Statewide Coalition Condemns Proposed Abortion Ban Restricting Women's Access to Reproductive Health Coverage in Pennsylania

The following press release was sent to media throughout Pennsylvania on September 30, 2010 by Pennsylvanians for Choice. Pennsylvanians for Choice is a coalition of pro-choice organizations and their allies whose mission is to protect and enhance reproductive health care for all Pennsylvanians. Member organizations include: Pennsylvania NOW, Inc., the Women’s Law Project, Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates, the American Civil Liberties Union, WOMEN’S WAY, the Women’s Medical Fund, and CHOICE.

Pittsburgh, PA: Today Pennsylvanians for Choice, a statewide coalition of pro-choice organizations, denounced proposed legislation that would severely restrict access to abortion care in Pennsylvania. Senate Bill 1399, introduced by Senator Don White (R-11) would ban private insurance plans sold in Pennsylvania’s state exchange, created under health care reform, from covering even medically necessary abortion procedures.

“Today, most private insurance plans cover abortion care,” said Susan Frietsche, Senior Staff Attorney at the Women’s Law Project. “Senator White’s proposal would leave women worse off than they were before health care reform began.” Under Senator White’s bill, no abortion plan that contracts with the state exchange would be permitted to cover abortion except in the narrowest circumstances.


With an estimated 80% of private insurance plans currently covering abortion procedures, coalition spokespeople said that a ban of this magnitude would have a devastating effect on Pennsylvania women.


"Aside from having some of the oldest and most stringent abortion laws in the nation, Pennsylvania, like every other state, is bound by the Nelson abortion provision to the federal health care law,” said Sari Stevens, Executive Director of the Harrisburg-based Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates. Under the Nelson abortion provision, any health insurance plan that contracts with the exchange is required to implement a complex system of segregation to ensure no federal funds are used for abortion coverage - including the collection of two separate payments from the beneficiary, one for abortion coverage and one for all other health care coverage.

“Poll after poll shows that Pennsylvanians are not interested in reopening the debate around abortion. I urge Pennsylvania lawmakers to follow the lead of their constituents and support measures to prevent unintended pregnancy in the first place,” added Stevens. The insurance exchanges, slated to be available for enrollment in 2014, will serve those who do not have access to employer-based health plans including the unemployed and small business employees.


The proposed ban would deny insurance plans participating in the exchange from covering abortion care except in cases where the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or where the life of the woman is in danger. Frietsche pointed out that “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, within 72 hours in order for their health insurance to cover an abortion procedure.


“The White bill is a throwback to the days when society blamed rape victims for somehow being responsible for the violence that was done to them,” Frietsche commented. “Pennsylvania lawmakers really should have moved beyond these gender stereotypes by now.”


“Instead of denying Pennsylvania women access to fundamental reproductive health care services, politicians should be working to protect and advance women’s health,” concluded Rebecca Foley of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit WOMEN’S WAY. “This proposed ban will leave many Pennsylvania women without coverage for safe, legal, and critical care.”

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Action Alert: Virginia Governor Denies Teresa Lewis' Petition for Clemency

Virginia's Governor McDonnell denied Teresa Lewis' petition for clemency on September 17, 2010. Without your help, Teresa will die on September 23, 2010.


The time is NOW to take further action to save Teresa’s life. We are not giving up. Let Governor McDonnell know that he must reconsider his unjust and inhumane decision. Click on this button, which will take you directly to Governor McDonnell’s web page for receiving emails:

You may include your own text for your message to Governor McDonnell, or you may wish to include the following message:

Governor McDonnell, your decision to deny clemency completely ignores the fact that Teresa Lewis is borderline mentally retarded and had a dependent personality disorder, and that a life sentence was given to the man who has repeatedly stated that HE was the mastermind and that “The only reason I had sex with [Teresa] was for the money [and] to get her to ‘fall in love’ with me so she would give me the insurance money. . . . She was exactly what I was looking for.” Killing Teresa now, when this man was allowed to live, is so unfair and unjust that it cannot be permitted.

Or if you prefer: Call the Governor’s Office at 804-786-2211 and register your disapproval of his decision. Demand that Teresa be permitted to live.

(Note: Teresa's lawyer has made this request for assistance via email at noon on Monday, September 20 asking us to email and post this action alert to the PA NOW website).

Poverty and Health Insurance

On September 16th, the US Census Bureau released their newest report entitled Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009.  It paints a dark picture of women's and children's economic and health.  Here are a few highlights from the report:

Income Highlights

• We now have the largest number of people living in poverty in the United States since we started measuring poverty levels.  That's 43.56 million people or 14.3% of the entire US population. 
• Pennsylvania is better off than much of the rest of the country - our poverty rate stood at 11.1%.
• More adult women (13.9%) than adult men (10.5%) are living in poverty.
• The rate of poverty increased in all types of families - married couples, female-only headed households, and male-only headed households.
• Over one-third of single-mother families (38.5%) are living in poverty - the highest level since 1998.
• Women continue to earn only 77% on average of what men are earning.

