Today…
is the National School Backpack Awareness Day. (2020 theme: “Pack it light, wear it right!”) Backpacks… for… school? Rings a vague bell, but.
is National Guacamole Day and Cinnamon Raisin Bread Day.
was the birthday of Lauren Bacall (1924-2014). Love her, love her acting, but I flag her here just so we can look at that face. How can you not. Classic, shady, gorgeous.
Abortion
Trump’s War on Abortion Goes Global
Hazel Cills | Jezebel
The Trump administration’s aggressive push to restrict federal aid for abortion continues to go global, pushing for new policies that will restrict health funding across the world.
CNN | Trump administration wants to expand international rule limiting abortion access
Common Dreams | Trump's Proposal to Further Expand Global Gag Rule Amid Pandemic Would Cut Off Healthcare Access to Millions, Rights Groups Warn
The Swaddle | Trump Administration Plans to Extend Policy That Cuts Funding To Global Health Projects Providing Abortions
This New Abortion Provider Search Tool Is a Total Game-Changer
Carina Hsieh | Cosmopolitan
Today, Power to Decide launched a kick-ass, incredibly-helpful Abortion Finder tool, allowing users to find legitimate abortion providers nearest to them.
Fighting for Reproductive Rights With Laughter
Brittany Gibson | The American Prospect
To raise awareness on abortion access, Abortion AF’s ‘Do Re #MeToo’ event will serenade audiences with everyday American sexism.
Rutgers professor discusses abortion medication controversy
Gopna Shekaran | The Daily Targum
Leslie M. Kantor, professor and chair of the Department of Urban-Global Public Health, said a ban on mifeprex (mifepristone), the medication used for non-surgical abortion, could pose a threat to individuals who are unwilling to go to a medical facility due to a fear of contracting the coronavirus.
Will The Supreme Court Allow Easier Abortion Pill Access To Continue Amid The Pandemic?
Kim Johnson, Kathleen Creedon | KPAC-FM (San Antonio, TX)
Pre-pandemic, patients were required to go in person to get the abortion pill. COVID-19 prompted an easing of that restriction for patients seeking to safely terminate a pregnancy with medication in lieu of surgery. But now the FDA, backed by the Trump administration, is putting pressure on the nation's highest court to reinstate the in-person requirement.
Tennessee
Mt. Juliet to pay $225K in abortion lawsuit settlement; ‘a bitter pill to swallow,’ city attorney says
Andy Humbles | The Tennessean
Mt. Juliet approved payment of $225,000 in attorneys fees on Monday to settle a lawsuit filed after the city restricted zoning for an already-opened abortion clinic.
LGBTQ
Pompeo plans to use the UN General Assembly to promote his anti-LGBTQ agenda to the world
Daniel Villarreal | LGBTQ Nation
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to present an anti-LGBTQ report from his so-called Commission on Unalienable Rights to the United Nations’ (UN) General Assembly at two upcoming events.
The American Independent | Pompeo goes to the UN to sell his anti-LGBTQ scheme to world leaders
What’s at Stake for L.G.B.T.Q. Families in This Election
Jennifer Boylan | The New York Times
The fight for equality isn’t over, and can most definitely still be lost.
Arkansas
Kroger sued by U.S. after 2 firings linked to gay emblem
Joseph Flaherty | Arkansas Democrat Gazette
The EEOC in a lawsuit filed Monday accused Kroger Co. of unlawful employment practices for allegedly refusing to accommodate two former employees in Conway who expressed religious objections to wearing an apron embroidered with a rainbow based on their belief that the symbol represented advocacy for the LGBTQ community.
KSDK-TV | Kroger sued for religious discrimination after 2 employees refuse to wear apron with rainbow heart
Florida
Andrew Gillum’s Complicated, Reluctant Coming Out Story
Christina Cauterucci | Slate
The former gubernatorial candidate’s coming out was strained, and his situation is unusual. Don’t write him off yet.
