Rise up this mornin'
Today…
is Lesbian Visibility Week. (I think this is a new one, launched by a media group, but hey.)
is Lima Bean Respect Day. It took me a long time to realize they’re on the list of unpopular foods, as I’ve always liked them just fine. As a people, we generally like beans, so why the distaste for limas in particular?
New York Times is still reprinting pregnancy articles from the last year, including How to Tell Your Boss You’re Pregnant. Here’s one way I wouldn’t recommend, but I did rather enjoy. When I was early, early pregnant with #2, I was having a quick morning chat with my boss at the progressive economic justice org that offered no paid parental leave. (#staysalty) As I stood to leave, I got the teensiest little cramp in my side and made a noise.
Him: Heh. You pregnant?
Me: I am, actually.
*silence*
*blink blink*
Him: Uh. Congratulations.
Me: I wasn’t planning to say anything yet, but you asked. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ll bet he doesn’t ask anymore.
Again she goes with the unsubtle pick, but it is a nice Monday pick-me-up…
Abortion
Tennessee
Tennessee can't delay abortions 'even by a matter of days' amid COVID-19, judge says
Adam Tamburin | The Tennessean
Tennessee must allow abortions to move forward during the COVID-19 pandemic, a federal judge ruled Friday evening, handing a victory to abortion providers who have fought the state for years. U.S. District Judge Bernard A. Friedman issued a preliminary injunction that kept the state from stopping surgical abortions.
Texas
After Texas Abortion Ban, Clinics In Neighboring States See Influx Of Patients
Sarah McCammon | NPR
Planned Parenthood clinics in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada are reporting an influx of patients from Texas, after an order from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suspending most abortions in that state during the coronavirus pandemic.
Texas Continues Its Abortion Ban As It Lifts Other Restrictions, Prompting Travel Risks
Araceli Cruz | Refinery29
Imagine driving 16 hours for a medical procedure during a pandemic when you're supposed to be sheltering in place. That is the reality for Texans after Gov. Greg Abbott effectively banned abortions in the state in the wake of COVID-19.
LGBTQ
People are sharing hormones on Google Docs and turning to ‘grey market’ pharmacies to get gender-affirming care during the pandemic
Canela Lopez | INSIDER
Transgender and nonbinary people are turning to friends, community Facebook pages, and "grey market" pharmacies to find hormones during the coronavirus pandemic. The spread of the coronavirus means many people have lost income, health insurance, or easy access to their doctor's office, making it more difficult for some to access Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).
"Big Three" automakers back campaign to add LGBTQ protections to Michigan's civil rights law
John Riley | Metro Weekly
The country’s three largest automobile manufacturers have endorsed a Michigan initiative aimed at banning discrimination against LGBTQ Michiganders.
'We keep us safe': Black trans women on the frontlines of the pandemic
Tina Vasquez | Prism
Trans leaders nationwide told Prism that the pandemic has exacerbated conditions that already threatened the lives and safety of trans communities—like lack of housing, resources, and gender-affirming care.
LGBTQ* copes with coronavirus pandemic while living in Alabama
Sara MacNeil | Montgomery Advertiser
With more than a 600,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, every community in the nation has been impacted in some way. And so it is for the LGBTQ community, which already struggles with high rates of unemployment, poverty and mental illness.
*What feels like a missing noun is bugging me. Edit: LGBTQ Alabamans cope with coronavirus pandemic.
Pregnancy & Parenting
Black mothers expected to fare worse in pandemic
Natalie Hernandez & Amber Mack | Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While national attention has focused on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, limited focus has been placed on how this impacts pregnant and postpartum women’s health and experiences, and specifically Black women. Given the presence of multiple social and structural barriers and the higher rates of maternal mortality Black women already face, there are several concerns regarding how COVID-19 will impact Black maternal health.
Fearing Coronavirus, Many Rural Black Women Avoid Hospitals to Give Birth at Home
April Simpson | Pew Trusts
Black women are two to three times more likely to die from causes related to pregnancy than white women, regardless of income or education. Black midwives could be part of the solution, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, but restrictions on midwifery make it difficult to practice in many states.
What A Fertility Doctor Wants You To Know About At-Home Insemination
Molly Longman | Refinery29
There are a few things the internet can't tell you about inseminating yourself at home, says Lucky Sekhon, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist. She's seen a fair amount of patients who’ve tried to artificially inseminate themselves outside of a medical clinic. Many of them are single mothers by choice or members of the LGBTQ+ community, though some heterosexual couples use the method too. This is what she tells patients who are interested in the process.
