Womenstake

And the Survey Says…..

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Have you taken Plan B (the emergency contraceptive) since Jan. 1, 2007?

Do you like to win stuff?

Then take a 10 minute survey on your experience here! 

This survey is an effort to help identify and address barriers to access like pharmacy refusals and stocking problems.

You get to help out a great cause! And you can win a gift card! And it just takes 10 minutes!

What more could you ask for?! Oh, yes, the deadline: March 31, 2008. 

P.S.: We know you have friends (and they don’t tell you everything) so send it to them just in case they have taken Plan B. Maybe they will share the gift card with you.

Thanks in advance. 

Weekly Round-Up

by Mary Robbins, Program Assistant
National Women’s Law Center

The Washington Post editorial board supports enhanced funding for Head Start.

David Cohen at Feminist Law Professors looks back on the 20 years since Justice Anthony Kennedy took his seat on the Supreme Court.

The school Superintendent Charlotte Hutchens for Raleigh County, West Virginia, told parents at Woodrow High School, “I guarantee you this…From this day forward, if the girls are eating a bologna sandwich, the boys with eat a bologna sandwich.” Hutchens was responding to a petition signed by 40 parents who demanded that female student athletes receive the same treatment as males.

Proposed legislation in Missouri would reclassify emergency contraception as “an abortion-inducing medication” (via Feministing).

A Feministe reader wonders, “How does a father teach his daughter about feminism?”

Carla at MomsRising advocates for bringing babies into the workplace.

The Dubai Women’s Establishment has drafted a strategy aimed at helping women balance work and home life and contribute to the growth of the United Arab Emirates.

Survey Says: Emergency Contraception Access Restricted in Yet Another State

By Gretchen Borchelt, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Another survey of pharmacies reveals that women’s access to emergency contraception (EC or the morning-after pill) is restricted. NARAL Pro-Choice Washington just conducted a survey of pharmacies in Washington state. The survey showed that more than 10 percent of the pharmacies in the state do not stock or refuse to dispense EC.

This survey comes on the heels of a federal district court decision permitting pharmacists to refuse to provide EC, despite a rule passed by the pharmacy board saying otherwise. 

WA NARAL helpfully provided a map of all the pharmacies they surveyed, so Washington women can figure out if they will be able to access this time-sensitive drug at a particular pharmacy. Wouldn’t it be nice if women could count on getting it at any pharmacy? Or better yet, at grocery stores and gas stations, like other over-the-counter products? Or if women under 18 could access it without a prescription?

If you’re getting frustrated with the continued assault on EC, here are two things you can do:

1. Sign up for our webinar next week, which will walk you through our new toolkit on working with state pharmacy boards to stop refusals.
2. Sign onto a petition put together by Choice USA and Advocates for Youth, urging the FDA to make EC truly over-the-counter for all women. 

Weekly Round-Up

by Mary Robbins, Program Assistant
National Women’s Law Center

Amanda at Pandagon wonders whether reduced access to abortion for low-income women leads to higher rates of forced childbirth than if abortion was illegal.

Women leaders are changing the structure of business by fostering more comfortable workplaces with direct communication, relationship-building, diversity, and more. 

Lawmakers in California criticized officials at Fresno State for their response to gender-equity complaints.

In an effort to make emergency contraception more accessible, AED, a nonprofit organization, is conducting a survey of women in the United States aged 18-44 who have taken EC after January 2007 (via Feministe).

Women in New Hampshire who decide to deliver at home with a midwife may soon have the cost covered by insurance.

Helen Blank, director of Leadership and Public Policy at NWLC, discussed the importance of a proposal in Virginia that could provide hundreds of families with long-awaited subsidies that help pay for child care costs.

At a House Ways and Means Subcommittee hearing on Social Security Jan. 16, Joan Entmacher, vice president for Family Economic Security at NWLC, noted that 2.4 million women 65 and older are living in poverty despite receiving income from Social Security.

Young people discuss what Roe v. Wade means to them in a video made by Choice USA in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the ruling.

Weekly Round-Up

by Robin Reed, Online Outreach Manager
National Women's Law Center

A high school in Scotts Valley, California, is being investigated for possible Title IX violations in its athletics program.

NOW-NYC looks at the price of emergency contraception at pharmacies in New York.

A UK survey reports that working mothers are “significantly happier” than stay-at-home mothers, and that lowering the costs of child care would increase many mothers’ happiness (via Pandagon).

Anne at Feministe on the implementation of the Global Gag Rule in Kenya.

An interesting New York Times editorial on the ongoing tax debate in Congress.

A U.S. medical program at a maternity hospital in Kabul is facing a congressional investigation into its quality of patient care (via Our Bodies Our Blog).

New York state has launched a media campaign designed to encourage boys and men to help prevent domestic violence (via Feministing).

The United Kingdom may begin making birth control pills available over the counter.

EC in the ER Stalls in Pennsylvania, and in the Meantime...

