be set up by 2014 as part of health care reform, even if the insured pays for a separate policy with her own money. You can review our previous blogs on this bill here, here, and here. There are two sets of messages to tell your Senator:

MESSAGE 1:

SUPPORT the following amendments to Senate Bill 3

1. Complying with Federal Health Care Law Amendment:

Insurance coverage for abortion may be purchased through the health insurance exchange using private funds pursuant to the funding and segregation rules set forth in Section 1303 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

2. Insurance Choice Amendment:

An insurance plan shall neither be required to provide nor prohibited from providing insurance coverage for abortion services.

3. Health Exception Amendment:

In cases in which the woman became pregnant through an act of rape or incest, or where, in the good faith judgment of the physician, an abortion is medically necessary for reasons other than rape or incest.

Message 2:

VOTE NO on SB 3; Women need insurance coverage of abortions. Senate Bill 3 would:

• Prohibit any insurance company that contracts with the health care exchange from providing coverage for abortion services

• Prohibit this coverage except in cases of death or rape or incest that has been personally reported

• Prohibit a woman from using her own private money to purchase abortion coverage, though this separation is mandated by the Nelson amendment to the federal health care reform law – the Affordable Care Act.

Messages to Give to Your Senator on SB 732

SB 732: This bill would license abortion providers, create a consumer complaint system, and provide for unannounced Department of Health inspections prior to licensing and in response to any reported serious events. We have major concerns about the harassment potential SB 732 presents. It may be made even worse if Senator Mensch gets his way and  amends the bill to require abortion providers upgrade to ambulatory surgical facility standards; this amendment, just like HB 574, if passed, will likely cause most of our 20 free-standing clinics to close, curtail the services they provide, and/or increase the cost of a procedure beyond many women's reach.

MESSAGE 1:

VOTE NO on Mensch Amendment TO SB 732.

MESSAGE 2:

VOTE No on SB 732 due to its potential to harass clinics and invade women's right to privacy.

And finally, here is the overall message for both SB 3 and SB 732

Pennsylvania law should support the provision of safe, legal abortion and not stigmatize the procedure and push it into the hands of illegal, dangerous practitioners who threaten and endanger women’s lives and health. The situation in the Gosnell clinic happened because the PA Department of Health was not enforcing existing regulations. If we want to avoid more “clinics of horror” like the one in Philadelphia, then we need to urge our senators not to support these unreasonable proposals that will in turn hurt women rather than help them.

Allow women to continue their full reproductive health care coverage (NO on SB 3) and oppose onerous additional regulations that could send women to unsafe and unregulated or out-of-state providers (NO on SB 732).

Press Statement on PA Senate Banking and Insurance Committee Vote: SB 3 Abortion Ban

As a follow-up to yesterday's blog on the vote in the Pennsylvania Senate Banking and Insurance Committee vote, here is a copy of the press statement I sent out this morning to media across the state.

In case you use a screen reader and it can't read the graphics, here's the text of the release:

Pennsylvania State Senate Pandering to the Right


Why was this your very first vote of the session?

Bellefonte, PA, January 26, 2011: On Tuesday, January 25, 2011, the PA Senate Banking and Insurance Committee voted out SB 3. This bill, sponsored by Senator Don White (R-Armstrong, Butler, Clearfield, Indiana, and Westmoreland Counties) bans abortion coverage in the health care exchanges except in cases where the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or to “avert” the death of the woman.

This was the very first vote any of these Senators cast during the new 2011-2012 legislative session. It was also the only vote taken during this committee meeting. The final vote was 12 (all 9 R's and 3 D's) for and 2 against (both D's).

This bill dramatically changes the status quo. If it becomes law, it will leave women worse off than before federal health care reform took place. Currently between 80 and 87% of all health-insurance plans cover abortions. Banning abortion coverage in the state health insurance exchange would leave women worse off than they were before health care reform began.

Sue Frietsche, Senior Staff Attorney at the Women’s Law Project noted that this bill might also be unconstitutional. In her public statement after the vote, she said, “In the Medicaid context, Pennsylvania courts have already ruled that it’s unconstitutional to make rape survivors jump through the kind of insulting and burdensome hoops this bill would create. The bill would require rape survivors to “personally” report the crime and identify the assailant, if known, in order for their health insurance to cover an abortion procedure.”

What are they thinking!?

Senator White – the prime sponsor as well as chair of this committee -- explained his reason for making this the first vote in committee. He said, “I originally introduced this bill last fall. I’ll admit timing is suspicious. However, I’ve been asked by certain members [of the Senate]- to get this to the floor. I’m not going to wait for the Feds to set the exchanges up. This will be voted on today.”

None of the Senators voting yes explained why they voted yes or why they did not ask for a delay in the vote, even though a couple of them expressed concern about the “seeming rush to vote.” For example, Senator Patricia Vance (R-Cumberland and York Counties) said, “This vote is premature. I’m willing to support the bill but we will just have to do this over once we know how the exchanges will work and how much money is involved [emphasis added].”

Of the two Senators that spoke out against the measure during the hearing, Senator Anthony Williams (D-Delaware and Philadelphia Counties) may have best expressed his frustration. He said, "There are larger issues right now. I would hate to have this as my first vote [of the new session]. This [vote] isn’t on a substantive issue. We should be holding off on these [types of] bills. We may have a testosterone problem here."

This vote is a pandering, political statement. Senators should not be focusing on social, hot-button issues. As Senator Vance and Williams clearly stated, this vote is premature. Pennsylvania voters are not interested in reopening the debate around abortion. Our lawmakers should focus on improving our health care system and stop using women’s health as a divisive issue.