Pregnant during a pandemic: Seattleites share their concerns about birth, delivery and beyond
Crystal Paul | Seattle Times
Giving birth in a pandemic is a terrifying task, during what is already one of life’s most challenging milestones. As COVID-19 spreads, pregnant people and their providers are reimagining plans and confronting fears.
Reproductive Health & Justice
Coronavirus Could Have Serious Consequences For Women's Health, Says The UN
Alice Broster | Forbes
Reviewing the situation globally, the UN Population Fund has identified that pregnant women who need antenatal care and women in abusive relationships were at the most at risk during the pandemic. UN Population Fund Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem warned that the coronavirus outbreak has “severely disrupted” access to sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services “at a time when women and girls need these services most.”
New York demands health insurers comply with birth control law
Vera Chinese | Newsday
State Attorney General Letitia James is demanding health insurers comply with a recently enacted state law requiring them to provide members with up to a year’s supply of birth control at one time.
Novel coronavirus doesn't discriminate, but legacy of racism creates harsher consequences for black people
Lisa Deaderick | San Diego Union-Tribune
The fact that we are seeing black communities being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 (and the fact that black women have the highest maternal mortality rate regardless of socioeconomic background or education), speaks volumes about the overarching reach of structural racism on black communities in this country.
Work & Money
Women are the front-line soldiers in the battle against coronavirus — but we're still not paying them as much as men
Madison Hoff | Business Insider
Although recent data shows more men are dying from the novel coronavirus than women, women could be more financially impacted than men by the economic fallout caused by the outbreak. Women make up a large share of the labor force in jobs and industries that have had job cuts and layoffs in the past few weeks, as well as occupations on the front lines of the pandemic.
I’m a breadwinner mom and this is why helping women in the sandwich generation is good for the U.S. economy
Katica Roy | Fast Company
As the number of individuals in their forties and fifties who support at least one child and parent over the age of 65 is increasing, the burden for women in the sandwich generation is becoming heavier. A collision of demographic changes, labor force participation, and gender inequity has fueled this situation that has, in effect, brewed a perfect storm for middle-aged women and our economy.
Transparency Only Part of the Gender Pay Gap Solution
James Davis | HR Daily Advisor
Pay transparency has been the gold standard for fighting all kinds of pay inequity. Recent research by PayScale claims that pay transparency does, in fact, solve the gender wage gap. I spoke with an expert about the findings, as well as some of her own research, and she believes pay transparency must be part of a package of solutions designed to fight inequity to be truly effective.
Women Are Keeping America Running
Garrett Schlichte | Jezebel
As is news to no one, the wage gap is historically fucked. Women’s work is and has been undervalued and under-compensated for far too long, and despite calls to right this wrong, little has been done to address the issue. Of course, this is deeply rooted in the sexism and misogyny which capitalism thrives off of (not to mention the racism and classism inherent in pay discrepancy), which has attempted to codify the work women do as being less valuable than that of a man.
We Can’t Save the Economy Without Universal Child Care
Bryce Covert | The Nation
A smoothly functioning economy is one in which people who want to work can do so. Affordable and accessible child care plays an enormous role in making that a reality.
How Millions of Women Became* the Most Essential Workers in America
Campbell Robertson & Robert Gebeloff | New York Times
One in three jobs held by women has been designated as essential, according to a New York Times analysis. Nonwhite women are more likely to be doing essential jobs than anyone else. The work they do has often been underpaid and undervalued — an unseen labor force that keeps the country running and takes care of those most in need, whether or not there is a pandemic.
*Always were. The story is how millions of Americans are just now waking up the fact that women – women of color especially – have always been essential workers. The question is “whether, once everyday life is safe again, people will remember the role [they] played when it was not.”
Paying for daycare you can't use
Aisha Sultan | St. Louis Post-Dispatch
One of the toughest decisions facing parents with young children is how long they can keep paying for day care they can no longer use. And this moment of crisis for day care providers has revealed all the cracks in our country’s child care system.
Why the economic downturn could hit women's wallets especially hard
Katie Jeffries | WJXX-TV (Jacksonville, FL)
From industries with a majority female workforce closing, to the wage gap possibly expanding; why this economic downturn could be especially difficult for women.