Health Care Highlights

• Data on the number of people with health care insurance was first collected in 1987.This is the first year that the number of people with health insurance decreased.
• 16.7% or 50.7 million people in the US went without health insurance last year.
• Significant increases in uninsured people occurred across all races except for people of Asian descent.
• The percentage of people covered by employer-based health insurance decreased to 63.9% of the population - the lowest level since 1987 when this data was first collected.
• The percentage of people covered by the government health insurance programs increased to 30.6% -this include Medicare, Medicaid, Veteran's Health Care, Military Health Care, and the Children's Health Insurance programs.

The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has also put together 2-page summary of poverty and health insurance in Pennsylvania culled from Census Bureau data. We are doing slightly better than the rest of the country. But not much. Eleven percent of Pennsylvanians currently live in poverty and 12.4% of Pennsylvanians are uninsured. Like like the rest of the country, these numbers are still too high.

These numbers may have been even more dismal if we hadn't had the safety net built of the federal stimulus initiatives aimed at low-income earners and the extension of unemployment benefits.  According to a story aired today on NPR, these two programs alone "are credited with helping keep 3.3 million people out of poverty." 

These programs should be continued. And more can be done.  Congress needs to:

1. Remove the tax cuts on families with incomes over $250,000. This will add more money to the budget so that we can infuse more funds into programs for the middle and lower income levels.  It will also help reduce the burden-producing debt of the current economy.
2. Pass of the Paycheck Fairness Act.  It passed the House last year and is still awaiting a vote in the US Senate.  This Act will help reduce gender-based wage discrimination and allow women to be paid equitably. Implementation of this will will, over the long haul, reduce the wage gap between men and women.  
3. Oppose Senator Mitch McConnell's proposed bill to eliminate the earned income tax credit for low income families.
4. Allow states to create single-payer health care plans.  Pennsylvania's proposed plan, for example, would result in all people in the state receiving health care at an affordable level.  Everyone in.  Nobody out. If you are unemployed and living in poverty, you would still get health care. Details about this plan can be found here.

Please take action.  Contact your Senator's and let them know that we need to deal with these economic issues NOW.  We need to reduce the income inequities and make sure that all our families have a sustainable income.  These are first steps.  Let's make this happen.

Women's Equality Day, the ERA and CEDAW

August 26, 2010 was the 90th anniversary of women receiving the constitutional right to vote in the United States.  It is now known as Women's Equality Day. Today, women have more opportunities than ever before. For many, the right to vote is equated with full equality for women.  However that is only one step in the process. 

As Terry O'Neill, National President of NOW states, "When history books and the media celebrate women's successful fight for the right to vote, they often imply that women now have constitutional equality. The fact is, sex discrimination against women is not unconstitutional, and statues prohibiting it have no constitutional foundation. It is time to write women into the Constitution by ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment."

In the United States, we need to pass and include the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) in the US Constitition.  We can start by calling on our representatives at the state and federal level to advance the ERA. Women can do their part by voting in 2010. We must vote for candidates who believe that equality is a basic human right -- candidates who believe in reproductive freedom, who support equal rights for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered people, who are dedicated to eliminating racism and violence, who promote economic justice, and who believe that women must be included in the U.S. Constitution.

And we can do the same for women throughout the world by urging the US Senate to ratify the 30-year-old UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, commonly known as CEDAW.  The US helped draft this treaty.  It has been ratified by 185 countries, including all industrialized nations, with the exception of the United States. While progress has been made in advancing women’s rights in recent decades, women continue to suffer disproportionately from poverty, sexual and domestic violence and lack of access to basic health care and equal education. In countries where CEDAW has been ratified, it has made significant improvement to the status of women. U.S. ratification of CEDAW would lend weight to the treaty and solidify our status as a leader in the global human rights committee. U.S. ratification would lend weight to the treaty and the principle that human rights of women are universal across all cultures, nations and religions and worthy of being guaranteed through international human rights standards.


So in that vein, the Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund has been gathering signatures through Facebook Causes to ratify CEDAW. The petition will be sent to President Obama and the Senate petitioning that they "support human rights by prioritizing and passing the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) without restrictions or reservations."  As of the end of the day of Women's Equality Day, 180 people from 21 states had signed the petition in the last month.   We'd like to thank all of the signees.  And if you haven't signed the petition and are on Facebook, go to our Cause page at http://www.causes.com/causes/316675 to add your name.  If you are not on Facebook, you can sign a similar petition at the National NOW ACtion Center at http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5996/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1364.

August 8 is my birthday. Please help celebrate!

Tomorrow August 8th is my birthday! Instead of asking for gifts, I’ve created a Birthday Wish where you can share stories, photos, and donate to the cause Pennsylvania NOW, something I really care about. Check it out!

