4/19/2012 - Obama Signs Memo Addressing Domestic Violence in Federal Agencies
President Obama signed a memorandum (PDF) yesterday requiring federal agencies to create comprehensive policies to assist employees who are victims of domestic violence. Federal agencies will be expected to have policies for preventing and intervening in domestic violence cases, both against or by employees. The agencies will also need to have specific guidelines for assisting victims and leave policies.In the memo, the president wrote, "as the Nation's largest employer, the Federal Government should act as a model in responding to the effects of domestic violence on its workforce." The memo also states that "it is the policy of the Federal Government to promote the health and safety of its employees by acting to prevent domestic violence within the workplace and by providing support and assistance to Federal employees whose working lives are affected by such violence."
The White House emphasized that employers can take action because violence can spill over into the workplace when victims are harassed at work or distracted from their jobs. Domestic violence costs the country $8 billion a year in the form of lost productivity and health care costs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 1 in 3 women in the US will be a victim of rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by a partner according to the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.
4/19/2012 - Ohio Bill Could Cut Planned Parenthood Funds
The Republican members of the Ohio House introduced a bill Wednesday night that would defund Planned Parenthood in the state. House Bill 298 would allocate federal funding to health centers within the state. Under an introduced amendment, funding would be cut off from organizations that provide abortion services.Ohio lawmakers and women gathered on the steps of the statehouse to speak out against the proposed cuts. Ohio State Senator Nina Turner said the bill is "a vicious, egregious assault on the rights of women." Ohio State Legislative Director for Planned Parenthood, Gary Dougherty, also spoke out against the bill, saying "it has nothing to do with abortion. It has everything to do with limiting access to preventative health care for nearly 100,000 people."
If the bill is passed, Ohio will be the tenth state to defund Planned Parenthood. Under Federal law, tax dollars cannot be used for abortions. Planned Parenthood health centers across the country provide contraception and basic health care, including family planning, cancer screenings, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections to approximately 2.5 million women per year, including over one million cervical cancer screenings and 830,000 breast exams.
4/19/2012 - Vatican Disciplines US Nuns
The Vatican has appointed a bishop to reform a group of American Nuns that it says is promoting "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." The Vatican investigated the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), a group that represents most of the US Catholic nuns. The investigation concluded that the US nuns were not speaking out enough against gay marriage, abortion, and women's ordination. The nuns were criticized for focusing on issues relating to poverty and healthcare.
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, a lobbying group of US Catholic nuns, told the Washington Post, "it's painfully obvious that the leadership of the church is not used to having educated women form thoughtful opinions and engage in dialogue."
The Vatican also accused the nuns of making statements that disagreed with the Bishops and challenging their views. During the 2010 healthcare debate, many nuns came out in favor of the Affordable Care Act and signed a statement in favor of the law. The Bishops publicly opposed the law.
4/18/2012 - ALEC Eliminates Controversial Legislation Taskforce
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) announced on Tuesday that it would disband its task force that pushed legislation such as the Stand Your Ground laws and the voter-ID laws. The "Public Safety and Elections" task force of ALEC focused on non-economic issues and most recently gained attention for its advocacy of the Stand Your ground laws. The Stand Your Ground law in Florida is being cited as a defense by George Zimmerman, the man charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year old Trayvon Martin. In recent days, corporations have been cutting ties with ALEC as a result of the Trayvon Martin Case.Although the task force has been eliminated, ALEC announced that it will continue to focus on economic issues. Kaitlyn Buss, a spokeswoman for ALEC told Time Magazine Time Magazine that "our mission is to promote [free market] principles and policies that are based on them."
Many of the groups that spoke out against ALEC have said the elimination of the task force is not enough. ColorofChange Executive Director, Rashad Robinson said, "ALEC's latest statement is nothing more than a PR stunt aimed at diverting attention from its agenda, which has done serious damage to our communities. To simply say they are stopping noneconomic work does not provide justice to the millions of Americans whose lives are impacted by these dangerous and discriminatory laws, courtesy of ALEC and its corporate backers."
4/18/2012 - Gay Airman to be Reinstated in US Air Force
A gay airman, who was discharged from the US Air Force under the Don't Ask, Don't Tell law, won the right to be reinstated in the military this week. Staff Sergeant Anthony Loverde filed a lawsuit after being discharged under the law in 2008. The case, Almy v. US was filed in 2010 and challenged the constitutionality of his dismissal. Two other plaintiffs were named, one of whom won a resolution in December that resulted in his reinstatement.Sergeant Loverde said in a statement released by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, "I am honored and humbled to return to the service of my country and the job I love. I am grateful to my legal team and all of those in the armed forces who helped to facilitate this reinstatement. I am eager to take the oath and get to work."
The reinstatement is the result of a settlement between Loverde and the US military. It does not set a precedent for future cases.
4/18/2012 - Violence Against Women Act Forum Held
Vice President Joe Biden will hold a forum today with other senior officials to discuss the importance of reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. According to MSNBC, those speaking at the forum will include Attorney General Eric Holder, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Lynn Rosenthal, the White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, and Sharon Love, whose daughter Yeardley Love was killed after being the victim of domestic violence. The Washington Post reports that Maryland Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown will also join Vice President Biden. Brown's cousin was killed by her estranged boyfriend.Debate on the reauthorization is said to begin in the Senate this week. VAWA was originally drafted by then-Senator Joe Biden and was signed into law in 1994. It was then reauthorized by Congress in both 2000 and 2005. The law has thus far allocated more than $9 billion to improve federal, state, and local-level investigation and prosecution of domestic violence, rape and sexual assault and to provide support for prevention, education, temporary shelters, rape crisis centers and community services for survivors.
