Primary Election Day and Joe Hoeffel for Governor

Thanks to Caryn Hunt, President of Philadelphia NOW and member of the PA NOW PAC for speaking out on behalf of Joe Hoeffel for Governor of Pennsylvania.

Primary Election Day is Tuesday May 18.  Joe is the PA NOW PAC endorsed candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania.  The following is Caryn's statement.

Remember - get out and vote on Tuesday May 18.  Polls open at 7 am and close at 8 pm.  For a full listing of the Pennsylvania NOW PAC and National NOW PAC candidates that have been endorsed in Pennsylvania, go to the PA NOW PAC web page.

Stand with Joe Hoeffel

by Caryn Hunt

The National Organization for Women in PA enthusiastically supports Joe Hoeffel for Governor. He's got experience. He's got a record on our issues. But most exciting, he's got a backbone. He's a progressive, feminist candidate and proud of it.

He's also the smartest guy in the race with solid plans to grow Pennsylvania's economy, to keep money in the state, and to create 21st century, family-sustaining jobs. He recommends a sensible approach to the Marcellus Shale, and supports a moratorium to drilling in the Delaware watershed so potential harms to our drinking water can be evaluated. He proposes local control over handgun laws, which would give urban areas the legal foundation they need to drive down homicides, while leaving rural gun issues alone. He is a staunch advocate for women's rights: equal pay for equal work, equal access to health care, and reproductive rights. He supports gay marriage.

Dan Onorato, by contrast, does not support marriage equality. Onorato is also anti-abortion. He has stated he will support the status quo on abortion, but the status quo is harmful to women. His refusal to deal head-on with the reproductive issues so central to women's lives is a refusal seen at every level of government. It leads to chronic underfunding of access to family planning education, allows insurance companies to refuse to cover birth control, and has, by neglect, created broad negative consequences for maternity care. At the national level we saw that reproductive rights are vulnerable because they are not important enough to a majority of legislators to defend- they are viewed as 'chips' in the 'game'. Meanwhile women suffer. This attitude creates the conditions for back alley operations: it begets misery. Onorato is the Party-anointed front runner, which begs the question, how serious can the Democratic Party be about women's issues? Onorato's attitude, reflective of the Party stance, is to put reproductive rights on the back burner. Again.

Extremists nationwide come up with novel assaults on women's reproductive rights every day. Recently Oklahoma's state legislature passed a law allowing doctors to withhold information from women about their baby's birth defect, apparently to prevent abortions. Oklahoma and other states are pushing reproductive rights as far backwards as they can. They know there's a reactionary Supreme Court just waiting for the right case. Now is the time to move reproductive rights to the frontburner.

The basis of a woman's freedom is her ability to decide for herself when she will become a parent. Joe Hoeffel understands that. He also happens to be good on the economy, labor, government reform, and the environment. He's the total package. All along he's been direct and clear about his plans for Pennsylvania and on the issues. All along Joe Hoeffel has stood right up and championed women's rights, worker's rights, LGBT rights. But the ultimate decision will be made by voters on May 18th. With Joe a close second in polls, your vote is crucial. Now it's time for us to stand up with Joe Hoeffel.

Spring Pennsylvania NOW Times and Voters Guide

Our semi-annual newsletter, the Pennsylvania NOW Times is now available.  Included in the newsletter are the following articles:

• New Executive Board Elected
• Voters' Guide
• Legislative Updates
• Fundraising Update
• National NOW PAC Endorses Lois Herr for 16th CD

To view the newsletter in pdf format, click here.

Joe Pitts Says "NO" to Women Again!

Rep. Joe Pitts - the representative who only knows how to say "No,"  can't take "No" for an answer.  He continues to attempt to control women's lives and bodies.

His Stupak-Pitts amendment to the health insurance reform bill was taken out of the final health care bill before it was passed in March.  It was replaced by the Obama-Stupak Executive Order. This Executive Order expands the misogynistic Hyde amendment to any health insurance plan that is included in any of the health exchange programs. This expansion effectively denies reproductive health care coverage to women.  This will happen as soon as insurance companies decide to drop all plans that cover abortions and reproductive health care that the right wing believes leads to abortion (e.g., emergency contraction and birth control).