Why I Care About NOW and Women's Equality

I joined NOW in 1979 because I couldn't get my boss to pay me a fair wage (I was paid 59% of what a man that graduated with me was paid). In 1989, NOW helped save my life by intervening in a health insurance dispute that was preventing me from having a bone marrow transplant. I continue to have a passion for equality for all, including for women and children. Current issues like shackling pregnant women in prison or cutting funds for critical women's and children's programs that occured here in Pennsylvania for a second year in a row makes my blood boil. We need funds to help get the word out when these kinds of things are happening. Will you help?

Please help make this a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY for me by making a tax-deductible donation to the Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund. Thank you!

OR

If you are not on Facebook or prefer to make the donation by check rather than credit card, you can send your check or credit card donation to us at Pennsylvania NOW, P.O. Box 68, Bellefonte, PA 16823. A pledge form for this purpose is attached at th end of this blog.

If you want to make a tax deductible donation, make the check out to the “Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund.” If you don't need the tax deduction, then you can make the check out to “Pennsylvania NOW, Inc.” Either way helps.

Put "Joanne's Birthday Wish" in the check memo line so that we know that you are helping make my wish come true.

Thanks so much! I'm so lucky to have such awesome friends and fellow activists for equality.

-Joanne Tosti-Vasey, President, Pennsylvania NOW, Inc. and Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund

PA NOW Pledge Form

Women's Equality Day, CEDAW, and Facebook

Women's Equality Day is August 26 in the United States.  It was instituted in 1971 by Bella Abzug.  It commemorates the passage of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution that grants the right to vote to women.  We also use this day to commemorate other achievements and efforts to achieve equality for women.  Like the passage of Title IX that helps insure equitable access to education for girls or the inclusion of gender in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which was reconfirmed with the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.  It is a day to honor women's rights.

We believe that women’s rights are human rights.  What better way to honor that history than to urge the United States Senate to ratify CEDAW -- the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.  CEDAW is the most comprehensive international agreement on the basic human rights of women and girls.

Ratifying CEDAW would lend weight to the treaty and the principle that human rights of women are universal across all cultures, nations and religions and worthy of being guaranteed through international human rights standards.  Until the U.S. ratifies CEDAW, it can neither credibly demand that others live up to their obligations under the treaty, nor that it is a leader in the global human rights community.

CEDAW has been ratified by 185 countries, including all industrialized nations, with the exception of the United States. While progress has been made in advancing women’s rights in recent decades, women continue to suffer disproportionately from poverty, sexual and domestic violence and lack of access to basic health care and equal education. In countries where CEDAW has been ratified, it has made significant improvement to the status of women. U.S. ratification of CEDAW would lend weight to the treaty and solidify our status as a leader in the global human rights committee.

So in honor of Women's Equality Day, the Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund has created an online Facebook petition urging the US Senate to ratify CEDAW without restrictions or reservations.

If you have a Facebook account, you can sign the petition (and add your “Cause” supporting this action). This petition drive ends on August 26, 2010—Women’s Equality Day. The signatures will be sent to the National NOW Action Center to be added to the signatures they are delivering to the US Senate and to President Obama.

So take a moment, sign the petition, and spread the word in honor of Women's Equality Day!

Online Fundraiser for the Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund

I am President of Pennsylvania NOW and the Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund. My birthday is on August 8th. The best birthday gift would be additional funds to help with our work for equality, economic justice, civil rights for all, and ending violence against women in Pennsylvania.

To celebrate, I am doing an online fundraiser for the Education Fund.

Why is this important to me?  It's both personal and political.

Why I Care About This Cause


I joined NOW in 1979 because I couldn't get my boss to pay me a fair wage (I was paid 59% of what a man that graduated with me was paid).

In 1989, NOW helped save my life by intervening in a health insurance dispute that was preventing me from having a bone marrow transplant.

I continue to have a passion for equality for all, including for women and children. Current issues like shackling pregnant women in prison or cutting funds for critical women's and children's programs that occurred here in Pennsylvania for a second year in a row makes my blood boil.

We need funds to help get the word out when these kinds of things are happening.

Will You Help?

So please check out my Birthday Wish at http://birthdays.causes.com/wishes/2934, spread the word, and make a donation if you can.

OR, if you prefer to make the donation by check rather than credit card, you can email your check to us at Pennsylvania NOW, P.O. Box 68, Bellefonte, PA 16823.

For a tax deduction, make the check out to the Pennsylvania NOW Education Fund. If you don't need the tax deduction, then you can make the check out to Pennsylvania NOW, Inc. Either way helps.

Put "Joanne's Birthday Wish" in the memo line so that we know that you are helping make my wish come true. 


Thanks so much! I'm so lucky to have such awesome friends and fellow activists for equality.

Joanne Tosti-Vasey