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: Anti-Abortion Bill May Be Voted on in PA Senate on Monday, February 7

On January 19, 2011, Pennsylvania State Senator Don White (R-11) introduced Senate Bill 3 with 25 cosponsors. The bill would ban private insurance plans sold in the Pennsylvania health insurance exchange, created under health care reform and will begin operating by 2014, from covering even medically necessary abortion services. On January 25, 2011, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee passed SB 3.

It now appears that the full Senate will be voting on this bill on Monday, February 7.  Please take a moment and call or email you State Senator.  Contact information for each Senator can be found here.  Just fill in the information.  When the second page pops up, click on the name of your Senator.  This will take you to his/her contact page where you can find phone numbers and either an email address or a link to the Senator's web mail form.

Tell your Senator to urge postponement of consideration. Senators need to know there is a pro-choice majority in PA and that a vote for passage of this bill is both unnecessary and dangerous for women!! 

Additional background and talking points are listed below.

Background on SB 3
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. These exceptions to receive abortion coverage are very narrow.

• Victims of rape must personally report the incident to the police and must identify the assailant, if known. Victims of incest must personally report the incident to law enforcement and identify the offender.

• There is no exception made for catastrophic health situations such as paralysis, organ failure and infertility.

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.

What are the consequences of this bill if it becomes law?

• The passage of SB 3 will continue to marginalize abortion service from the regulation and oversight of the medical and insurance industry. Pennsylvania law should support the provision of safe, legal abortion and not stigmatize the procedure and push it into the hands of dangerous practitioners who threaten and endanger women’s lives and health.

• An estimated 80% of private insurance plans currently cover abortion services. If legislation banning abortion coverage in the state insurance exchange passes, it will dramatically change the status quo for abortion services in Pennsylvania by taking coverage away from thousands of women who may enroll in the state insurance exchange

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Stories from Pennsylvania Women


These are some real-life stories of how women would be negatively affected if this ban becomes law (FYI, these stories that were provided by the Women’s Medical Fund to the Pennsylvanians for Choice Coalition). Under a ban like Senate Bill 3, these women would not be able to receive abortion services if participating in the Pennsylvania health insurance exchange.

H.D. is a young woman with two children. She makes $1,300 per month as a home health aide. Because the person whom she cares for has been hospitalized, she has had no income for a month. She was behind in her rent and feared eviction.


At age 2, Sarah underwent chemotherapy and surgery for bladder cancer. Now an adult woman with a wanted pregnancy, Sarah found out her bladder has a new lesion on it that can’t be treated while she is pregnant. She is also at risk for kidney conditions that pregnancy can worsen. She and her physicians reluctantly decided that she must terminate her pregnancy to save her health.


Q.M. is 30 years old and has two young children. She supports her family with welfare payments of $400 per month. Her fiancé just suffered a stroke and will need to be in rehab for many months. She contacted us from his bedside at the hospital. With sadness, Q.M. decided that this was not the right time to take on the responsibility of parenting another child.


G.L. is a sophomore at a suburban college living at home with her alcoholic and abusive mother and her little brother. Although her mother helps with college tuition, G.L. must cover her other expenses with savings from her summer job. She feared her mother would become violent if she turned to her for help with an abortion.


L.B. is a 30-year-old woman with a school-aged daughter. A few months ago, she was laid off from her job at a medical office. Since then, unable to find another job, she enrolled in SNAP (food stamps) and is spending down her savings account to pay her rent and other living expenses. L.B. had been using a hormonal contraceptive, so she was surprised to find herself pregnant.


R.B. is a 27-year-old woman who works as a community organizer. She suffered date rape at a party; someone slipped drugs into her drink and then assaulted her.

Once again, here's the link to your Senator's office.  Please act today! Thank you!

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)	$

Shame!

NOW members are outraged at the passage of the Stupak amendment to the House version of the Health Care Reform bill.  This is a message from Kathleen Wilson, Vice-President of Pennsylania NOW to Barack Obama on the passage of the non-health care reform bill....

I am VERY disappointed and OUTRAGED that you want me to consider the most devastating piece of legislation suppressing women's lives as a victory?? You cannot pee on me and then tell me it is raining!! You will never get another penny, or work hour out of me ever again!!! This legislation outlawing reproductive freedom and personal responsibility in the 21st [Century] is criminal!! The fact that you chose to ignore the consequences of this legislation reveals your complicity in this misogynistic act!!

We Were Sold Down the River

Last night, the US House of Representative passed HR 3962, the so-called Health Care Reform bill. During the floor debate, Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed a successful vote on Rep. Stupak's amendment to deny any woman access to abortion coverage.  This means that any woman will be denied abortion coverage in her health insurance plan if she either uses the "public option" OR if she receives any subsidy whatsoever to purchase health insurance from private insurers.  So now lower and middle-class women will ALL be completely denied access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care.  Which may also include access to emergency contraception and other forms of birth control.

Here is how the PA Congressional House delegation voted on this amendment.  Fourteen Pennsylvania Representatives, including 7 D's and all 7 R's, voted against women's reproductive health and only 5 D's stood up for women's rights.

Yes Votes (i.e., Votes for Stupak Amendment and AGAINST Women's Health)


Jason Altmire       (D) PA 4
Christopher Carney  (D) PA 10
Mike Doyle          (D) PA 14
Charlie Dent        (R) PA 15
Kathy Dahlkemper    (D) PA 3  (and co-sponsor of amendment)
Jim Gerlach         (R) PA 6
Tim Holden          (D) PA 17
Paul Kanjorski      (D) PA 11
John P. Murtha      (D) PA 12
Tim Murphy          (R) PA 18
Joe Pitts           (R) PA 16 (Primary Republican Co-sponsor)
Todd R. Platts      (R) PA 19
Bill Shuster        (R) PA 9
Glenn Thompson      (R) PA 5

NO VOTES (Votes in Support of Women's Reproductive Health)

Robert a. Brady     (D) PA 1
Chaka Fattah        (D) PA 2
Patrick J. Murphy   (D) PA 8
Allyson Y. Schwartz (D) PA 13
Joe Sestak          (D) PA 7

This was the third blow to what could have been true health care reform.  The first blow was a weakening of the public option to an insurance "exchange program" that continues to keep insurance companies in power over our health care.  The second blow was the removal of Kucinich's amendment allowing states to craft their own single-payer plan.  And now this!

WOMEN HAVE BEEN SOLD DOWN THE RIVER TO PASS THE FLAWED NON-HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL!

I just emailed the White House with this message:

Yesterday, the House passed HR 3962.  In the process, Pelosi allowed Stupak to offer his anti-abortion amendment knowing that the majority of the house is anti-woman and anti- comprehensive health care for women!

YOU SOLD US DOWN THE RIVER! We will no longer support this bill in its current format! Not only does it deny women access to full reproductive health care, it’s public option is weak, and there is no clause in it allowing states to create single-payer plans.

What could have been an excellent plan is now just a shill for the extreme right wing and the insurance industry!

Unless you come out and clearly state that you will keep your campaign promise and protect women’s reproductive rights by vetoing the entire bill if the Stupak amendment remains within the bill and call for a much stronger public option (NOT an “Exchange Program”), we will oppose this non-reform bill.

We must stand up for a truly comprehensive health care reform law.  One that includes single-payer, Medicare for All and that is truly comprehensive health care for all. One that includes full reproductive health care and doesn't deny coverage to anyone based on pre-existing conditions, evidence of domestic violence, age, sex, race, national origin, disability, immigrant status, or ability to pay.