Maine
Meet Geo Neptune, Maine’s First Transgender, Nonbinary, Two-Spirit Elected Official
Nico Lang | them.
Geo Neptune quietly made history last week after winning a seat on the local school board.
Michigan
New ad claims Sen. Gary Peters would 'destroy girls' sports' with LGBTQ rights bill
Clara Jane Hendrickson | Detroit Free Press
A new ad from the American Principles Project, a conservative PAC, claims that incumbent Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is “too extreme for Michigan.”
Pennsylvania
Pa. Commissions: Pass Bill to End LGBTQ Discrimination in Pennsylvania
Kelsey Rogers | WTAJ-TV (Altoona, PA)
The Pennsylvania Commission of LGBTQ Affairs and several other organizations sent a letter to the General Assembly urging them to pass legislation to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace. The letter requests protections by amending the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA).
Texas
Texas Board of Education rejects proposed LGBTQ lessons as part of sex education revision
Karma Allen | ABC News
LGBTQ rights advocates are pushing back against the Texas Board of Education's recent rejection of a proposed curriculum to teach middle school and high school students about gender identity and sexual orientation.
Pregnancy & Parenting
We can’t wait: Save mothers’ lives by extending Medicaid coverage postpartum
Thad Anderson | Des Moines Register
At just 60 days after delivery, many new mothers are at the height of their postpartum challenges, and they should not be left in the lurch.
The Sheer Despair Of Being A Working Mom In The Fall Of 2020
Catherine Pearson | HuffPost
Experts who focus on maternal mental health worry that women are heading into one of the most demanding stretches yet, when the pressures of this unprecedented school year rub against the needs of employers whose patience may be growing thin.
We are all doing the work of governments
Molly Wood | Marketplace
This house is not a home, not anymore. With so many schools and workplaces closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, many family homes are now an office, a school and a day care center.
America Needs to Start Treating Childcare as Infrastructure
U.S. Reps. Katherine Clark & Cindy Axne | Time Magazine
It is well understood that infrastructure decisions like public roads and transportation are the foundation on which local economies grow. But an obstacle of similar magnitude is threatening the economic recovery that communities across our country are clamoring for – a shortage of safe, affordable childcare.
North Country Public Radio (NCPR) | "It's not a cottage industry": amidst child care crisis, researchers call for societal shift to view child care as public good, profession
California
San Francisco To Give $1,000 Per Month To Pregnant Black And Pacific Islander Women
Sarah Ruiz-Grossman | HuffPost
The city of San Francisco wants to test a novel approach to get at the decades-long, pernicious problem of Black and brown women dying at far higher rates than whites in pregnancy and childbirth: Give them money.
New Jersey
Too many women in NJ are dying at childbirth: What first lady is doing about it
David Matthau | WKXW-FM (Ewing, NJ)
According to New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy, an average of 47 women die for every 100,000 live births in the Garden State, compared to 20 nationally. Murphy is leading the charge to change things as a member of the state Maternal Mortality Review Committee.
Reproductive Health & Justice
Exclusive: Georgia doctor who forcibly sterilized detained women has been identified
Tina Vasquez | Prism
The attorneys behind the lawsuit would not confirm the identity of the doctor referenced in the complaint, but Prism has learned, according to a source familiar with the situation, it is gynecologist Mahendra Amin, based in Douglas, Georgia. The doctor, also an immigrant, is affiliated with Coffee Regional Medical Center and Irwin County Hospital in Georgia.
The Cut | ICE Forced Hysterectomy Complaint Is Nothing New In America
Reuters | U.S. watchdog to investigate whistleblower's detention allegations
Slate | Unpacking the Explosive Allegation That a “Uterus Collector” Is Terrorizing Immigrant Women
Washington Post | Pelosi demands probe after ICE nurse raises alarm over medical care, hysterectomies at detention center
How Have School Closures During Coronavirus Have Affected Period Poverty?