Speaking Out, Speaking Up for Abortion Rights in a Safe, Legal Environment

Bellefonte, PA, January 21, 2011, 6:30 p.m.: On Saturday, Jan. 22, the Pennsylvania NOW (National Organization for Women) Education Fund will show a movie of women speaking out for abortion rights. The program will also feature National NOW Foundation Vice President Erin Matson and Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund President Joanne Tosti-Vasey speaking on the status of reproductive rights to commemorate and celebrate the 38th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision affirming women's constitutional right to abortion.

“We are celebrating 38 years of Supreme Court recognition that the Constitution protects women's right to legal abortion. But not a day goes by without threats to our reproductive freedom," said NOW Foundation Vice President Erin Matson.

This anniversary comes at the same time as the indictment of Dr. Gosnell and several of his staff members for the alleged brutal, unsafe and illegal abortion practice he conducted in West Philadelphia. “Pennsylvania NOW applauds the work of the grand jury convened by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams in this case, and if true, we believe that women, predominately low-income women of color, have been the victims of some serious, horrible crimes," said Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund President Joanne Tosti-Vasey.

The grand jury’s report placed partial blame on the Pennsylvania Department of Health for the “failure to ensure the health and safety of patients in abortion clinics” as they do for “patients receiving medical care from other providers.”

This failure to follow regulations, the stigmatization that surrounds abortion and the lack of funding of abortions for low-income women can lead to the lack of access to safe, legal abortion services for women. Without access to insurance funding for reproductive services, women may end up in the back alleys or with unsafe abortions as allegedly occurred here. This will be part of the discussion on Saturday night.

WHAT: Airing of documentary “I Had an Abortion” and speeches commemorating the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade .

WHO: Erin Matson, National NOW Foundation Vice President Action and Joanne Tosti-Vasey, Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund President

WHEN: 7:00 p.m., Saturday, January 22, 2011

WHERE: 160 Willard Building, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

SPONSORED BY: Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund, Ni-Ta-Nee NOW, PSU Department of Women’s Studies, PSU Center for Women Students, and the PSU Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance

43,000 Pennsylvanians Losing Health Care Insurance - Please Take Action

Incoming Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Corbett's (R) transition team has announced that the new administration will allow adultBasic to expire at the end of next month. AdultBasic is Pennsylvania's health insurance program for adults with a low income who who do not have health insurance and do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid.  Most often these are people with preexisting conditions that can not afford insurance in the private market and who are not covered under a plan provided by their employer.

The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has summarized the issue.  Here's the email they sent to me.  Please take action here and here a.s.a.p. to protect access to health care for the 43,000 Pennsylvanian adults who will lose their health care insurance next month if Governor-Elect Corbett goes through with his plan to allow AdultBasic to expire.

Incoming Corbett Administration Favors Ending adultBasic

Plan will likely add thousands to the ranks of the uninsured

The clock is ticking on a critical health insurance program that provides nearly 42,000 Pennsylvanians with affordable health coverage.

Pennsylvania’s adultBasic insurance program will end on February 28 unless swift action is taken to resolve a funding shortfall. The Commonwealth is preparing to send coverage termination notices to the thousands of Pennsylvanians who rely on adultBasic, which provides affordable health insurance for working individuals.

The situation reached a critical point this week when Governor-elect Tom Corbett’s transition team signaled support for a plan that would allow adultBasic to lapse. Those who lose their insurance would be given the option of enrolling in “Special Care,” a more expensive health plan operated by the state’s Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans.

“Special Care” was created by the Blues in 1992 as a low-cost, limited benefit health plan. Premiums are as much as 400% higher than adultBasic premiums and benefits are much more limited — restricting patients to four doctor visits per year and covering only catastrophic hospital care and limited outpatient procedures.

This is bad news for many of the Pennsylvanians enrolled in adultBasic — like Roseann Davis, a mother of two from Bucks County who suffers from multiple conditions, including Crohn's disease, colitis and glaucoma. She termed the plan — with its bigger price tag and more limited benefits — “a death sentence” for her.

For the past five years, the state’s Blue Cross plans have contributed funding toward adultBasic as part of their charitable mission, but that funding agreement ended on December 31, 2010. Despite making those contributions, the Blues saw their cumulative surpluses increase from $3.5 billion in 2002 to $5.6 billion in 2009 — growing more than two-and-a-half times faster than wages in Pennsylvania.

During the gubernatorial campaign, Tom Corbett said he supported a six-month extension of adultBasic, which would keep the program funded through June 2011. That would have given the new administration time to decide what to do about the expiration of the Blues’ funding agreement. But in recent news reports, Corbett transition spokesman Kevin Harley has said adultBasic is “not sustainable.” In a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story this week Mr. Harley said: “There's no funding for it. If there's no funding for it, the program doesn't exist.”

The Blues could fully fund adultBasic, without any state funds, with less than 3% of their combined surpluses. Rather than taking away affordable health insurance for the nearly 42,000 Pennsylvanians enrolled in adultBasic, policymakers should require the Blues to continue their contributions to adultBasic to fulfill their charitable mission and preserve their tax-exempt status. Legislation that would have extended the insurance assessment through 2014 was considered in the state House last year.

The issue has prompted a dispute between the outgoing Rendell administration and incoming Corbett administration, but this political bickering overlooks the core of the issue. Pennsylvania can sustain adultBasic, with tobacco settlement dollars, continued assessments on the Blues under the Community Health Reinvestment Agreement and allocating other state dollars, to maintain this critical health insurance lifeline.

If you’re interested in taking action in support of adultBasic, our partner organization, the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, has put together an action page here and a petition already signed by more than 4,000 people.