But this wasn't enough for Joe Pitts.  As the Lancaster Intelligencer states at Lancaster Online about Pitts, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.".  On Thursday, April 22, Joe Pitts introduced the "Protect Life Act."  The measure has 50 cosponsors, 32 of whom are Republicans.  This bill would turn the Hyde amendment into permanent law by permanently banning the use of any federal funds (like Medicaid)  for abortions.  But it goes far beyond that.  It makes it illegal for individuals and companies who purchase health insurance through the exchanges from including abortion coverage in their basic plan.  And coverage for abortions under the this law would only be allowed if the woman is in imminent danger of death or in the cases of rape or incest.  This is what the exception says,

except in the case where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, or unless the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest.

This bill also creates a one-way conscience clause that allows individuals and hospitals and any other health care provider to deny services with impunity to women when they refuse to participate in what they believe to be an abortion service.  It does not in contrast provide protections for individuals who believe that full reproductive health care is the gold standard of care.  

This is Pitts third attempt to throw women under the bus.  The first was in 1988/1989 when he successfully helped steer revisions to Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act through the state House of Representatives; he highlights this on his official Congressional website, stating,

[Pitts]was a key player behind the 1990 [sic] Abortion Control Act.

The second was his failed Stupak-Pitts amendment last November.  And now this attempt.  Let's throw this bill -- rather than women -- under the bus. Tell your legislators to kill the bill in committee.  It's currently in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; let it stay their permanently.

And while we are at it, let's tell Pitts "NO" one more time and vote him out of office in November.  We need a Representative who says "YES" to women.  We need Lois Herr for the PA 16th Congressional District.

Terry O'Neill on Bill Moyer's Journal

Terry O'Neill, National NOW President was interviewed by Bill Moyers for the Bill Moyers Journal on March 25.  She spoke about both the good and bad of the new health insurance law.

FYI, I refuse to call this new law "Health Care Reform" until we have true reform and get the for-profits out of our health care. The "Reform" needs to be Reformed!

The video is about 18 minutes long.

Federal Health Insurance Bill "Comes with Tragic Setback for Women's Rights"

Here's NOW's take on the bill that just passed the House with a 219-212 vote.

Health Care Reform Victory Comes with Tragic Setback for Women's Rights

Statement of NOW President Terry O'Neill
March 21, 2010


As a longtime proponent of health care reform, I truly wish that the National Organization for Women could join in celebrating the historic passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It pains me to have to stand against what many see as a major achievement. But feminist, progressive principles are in direct conflict with many of the compromises built into and tacked onto this legislation.


The health care reform bill passed by Congress today offers a number of good solutions to our nation's critical health care problems, but it also fails in many important respects. After a full year of controversy and compromise, the result is a highly flawed, diminished piece of legislation that continues reliance on a failing, profit-driven private insurance system and rewards those who have been abusive of their customers. With more than 45,000 unnecessary deaths annually and hundreds of thousands of bankruptcies each year due to medical bills, this bill is only a timid first step toward meaningful reform.


Fact: The bill contains a sweeping anti-abortion provision. Contrary to the talking points circulated by congressional leaders, the bill passed today ultimately achieves the same outcome as the infamous Stupak-Pitts Amendment, namely the likely elimination of all private as well as public insurance coverage for abortion. It imposes a bizarre requirement on insurance plan enrollees who buy coverage through the health insurance exchanges to write two monthly checks (one for an abortion care rider and one for all other health care). Even employers will have to write two separate checks for each of their employees requesting the abortion rider.


This burdensome, elaborate system must be eliminated. It is there because the Catholic bishops and extremist abortion rights opponents know that it will result in greatly restricting access to abortion care, currently one of the most common medical procedures for women.


Fact: President Obama made an eleventh-hour agreement to issue an executive order lending the weight of his office to the anti-abortion measures included in the bill. This move was designed to appease a handful of anti-choice Democrats who have held up health care reform in an effort to restrict women's access to abortion. This executive order helps to cement the misconception that the Hyde Amendment is settled law rather than what it really is -- an illegitimate tack-on to an annual must-pass appropriations bill. It also sends the outrageous message that it is acceptable to negotiate health care reform on the backs of women.

Fact: The bill permits age-rating, the practice of imposing higher premiums on older people. This practice has a disproportionate impact on women, whose incomes and savings are lower due to a lifetime of systematic wage discrimination.

Fact: The bill also permits gender-rating, the practice of charging women higher premiums simply because they are women. Some are under the mistaken impression that gender-rating has been prohibited, but that is only true in the individual and small-group markets. Larger group plans (more than 100 employees) sold through the exchanges will be permitted to discriminate against women -- having an especially harmful impact in workplaces where women predominate.