Alice Broster | Forbes
Schools are so much more than a place of learning for so many children and research has found that one in four people who have periods struggle to purchase menstrual hygiene products on an ongoing basis. As many schools have moved to virtual education from September, many students will lack access to period products otherwise provided at their schools.
Some Urban Hospitals Face Closure Or Cutbacks As The Pandemic Adds To Fiscal Woes
Jordan Rau | NPR
Financial pressures have been exacerbated by the pandemic at a time when urban hospitals' role has become more important: Their core patients — the poor and people of color — have been disproportionately stricken by COVID-19 in metropolitan regions like Chicago.
More Places Are Naming Racism as a Public Health Crisis. Here’s How to Make That More Than Lip Service
Anne Branigin | The Root
Earlier this month, Saint Louis University’s Institute for Healing Justice and Equity and The Justice Collaborative Institute (which endorsed the Anti-Racism in Public Health Act) published their recommendations for how local, state, and federal officials can effectively address systemic racism using a public health lens.
Medicaid needs to change its rules for women seeking tubal ligation
Megan Evans, Erin Bradley, Divya Dethier | STAT
For many women who don’t want to have more children, childbirth offers a safe and convenient time for adopting the permanent form of birth control known formally as tubal ligation, and informally as having your tubes tied. For women whose health care is covered by Medicaid, senseless bureaucracy can make this difficult.
Texas
Texas Gives Preliminary Approval For Revised School Sex Ed Policy That Excludes LGBTQ Issues
Aliyya Swaby | High Plains Public Radio
The Texas State Board of Education gave preliminary approval this week to a sex education policy that includes teaching middle schoolers about birth control beyond abstinence — its first attempt to revise that policy since 1997.
Texas officials walk back $15 million proposed cuts to women’s and children's health services
Edgar Walters, Shannon Najmabadi | Texas Tribune
State health officials walked back a plan to cut $15 million in funding from health and safety net programs, including services that offer low-income Texans access to birth control and cancer screenings, and support families of young children with disabilities or developmental delays.
Work & Money
🠲 House to Consider Bill Requiring Accommodations for Pregnant Workers
FEDweek
The House has scheduled a vote for this week on HR-2694, to expand requirements that employers, including federal agencies, must provide to pregnant workers, under a policy that would be akin to the “reasonable accommodation” standard for disabilities.
As much as I’ve worked on PWFA over the years, it’s coming for a floor vote this week and I’m seeing almost no coverage.
States face pressure to ban race-based hairstyle prejudice
Russell Contreras | AP
A growing number of states are facing pressure to ban race-based discrimination against hair texture and hairstyles in schools and the workplace.
Warning Working Moms: Your Partner Is Your Glass Ceiling
Jo Piazza | Marie Claire
“If she wants children and a job, a woman’s life is only as good as the man or woman she marries,” Caitlin Moran writes. “That’s the biggest truth I know. All too often women are marrying their glass ceilings.”
Alexis Ohanian Condemns "Absurd Stigma" Surrounding Fathers Taking Paternity Leave
Morgan Brinlee | Romper
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian condemned the stigma surrounding paternity leave, noting that normalizing fathers taking that valuable time off to be with their families could help close the gender wage gap.
POPSUGAR | Alexis Ohanian Says the Pandemic Only Further Proves Why We Need Paid Family Leave in the US
More, More, More
'Women's Rights are Human Rights,' 25 years on
Erin Blakemore | National Geographic
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s speech at a UN conference propelled this idea into the mainstream after centuries of society sidelining gender equality as “women’s issues.”
Where Do Your Candidates Stand on the Equal Rights Amendment? Here's Where to Find Out.
Ms. Magazine
The ERA Coalition and its sister organization, the Fund for Women’s Equality, unveiled its new interactive website prior to the upcoming national and state elections to identify those candidates that are pro-equality.