Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Good Job NYS Assembly – Now We Need the Senate!
June 17th, 2010 by catherineYou called and you signed our petition,
and they listened!
Please thank our local Assembly representatives who stood up for women today:
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky
Assemblywoman Sandra Galef
Assemblywoman Amy Paulin
Assemblyman Gary Pretlow
Now we must turn our attention to the NYS Senate!
WITH YOUR HELP, we have a chance to pass the most important bill for New York’s women since 1970, the Reproductive Health Act.
Call Your Senator Today!!!
Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousin (Bill Sponsor)
Senator Suzie Oppenheimer
Senator Jeff Klein
The following senators need particular encouragement:
Senator Vincent Leibell
Senator James Alesi
Senator John Bonacic
Senator William Larkin
Senator James Seward
Senator Joseph Robach
Ask Them to Support the Reproductive Health Act!
You Asked Why I Vote? by Rachelle “Rocky” Richard*
May 19th, 2010 by catherineAll MEN are created equal. I never quite felt that that noun was inclusive. If it were, I would no longer have to fight, in the year 2004, to have birth control pills covered by health insurance plans while Viagra is a given, and its advertisements for free samples too prevalent.
So, am I cynical? Yes! Am I disappointed with politicians on both sides of the aisle who stand up for choice and then turn around and support anti-choice candidates? YES!
But, too many Americans, regardless of class, race, ethnicity, gender and age have forgotten that a powerful struggle took place in this country granting so many of us the right to vote, and far too many take this precious right for granted. Voting is a means of term limits. Voting can be a vehicle for change.
So . . . why do I vote?
I vote to honor my grandparents who fled Europe and came to America so that their future children would be born free from persecution. I vote for my relatives and the people who were robbed of their future.
I vote for my foremothers, the suffragettes, who had the audacity to fight a male regime in order to secure – for us – the right to vote.
I vote to prevent the appointment of court justices who believe that women are inferior, subservient, second class citizens, at best, whose views are reminiscent of another male Texan whose vile remark, “if you’re gonna be raped, just lay back and enjoy it,” jokes about the most violent attack against a woman.
I vote for the person who I believe will best represent me and my interests, not necessarily the person who I think will win an election. I vote because I cannot sit idly by while my country is destroyed by the radical right.
I vote for rape victims who were violated again in the courtroom prior to the rape shield laws. I vote for the countless women who died from back alley abortions because they had no choice. I vote for the young woman who has no one to turn to when she finds herself pregnant. I vote for women and children who are victims of domestic violence. I vote for all women who have been silenced.
I vote because it is a right and a privilege of my citizenship. I vote because I want a better future. I vote because I am patriotic. I vote because I want to see democracy reign, not a dictatorship.
I vote because how “free” one is should not be based on the size of one’s pocketbook.
I vote because George W. Bush uses the terms liberty, freedom of choice and freedom from oppression for the Iraqis, but at every turn he attempts to prohibit such freedom for women in his own country! Remember, if a woman cannot control her reproductive system, she is not free to control her destiny. I vote because I am terrified that should I decide to have a child, that s/he will never have the “freedoms” that I have enjoyed.
I vote because I believe in the First Amendment. I vote because I have a voice and I am not afraid to use it. I vote for those who stand up for women’s rights and reproductive freedom – to ensure liberty and justice for all of us. I vote because I am proud to be an American, even in these trying and frightening times.
I vote to commemorate 2,976 innocent people who went to work one sunny September 11th and never came home . . .
I vote, because in the end . . . there is simply no other choice.
*reprinted from ProChoice Voting Guide, November 2004
Protection for Doctors Who Lie to Women
April 30th, 2010 by catherineThere is little question that the new health care law which erodes abortion rights has triggered a torrent of radical anti-choice legislation.
Mary Alice Carr of the National Institute for Reproductive Health explains more about the Oklahoma legislation that protects doctors who withhold information from pregnant women about the health of the fetuses,
“As a reproductive rights advocate and a proud mother of two, my blood ran cold as I read about Oklahoma’s new abortion legislation (HB 2656). The state of Oklahoma just decided, and by an appallingly high margin I might add, that a doctor is protected from being sued if he or she chooses not to tell a woman that the baby she is carrying has a birth defect.
State legislators made this decision Tuesday, voting 36-12 in the Senate and 84-12 in the House to override Gov. Brad Henry’s veto of this law. (The Legislature also overrode the governor’s veto of a second egregious law, HB 2780, which forces women to view an ultrasound before having an abortion.)
Oklahoma, what have you done?
Under this new law, a doctor may withhold information, mislead or even blatantly lie to a pregnant woman and her partner about the health of their baby if the doctor so much as thinks that fetal test results would cause a woman to consider abortion.
As expected, the anti-abortion movement is claiming victory. But this bill isn’t “anti-abortion.” It is devastating because it is anti-motherhood and anti-medicine.
When I found out I was pregnant with each of my children, like every woman who has ever undergone fetal testing, I held my breath at each doctor’s appointment. I didn’t let it go until the doctor or the tech said, “Everything looks great.” I seized up when they took out the blood work results and I didn’t relax until I heard, “It all came back negative.”
But a woman in Oklahoma no longer gets to exhale. Because now, when a doctor says, “Everything looks fine,” she has to wonder; does it really? Oklahoma politicians have now said that she can no longer count on the sacred trust that always existed between her and her doctor. A doctor may now lie to her face and, in doing so, deny a woman what is quite possibly the most important piece of information she will ever receive in her life.
The very thought makes my breath catch even now. The information you get on those visits matters to every woman getting prenatal care, regardless of what she decides to do based upon the results. The legislators have decided that a woman, when she becomes pregnant, loses the right to full, honest information from her doctor.
It is her right to know this information. It is how she and her family determine what to do next, not only to decide if they want to continue a pregnancy, but also to consider how they will prepare to care for a special needs child.
What specialist will they turn to? What support will they require? Who will hold their hand in the delivery room if a child is born who will only live an hour, or a day? Does she want to call her own mom in from across the country or does she want to grieve silently with her partner? What will they tell the children they already have?
Doesn’t every family have the right to the information that may help them decide the course of their future or the future of their child? According to the Oklahoma State Legislature, they no longer do.
These politicians have decided they know best what women need. They are wrong.
I ask each politician in Oklahoma who voted yes on this bill: How dare you? How dare you deny a woman the peace of mind that her baby is healthy? How dare you not give her and her family time to prepare if, God forbid, her baby is not? How is this bill “pro-life”? How is this mockery of medical care and paternalistic devaluing of women, “pro-life”?
This bill is anti-mom, it’s anti-doctor and it is anti-family. And all women, regardless of how they feel about abortion, should be appalled. I hope the courts stand up for the women and families whom politicians have turned their backs on and find this law unconstitutional and flat-out wrong.”
