What is it like in her shoes?
Today…
is National Chocolate Mint Day. I’m a yes to Andes Candies and Thin Mints, a no to Peppermint Patties and mint chocolate ice cream. If you’re asking.
in 1807, Aaron Burr was arrested for treason. If, like me, your knowledge of Aaron Burr doesn’t include a whole lot outside of the Hamilton affair, it’s a pretty wild story.
You’re receiving this much later than I’d prefer today, in part because I went down a few rabbit holes this morning, including...
ReproJobs: Unpaid parenting: an informal analysis of parental leave policies in reproductive health, rights and justice organizations. You may know, I have opinions on the ways progressive and repro orgs express their values. Do they live their values? Or do they issue forceful statements about ending XYZ discrimination while it runs rampant in the office?
NBC Think: Maternal mortality is worse in Washington, D.C. than Syria. Abortion access is one reason why. The connection between abortion access and maternal morality is important. But using D.C. as the example without contending with the fact that the District doesn’t have free rein to set its own health policy is, to me, a huge omission that detracts from an otherwise good piece.
Politico: Voter suppression issues rank low among reasons nonvoters stay home. This result does not surprise. If we’re talking about a significant percentage of people who aren’t engaged, aren’t excited, aren’t informed, how aware are they of the barriers? What percentage of the 600,000 voters purged in Georgia were aware they’d been purged and might have said they didn’t vote because eh.
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Maternal Health & Mortality
The Maternal Mortality Crisis We Aren't Talking About Enough
Monifa Bandele, Shondaland
Monifa Bandele explains why pregnant women are worse off now than in the 1850s —and what must be done to fix racial biases in our healthcare system, especially regarding women dying in childbirth.
Alabama has third-highest death rate of mothers in the nation, new federal report says
Anna Claire Vollers, AL.com
Alabama women die from pregnancy and childbirth complications at more than double the rate of women nationally, according to new numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alabama now ranks third highest in the nation in maternal death rates, behind Arkansas and Kentucky.
Too many black moms die of pregnancy-related causes, and a new effort is working to change that
Lucy May, WCPO-TV (Cincinnati, OH)
Health care providers and advocates in Hamilton County have launched a new effort to reduce the number of women here who die from pregnancy-related causes and improve the odds for black women. The work is part of a national push to determine the causes behind maternal deaths and the best ways to prevent them.
After A Rise In Mothers Dying In Childbirth, Texas Came Up With A Plan. Here's How It's Going.
Ashley Lopez, KUT-FM (Austin, TX)
An effort to make hospitals safer for women giving birth in Texas has been underway for more than a year now. Doctors and hospital administrators say Texas AIM, which was launched in the summer of 2018, has led to big shifts in how medical staff treat women facing medical complications while having a baby.
Maternal mortality is worse in Washington, D.C. than Syria. Abortion access is one reason why.
Summer Sherburne Hawkins, NBC Think
From 2007 to 2015, Syria's maternal mortality rate rose from 26 deaths per 100,000 live births to 31 deaths per 100,000 live births, a result of the country's war and a crumbling health care system. In Washington, D.C., where politicians make decisions about both what the United States will do about the war in Syria and American women's access to reproductive health care, the average maternal mortality rate across the same eight-year period was 33 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Abortion
Abortion storytellers and the harassment they face
Steph Herold, The Hill
In June Medical Services v. Gee, abortion opponents are arguing that only patients, not abortion providers (such as Whole Woman’s Health or June Medical Services), should be able to bring these cases and that nothing prevents patients from doing so. This raises an unusual and pertinent question: is it reasonable to expect people seeking time-sensitive, stigmatized health care to drop everything and sue their state?
The Supreme Court could gut Roe v. Wade. This abortion clinic is trying to stop it.
Anna North, Vox
This is what it’s like to get an abortion in Louisiana right now: It’s legal, but getting one is an enormous undertaking, requiring patients to travel hundreds of miles, spend hundreds of dollars, and sometimes be away from their families for days at a time. And this year, it might get a lot harder.
Democrats diverge on outreach to anti-abortion swing voters
Elana Schor, Associated Press
In a party that’s shifted leftward on abortion rights, Democratic presidential hopefuls are offering different approaches to a central challenge: how to talk to voters without a clear home in the polarizing debate over the government’s role in the decision to end a pregnancy.
The United States Is the Epicenter of the Anti-Choice Clinic Crisis
Rachel Wells, Rewire.News
With Heartbeat International’s uncovered manipulations, the organization is paving the way for the marketing of deceit, threatening access to abortion care around the world.
Advocates face off in New Hampshire over insurance mandate for abortion
Kevin Landrigan, New Hampshire Union Leader
Abortion rights advocates said insurers that cover maternity care should have to reimburse consumers who terminate a pregnancy. Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, said she decided to pursue what she’s called the Women's Reproductive Health Parity Act of 2020 (SB 486) in response to two rules that President Donald Trump's administration has been crafting that create more government restrictions on abortions.
And in the Concord Monitor, Sen. Rosenwald writes on her bill: Abortion coverage must be protected
Oklahoma bill to ban abortions after six weeks heads to full Senate
Megan Butler, KTUL-TV (Tulsa, OK)
A bill that would require doctors to recognize life just as they do death through heartbeats and brainwaves or the lack of such activity is moving to the Oklahoma Senate. Sen. Paul Scott authored Senate Bill 1859,which passed out of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Monday, in an effort to protect Oklahoma’s unborn.
RI Legislative Leaders Remain Non-Committal On Bill To Expand Insurance Coverage For Abortion
Rhode Island Public Radio
Rhode Island House Speaker Nichols Mattiello and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio remain non-committal on a proposal to extend abortion coverage to state employee healthcare plans and to ensure that abortion is covered by Medicaid. The bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Liana Cassar (D-Barrington), and in the Senate by Sen. Bridget Valverde (D-North Kingstown), was introduced last week.
