We've Had Enough! Rally for Women's Lives on September 27

In the first six months of 2011, Pennsylvania lawmakers spent 30% of their days at the Capitol working to restrict access to safe, legal abortion.

Following the lead of Kansas — the most anti-choice state in the nation — Pennsylvania lawmakers chose to make the very first vote of the session about an unnecessary, dangerous Senate abortion bill. As House members prepared to depart for their summer vacations at the end of June, a bill aimed at closing health centers was poised for a vote up until the very last minute. When they return in September (on September 27), you can bet they’ll be right at it again.


Two bills, in particular, threaten a woman's right to choose to have an abortion - one under the guise of patient safety and the other is a blatant attempt to chip away at a well-established legal right.

Senate Bill 732 (SB 732)

SB 732 is a TRAP (Targeted Regulations on Abortion Providers) law that would force free-standing abortion providers to be regulated as Ambulatory Surgical Facilities (ASF) which require burdensome and unnecessary structural and staffing changes.

• SB 732 could cause a public health crisis by making abortion care in Pennsylvania inaccessible;
• ASF regulations could cause the cost of an abortion to rise significantly and could force providers to close their door.  There are 22 stand-alone clinics in Pennsylvania; all of these clinics currently do not meet the onerous regulations included in this legislation; and
• Women need safe, reputable providers to trust when seeking an abortion.

Senate Bill 3 (SB 3)

SB 3 would ban insurance companies participating in the yet-to-be established state health insurance exchange from offering abortion coverage.

• Currently, an estimated 80% of insurance plans provide abortion coverage. If SB3 passes, many women will lose the coverage they currently have; and
• Without coverage for abortion services, women will be forced to seek care from non-reputable providers.

Don’t miss this important rally to help protect women’s reproductive lives.  The rally is scheduled from 11:30 am to 1 pm on Tuesday, September 27 in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg; lobbying your legislators to oppose these bills will occur both before and after the rally. The keynote speaker at the rally, FYI will be Ellie Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority, and former President of both National NOW and Pennsylvania NOW.  Details and sign-up (for both lunch and buses) are on the website at http://www.wevehadenoughpa.org (information) and http://www.wevehadenoughpa.org/rally.html (registration page).  

(Note, due to security checks at the Capitol, you might want to arrive by 11 am to get through the metal detectors before the rally starts).

There are buses coming from Allentown, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Plymouth Meeting that you can sign up for at http://www.wevehadenoughpa.org/rally.html.   You can also reserve lunch on this page. Information on bus departure and return times as well as locations is available at http://www.wevehadenoughpa.org/bus-departurereturn-information.html. 

If you are interested in taking the van from the State College area, please contact Joanne Tosti-Vasey, President of Pennsylvania NOW directly at panow@panow.org or at 814-280-8571 to reserve a free seat.

Feminist Voting – One Woman’s Opinion By Jeanne Clark

Like most active feminists, I regard voting as a serious responsibility. I know that elections have consequences and that electing the wrong people to public office can have either good or very, very bad consequences for women.

Sometimes voting is easier than others. When candidates apply for and receive the endorsement of Pennsylvania NOW PAC or National NOW PAC, I know I can vote for those candidates with my whole heart and soul, knowing the candidate will not only be a vote for women’s rights, but will be an advocate for women’s rights as well.

That’s why I am so delighted that Joe Sestak is on the ballot for U.S. Senator. This election, I will proudly cast my vote for Joe. Joe will fight for women’s lives and women’s rights in the Senate and will be a great champion for us. And we have many great candidates running in Congressional Districts and for the General Assembly across the state who have the PAC endorsements. So feminists can vote for those candidates with no qualms.

But in too many races, we have no perfect endorsed candidate. One of those races is the race for Governor. Both candidates are opposed to abortion and have previously received the endorsement of the antiabortion forces. On the surface, this looks like a choice between a rock and hard place.

But a little involvement in the political process and talking to friends, as well as my own history, makes this decision actually pretty easy.

Because even though Dan Onorato says he is personally opposed to abortion, he has pledged that he will support the law, and oppose any more encroachment on our right to choose birth control and abortion. He has also promised not to use his appointment power to advance the antiabortion cause.

He made these promises to my friend Barbara Hafer, former state Treasurer and state Auditor General. He made the promises when he asked Barbara for her support for his first race for Allegheny County Executive and reiterated the same promises when he asked for her support for Governor.

So, how good is the promise? While there are no guarantees, Dan Onorato has kept his promise through his service as Allegheny County Executive. And with Barbara’s agreement to go public on the promise, it’s certainly not a secret – there are lots of us to keep his feet to the fire.

And Dan has become less conservative on social issues – if it didn’t sound so paternalistic, I would say he’s grown. He proudly signed the county legislation to create a county human relations commission which includes sexual orientation as a class protected from discrimination, and he appointed an LGBT attorney as chair. He is, I believe, listening and learning from the feminists around him.

So my decision to vote for Dan Onorato for governor turns out to be pretty easy.

And as to the rest of the ballot, that’s pretty easy this time, too. Because, in my forty years of voting, I’ve watched one party go from mild hostility to women rights to actually incorporating women rights into the basic DNA of the party beliefs, and the other party become the nation’s biggest opponent to women’s rights. I’ve seen the first women Speaker of the House incorporate feminist beliefs into the structure of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the current U.S. Secretary of State make women’s rights a basic, human right in our foreign policy and dealings with other nations – and I’ve seen the other party demonize those women for sport, and do everything they can to keep sexism alive.

As a public relations professional, I once represented the National Republican Coalition for Choice, and loved it. Those wonderful women warriors for women’s lives have now, by and large, been run out of the Republican Party.

I spent years of my life trying to start a new national political party – the 21st Century Party – which would have feminism and equality as bedrock principles and would require that the party nominate and support women in equal numbers to men. But after the Republicans were able to steal the presidential election from Al Gore, with clear evidence that well-meaning women and men inadvertently helped by voting for third party candidates with no hope of winning, I realized that the stakes are way too high to throw a vote away for a cause. Real women suffered as a result.

So – for the first time in my life I’m voting straight Democratic, with no office omitted. I invite other NOW members to join me.

- FYI, Jeanne Clark is a member of NOW and President of Squirrel Hill NOW in Pittsburgh, PA.  She also regularly blogs for Ms. Magazine at http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/author/jeanneclark/.

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.