We know why those gender- and age-rating provisions are in the bill: because insurers insisted on them, as they will generate billions of dollars in profits for the companies. Such discriminatory rating must be completely eliminated.


Fact: The bill imposes harsh restrictions on the ability of immigrants to access health care, imposing a 5-year waiting period on permanent, legal residents before they are eligible for assistance such as Medicaid, and prohibiting undocumented workers even to use their own money to purchase health insurance through an exchange. These provisions are counterproductive in terms of controlling health care costs; they are there because of ugly anti-immigrant sentiment, and must be eliminated.

Fact: The bill covers only 32 million of the 47 million uninsured in this country, does not contain a meaningful public option and provides no pathway to a single payer system like Medicare for all. Democratic negotiators crumpled before powerful business interests and right-wing extremists, and until they get a spine there will be no true competition to help rein in costs.

The bottom line is that everyone -- citizen and non-citizen, undocumented immigrant and visitor -- has a fundamental human right to health care. This right has been denied in the U.S. for far too long, while the rest of the industrialized world moved ahead to assure universal and affordable care for their people.


We call upon President Obama and elected officials in both houses to commit to a process of steady improvement of our health care system that will result in true reform with universal coverage, realistically affordable rates and no discrimination. We still have a lot of work to do before we can genuinely celebrate.

###
For Immediate Release
Contact: Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116; cell 202-641-1906
Copyright 1995-2009, All rights reserved. Permission granted for non-commercial use. National Organization for Women

(This is reprinted from http://www.now.org/press/03-10/03-21b.html)

Women thrown under the bus

This afternoon at 4 pm, Bart Stupak announced that he had made a deal with President Obama to deny women access to reporductve health care abortion services through an Executive Order that will be signed when Obama signs the health insurance (not health care) reform bill.  Here's National NOW's President's statement on this decision by mostly white men to control the lives, bodies, and health of women.

President Obama Breaks Faith with Women

Statement of NOW President Terry O'Neill
March 21, 2010


The National Organization for Women is incensed that President Barack Obama agreed today to issue an executive order designed to appease a handful of anti-choice Democrats who have held up health care reform in an effort to restrict women's access to abortion. Through this order, the president has announced he will lend the weight of his office and the entire executive branch to the anti-abortion measures included in the Senate bill, which the House is now prepared to pass.

President Obama campaigned as a pro-choice president, but his actions today suggest that his commitment to reproductive health care is shaky at best. Contrary to language in the draft of the executive order and repeated assertions in the news, the Hyde Amendment is not settled law -- it is an illegitimate tack-on to an annual must-pass appropriations bill. NOW has a longstanding objection to Hyde and, in fact, was looking forward to working with this president and Congress to bring an end to these restrictions. We see now that we have our work cut out for us far beyond what we ever anticipated. The message we have received today is that it is acceptable to negotiate health care on the backs of women, and we couldn't disagree more.

We need to give Bart Stupak and Joe Pitts their pink slips.  They need to be fired for crafting the Stupak-Pitts amendment.  This is the amendment that was in the House version of the bill that that resulted in today's Executive Order announcement in order to get the anti-choice Representatives to vote for the bill.  With this so-called compromise, women have now been thrown under the bus and into the back alleys.

You can help do that.  The National NOW PAC has endorsed Connie Saltonstall against Bart Stupak in his  primary in Michigan because of his anti-choice zealotry. The NOW PAC also endorsed Lois Herr against Joe Pitts here in Pennsylvania for similar reasons. You can donate to their campaigns at http://actblue.com/page/feminist  (Saltonstall) and at http://actblue.com/page/elect-herr-NOW (Herr).

Lois Herr (PA-16)	$

Connie Saltonstall (MI-01)	$

Anti-Shackling Bill Passes in the PA Senate

It now goes to the Pennsylvania House Representatives.
Here's an email from Dee Johnson, Philadelphia NOW member and Communications Manager at the Pennsylvania Prison Society that announces passage of the bill.

Our anti-shackling bill just passed unanimously in the Senate; now onto the House! Woohoo! Following is the vote history of the Shackling Ban bill: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billinfo/bill_history.cfm?syear=2009&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=1074

Dee Johnson
Communications Manager/Managing Editor
Pennsylvania Prison Society
245 North Broad Street
Suite 300
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215.564.6005, ext. 112
215.564.7926 (Fax)
djohnson@prisonsociety.org
http://www.prisonsociety.org/
www.facebook.com/PennsylvaniaPrisonSociety