4/17/2012 - Equal Pay Day Marked Today
Today is Equal Pay Day, the date that marks the extra days that a woman would have to work in this year in order to earn what a man earned last year. The symbolic day is marked each year to draw attention to the gender pay gap. The American Association for University Women (AAUW) reports that nationally, women earn on average 77 percent of men's earnings.AAUW's recent report, The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (PDF), shows that the pay gap varies among states. The pay gap is lowest in Washington, DC, where women make 91% of men's earnings. The widest pay gap was found in Wyoming, where women earn only 64% of what men earn. A 2007 AAUW study found that controlling for various demographic differences, a 5 percent gender gap in pay remains for the first year out of college and a 12 percent gap remains ten years out of college.
According to the report, demographics such as college major, occupation, work experience, age, and marital status account for only some of the demonstrated differences. Fatima Goss Graves, vice president of education and employment for the National Women's Law Center, told MSNBC that "There's always a portion [of the gap] that cannot be explained away."
4/17/2012 - Afghan Schoolgirls Poisoned
Approximately 150 Afghan girls drank poisoned water on Tuesday at a school in the northern Takhar province. Afghan officials said that conservative radicals who oppose girls' education are to blame for the poisoning, though they would not name a specific group.A spokesman for the education department of Takhar, Jan Mohammad Nabizada, said, "We are 100 percent sure that the water they drank inside their classes was poisoned. This is either the work of those who are against girls' education or irresponsible armed individuals."
The public health department said the tank that held the contaminated water was not affected, providing evidence that the poisoned water could not be explained by natural causes. Some of the affected girls suffered from headaches and vomiting and they are listed in critical condition. Others were treated and released.
4/17/2012 - MS's Only Abortion Clinic Could be Shut Down
Mississippi's governor, Phil Bryant, signed an anti-abortion law on Monday that could effectively shut down the state's only abortion clinic. The law, House Bill 1390, puts new restrictions on doctors who provide abortions and the facilities in which abortions are performed. The law requires doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital and they must be board certified OB-GYNs.Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards condemned the law as an attempt to overturn Roe, saying, "Make no mistake, this law is based on a political agenda, not medical necessity. In yet another shortsighted attempt to ban abortion in Mississippi, Governor Bryant and lawmakers are putting their ideology above the health and safety of Mississippi women. This law is bad policy and endangers women's health."
4/16/2012 - 10 Companies Have Now Dropped ALEC
Ten companies have pulled their support from the American Legislative Council (ALEC), a conservative organization that lobbied states to pass Stand Your Ground laws. The Stand Your Ground law in Florida is being cited as a defense by George Zimmerman, the man charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year old Trayvon Martin.According to ThinkProgress , ten companies have pulled resources and have not renewed memberships with ALEC. The list includes:
- Coca-cola
- PepsiCo
- McDonalds
- Kraft Foods
- Wendy's
- Reed Elsevier
- American Traffic Solutions
- Intuit
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Arizona Public Service
Timothy Smith, senior vice president at Walden Asset Management, an investment firm that "promotes corporate consideration of environmental and social concerns" told the Washington Post, "The ALEC case is a lightning rod, and it is inspiring a broader debate about corporate spending."
4/16/2012 - Woman Declares Intention to Run For Afghan Presidency
Fawzia Koofi is the first person to announce an intention to run for the presidency in Afghanistan. Koofi, a women's rights advocate, was elected to parliament in 2005 and was reelected in 2010. Earlier this year, she received acclaim for her memoir, "The Favoured Daughter," in which she details how she was left outside to die immediately following her birth because she was a girl and how she became the first woman in her family to receive an education.Afghan president Hamid Karzai must step down in 2014 due to term limits. Some western officials and women members of parliament have expressed concern that Karzai is trying to broker a power-sharing compromise with the Taliban to bring an end to the war. Koofi told Reuters, "He has lost the trust of this part of society - women, the civil movements, the activists, the Afghan youth and the intellectuals. That is why he is trying to now rely on conservative forces."
Koofi is outspoken against the Taliban and has decried Taliban rule. In an article for the Daily Beast, Koofi wrote, "can anyone really believe the Taliban will share power and be willing to sit in a democratic Parliament alongside a woman? I do not believe it."
4/16/2012 - Pentagon Releases Sexual Assault in the Military Report
The Pentagon released its annual report (PDF) on sexual crimes in the military last Friday, finding a slight increase in the number of sexual assaults. The number of sexual assaults in fiscal year 2011 increased by 1% from fiscal year 2010. The number is a slight decrease from 2009.Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he will soon announce new anti-sexual assault measures. In a statement, he said, "Since taking this office, I've made it one of my top priorities to do everything we can to reduce and prevent sexual assault, to make victims of sexual assault feel secure enough to report this crime without fear of retribution or harm to their career, and to hold the perpetrators appropriately accountable." Congresswoman Jackie Speier said the report showed the military was not doing enough, saying, "Prevention classes and sensitivity training are not enough to solve the problem of rape and sexual assault in the military."
According to the report, in 2011 88 percent of the victims of sexual assault in the military were female. Most of the victims were low-ranking and under the age of 25. 31 percent of the assaults were charges of rape, 30 percent were aggravated sexual assault, and 25 percent were charges of wrongful sexual contact. The number of military personnel court-martialed for sexual assault has risen by 10 percent.
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