In Maine, Secretary of State Charlie Summers’ job it is to protect the voting rights of Maine residents, and yet he supports the legislation obviously suppressing that right. In June, upon Summers’ recommendation, Governor Paul LePage signed a bill into law repealing the state’s 38 year old law allowing same-day voter registration. This effectively strips […]
Board of Health Meeting on TRAP Laws: An Education on “Democracy”
Organizing around an issue and being a part of a political process is all very exciting, until you see those systems fail you and your peers. Yesterday, the Virginia Board of Health met to decide on regulations that the Governor proposed for first trimester abortion clinics. These regulations put clinics that provide first trimester abortion […]
Hundreds Gather to Protest VA’s Anti-Abortion TRAP laws
In Virginia, abortion clinics might begin closing at an alarming rate due to legislation requiring they be regulated like hospitals. In March, Governor McDonnell signed SB 924, a bill that classifies women’s health centers in the state as a category of hospitals, making them subject to new regulations created by the Department of Health. These […]
Friends Don’t Let Friends Stay Home on Election Day. Especially Not Girlfriends.
Part of the #HERvotes blog carnival. Guest post by the WIN Writing Group, originally published on the WIN Writing Group blog. Do you like living in a representative democracy? Do you like social safety nets like social security and medicare? How about the right to full reproductive health care including abortion? Or access to health […]
The Time to Mobilize Young Women Voters Is Now!
Part of the #HERvotes blog carnival. Cross-posted with Moms Rising. As a young woman who grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas and attended Little Rock Central High School (home of the Little Rock Nine), I was fully aware of the importance of civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and women’s equality advocates […]
Time to Organize to Restore Abortion Access in North Carolina!
A recent override of Governor Bev Perdue’s (D) veto on abortion legislation has made me reevaluate the “progressive” label I once gave to North Carolina. As an intern at the Feminist Majority Foundation and senior at Queens University of Charlotte I was disgraced at the news and immediately thought about what to do to mend […]
Victory: Birth Control Will Be Covered by Insurance Companies!
About a year ago I went to the pharmacy to pick up my regular prescription of birth control. A sweet older woman rung me up at the pharmacy counter and softly said, “that will be 55 dollars.” Wait, how could that be possible? Last month it had only been 5 dollars. I thought it must […]
A Preventive Health Care Game-Changer for Women
In a huge victory for women’s health, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report today advised that birth control and seven other women’s health services should be considered “preventive care” and be covered by health insurance with no co-pay. The institute’s recommendations for no-cost coverage also include yearly preventative-care visits; lactation counseling and equipment; gestational diabetes […]
What Do We Want? Fair Pay! When Do We Want It? Now!
Two days ago, the Feminist Majority Foundation joined several other women’s nonprofits in Washington, D.C. to protest the anti-woman, pro-corporation Supreme Court decision in Dukes v. Wal-Mart. Women and men gathered at the steps of the Supreme Court for the Rally in Solidarity with the Women of Wal-Mart, a rally organized by the National Women’s […]
40 Years Later, The War on Drugs Must End
This month commemorates the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s declaration of a “War on Drugs,” marking a concurrent increase in the number of Americans in U.S. prisons. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the War on Drugs, while costing the country roughly a trillion dollars over since its inception, has produced little […]