48-hour waiting period for abortions in Wyoming Legislature
Nick Reynolds, Casper Star-Tribune
The House Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday afternoon to advance legislation instituting a 48-hour waiting period for all abortions performed in Wyoming, a first victory for anti-abortion advocates in a particularly active year for abortion legislation.
Parenting & Caregiving
US ranks lower than 38 other countries when it comes to children 'flourishing,' report says
Jacqueline Howard, CNN
The United States ranks lower than 38 other countries on measurements of children's survival, health, education and nutrition -- and every country in the world has levels of excess carbon emissions that will prevent younger generations from a healthy and sustainable future, according to a new report. The report, published in the medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday, ranked 180 countries based on a "child flourishing index" and the United States came in at No. 39.
LGBTQ
226 bills target LGBTQ Americans this year. One organization is behind a lot of them.
Molly Sprayregen, LGBTQ Nation
The group Equality Federation is currently tracking 226 anti-LGBTQ bills being considered in state legislatures throughout the country, and one organization in particular is responsible for many of the bills. Many of the bills are similar and target the transgender community, and specifically transgender youth.
Alaska state employee heads to court to challenge trans surgery exclusion in health care plan
John Riley, Metro Weekly
Lawyers for an Alaska transgender state employee will appear in court on Wednesday to argue that a provision in the state’s employee health insurance plan that does not provide coverage for gender confirmation surgery violates her civil rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
In Connecticut, Do Transgender Women Have the Right to Play?
Dave Zirin, The Nation
A shadowy, right wing legal outfit is using sports as a cudgel to smash trans rights.
Ohio professor who said he had a “free speech” right to misgender trans students loses court case
Alex Bollinger, LGBTQ Nation
A professor in Ohio who was involved in a highly publicized case where he claimed a free speech right to misgender transgender students has lost his case. Nicholas Meriwether is a professor of Religious Philosophy at Shawnee State University in Ohio, a public school.
Ohio is the latest state to plan a bill outlawing health care for trans youth
Vanessa Taylor, Mic
Across the nation, conservative legislators are using their power to go after transgender individuals. Now, two Republican lawmakers in Ohio are preparing a bill targeting trans youth that would stop them from accessing gender-affirming health care. The bill's sponsor claims that doing so is a way to look out for young people, but studies have shown this type of bill in reality helps no one. Ohio state Reps. Ron Hood and Bill Dean plan to co-sponsor the bill.
Virginia Senate passes House's version of bill banning conversion therapy
John Riley, Metro Weekly
On Monday, the Virginia Senate passed a bill to ban conversion therapy that had previously passed the House of Delegates, moving a statewide ban one step closer to becoming official law in the commonwealth.
Catholic Students Protest After Gay Teachers Are Ousted
Daniel Reynolds, The Advocate
Students and parents of a Seattle-area Catholic school planned a Tuesday protest — a sit-in and a walkout — following allegations that two teachers had been ousted for being in same-sex relationships.
Birth Control
Idaho Senate kills bill to provide women greater access to birth control
Ryan Blake, Times-News
A bill that would ensure access to six-month prescriptions of birth control for Idaho women died on a 13-20 vote in the Senate on Monday. Many insurance plans only cover one-to-three month supplies of birth control. The bill would require reimbursement for six-month prescriptions unless otherwise requested. Only insurance carriers that already cover contraceptives would be affected, and those withholding coverage for religious reasons would remain exempt.
Utah Senate panel advances bill to provide birth control to more under Medicaid
Ashley Imlay, Deseret News
During its second chance in front of a Senate panel, a bill that would allow more Utahns to receive family planning services and birth control under Medicaid received a 4-1 favorable recommendation Tuesday.
Opinion | Let pharmacists prescribe birth control pills
Laurel Rice & Marina Maes, Wisconsin State Journal
The Wisconsin Assembly passed Assembly Bill 304 in November. It would improve access to many methods of birth control across the state by allowing pharmacists to prescribe and distribute certain types of hormonal contraceptives. We want to thank the Assembly for taking up this important women’s health measure.
Workplace Equality
Opinion | Harvey Weinstein is on trial. But #MeToo is in danger.
Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post
The exposure of Harvey Weinstein’s behavior kicked off the #MeToo movement. Now, a jury is deliberating whether to find the disgraced movie mogul guilty of rape and predatory sexual assault. But even before the jury renders its verdict — and no matter what the jurors decide — events over the past month have left me feeling as though the movement has fallen sadly short of the sweeping societal change so many of us envisioned a little more than two years ago.
The Real Cost-Benefit Analysis of Paid Leave
Ellen Bravo & Wendy Chun-Hoon,Ms. Magazine
As momentum grows for a national policy to guarantee paid family and medical leave, opponents keep raising the issue of costs. The expertise needed in this discussion is that of the true accountants: working people and their families who bear the current costs of failure to act on paid family and medical leave. They want to make visible the most important bottom line—the price of inaction on the hearts and well-being of families across this nation.
Is Paid Family Leave Finally Coming To Working Americans?
Tom Spiggle, Forbes
It’s a bit surprising to think about, but 2020 might be the year we finally get paid family leave (or at least paid parental leave) for most American employees.
NJ Gov. Murphy says he'll support bill to increase requirements on workplace harassment
Daniel Munoz, NJBIZ
In the rise of the #MeToo era – both in national and New Jersey politics – Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday he is supporting proposed legislation that heightens requirements for businesses in an effort to end workplace sexual harassment.
See also State Report Cites Gaps in NJ Law on Sexual Harassment