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

It appears that efforts in Pennsylvania to get a law passed that would require hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape survivors have been stalled indefinitely. Opponents include the usual suspects, such as the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, who want to give hospitals the right to turn away a woman in need. In the meantime, just to provide some perspective on the real impact of this, take a look at one year’s worth of victims. According to the most recent statistics from Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, sexual assault centers in Pennsylvania served 37,811 people:

• 10, 273 child victims
• 13,481 adult victims
• 14,057 parents, partners, etc.

And in 2002, police received 3,453 reports of forcible rape. So while the clock keeps ticking, rape survivors are left hoping that they get “lucky” enough to end up at a hospital that will give them a medication that will reduce the chances of them getting pregnant by their rapist. Maybe next legislative session…

Weekly Round-Up

by Robin Reed, Online Outreach Manager
National Women's Law Center

Another report on the historic sexual harassment settlement at the University of Colorado.

The latest Carnival of Feminists includes blog posts on women in science and technology, gender violence, pop culture and media, and more.

Another look at state initiatives to define fertilized eggs as people.

Title IX Blog compares the experience of a male student currently attending Wellesley College with that of Shannon Faulkner, the first woman to attend the Citadel.

Newsweek on recent film portrayals of unplanned pregnancies.

A pharmacist in Detroit is suing Target, alleging that he was fired over a dispute involving emergency contraception. 

And finally — it’s time to think about your year-end giving, so please consider making a gift to the National Women’s Law Center. 

Update on Lawsuit Against Washington Rules Guaranteeing Access to Medication

by Gretchen Borchelt, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

As we’ve reported before, pharmacists sued to stop Washington state pharmacy board rules that require pharmacies to ensure access to medication. Yesterday, a federal district court granted a preliminary injunction against the rules, saying that the rule will not apply to pharmacies and pharmacists who object to providing emergency contraception. Even though the rule applies to all medications, the court decided to single out only Plan B, the only emergency contraception pill currently on the market.

In other words, the court has left only customers who seek Plan B vulnerable to the whim of refusing pharmacists. For the time being, when a Washington woman wants Plan B, she may not be able to get it at her pharmacy, even if they have it in stock. The court said pharmacies and pharmacists must refer the patient, but we all know that referrals can pose a huge problem, especially for rural and low-income women.

The case is not over — it will go to trial. Hopefully a full trial will allow the court to see that these rules are necessary to protect the health and safety of all Washingtonians. A pharmacist’s personal beliefs should not be able to trump a patient’s needs, whether it’s for Plan B or any other medication.

An Unfortunate Anecdote

by Julia Kaye, Program Assistant
National Women's Law Center

A few days ago, I spoke with the head of the family planning waiver program in a certain Southern state...

Time out. Some background, first:

Since the early 1990s, over two dozen states have been granted special permission from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to expand Medicaid coverage for family planning services and supplies to women otherwise ineligible for the public insurance program. Most of these states have a type of family planning waiver that expands eligibility for family planning services to all women of reproductive age (and sometimes men) with income levels too high for Medicaid, but low enough to make private insurance a serious challenge. A few states have a more limited type of waiver program, which temporarily extends family planning services to certain women who became eligible for Medicaid because they were pregnant or parenting, but, now that a certain amount of time has passed and/or they are no longer pregnant, would - without the waiver - soon be kicked off the program.

In short, family planning waivers are wonderful initiatives to improve women's reproductive health, and all of the 26 states that have applied for and received this "waiver" of federal Medicaid law - including this particular Southern state - should be commended.

But back to the story...

Here We Go Again

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

The Wisconsin Assembly passed a bill to make sure women are not “coerced” into having abortions. Of course being pro-choice means supporting a woman’s right to choose for herself, without pressure from parents or partners. But here are the facts; abortion providers are already keenly aware of the possibility of coercion. They are trained to identify when a woman isn’t comfortable with her decision for any reason, and provide the appropriate resources to help guide her in making her decision.

This is straight from the 2007 Clinical Policy Guidelines of the National Abortion Federations: 

Policy Statement: Obtaining informed consent and assessing that the decision to have an abortion is made freely by the patient are essential parts of the abortion process.

The legislators presume that abortion providers are unethical and that abortion victimizes women. In fact, the bill states at the very beginning, “Under current law, a woman upon whom an abortion is to be performed …” as though the woman is completely passive in this process.

Haven’t we heard enough of this? This is another effort to have legislators standing between doctors and patients, where they don’t belong. (Kind of like the Supreme Court in the Carhart case.)

As you may recall from this very blog, one real problem faced by women in abusive relationships is trying to avoid coerced pregnancy. The solution? Increasing access to low and no cost-contraception and emergency contraception. Considering that Wisconsin scored an Unsatisfactory on our Women’s Health Report Card, a much better use of legislators’ time would be solving the real problems faced by Wisconsin’s women.