Last Sunday was Mother's Day, a Hallmark holiday as fraught with ambivalence as any. As I read friends' tributes to their living or dead mothers on Facebook, I wondered why I never really cared much about the day, either as daughter or mother. Girl's relationships with their mothers are always complicated, and sometimes full of hurt. So I was glad to see
this article saluting those who have had to break with toxic mothers, or who managed to maintain relationships by setting careful limits.
And in this country that praises motherhood in the abstract while making it more and more difficult every day, I was also glad to see this recognition of our tendency to blame mothers for having to stretch meager (and diminishing) resources.
More about motherhood and other news under the orange squiggle.
On the Home Front
Reproductive Rights
The House of Representatives passed a 20-week abortion ban with some pretty difficult language about exceptions for rape and incest - incest only until age 18! - but not considering that most late-term abortions are performed in emergency situations to save the mother's life, the baby's life, or both, to paraphrase Molly Ivins, and most abortions because of incest or rape happen much earlier. However, there is little to no chance the bill will pass the Senate, and in the unlikely chance that it does, the President has threatened a veto.
Red states, on the other hand, continue their attempts to force motherhood on us all. If you want to check matters in your state, you can check these maps.
Meanwhile, the National Partnership for Women and Families summarizes state anti-choice activity over the last 10 days:
http://go.nationalpartnership.org/...
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And the Texas House of Representatives has forced through a horror of a bill, extreme even for Texas. Addressing the judicial bypass process for minors who cannot for various reasons get parental consent,
As passed, HB 3994:
- limits the location and type of court in which a minor can seek an abortion
- forces the minor to reveal her home address and telephone number to a judge
- prevents the minor from removing her application for a judicial bypass after she has filed it with the court
- mandates that a physician who provides abortion care to a minor who says they have been sexually assaulted or abused report that sexual assault, and the identity of the suspected abuser, to law enforcement regardless of whether the minor wants to report their assault or feels it is safe to do so
- mandates that a judge who hears a judicial bypass case in which a minor says they are being abused must report that abuse to law enforcement, along with the identity of the suspected abuser, regardless of whether the minor wants to report their abuse or feels it is safe to do so
- gives a judge five business days, rather than two days, before they must rule on the judicial bypass application
- presumes that if a judge does not rule on the judicial bypass, that permission for the minor’s abortion is denied
On a more positive note, the Health Department
has ordered that insurance companies who have been denying coverage for certain kinds of birth control are out of compliance with the ACA, and must stop doing so and cover all FDA-approved methods of birth control. Kudos to the National Women's Law Center for following up on complaints about this.
From a couple of weeks ago comes this account of unintended consequences in Indiana after they closed rural Planned Parenthood clinics.
Other Issues
Here is a very thoughtful look at some of Hillary Clinton's past problems with intersecting groups, especially women of color and poor women, and good advice for her that could mitigate these concerns.
Women who work in nail salons, often immigrant women, face serious health hazards from the chemicals used in their work. You can sign this petition for the EPA to regulate these salons.
More on Hulu and Google refusing to air pro-abortion ads.
In California, it's official. A court has found that abstinence-only sex education does not meet the state standards for medically accurate sexual education. In a first-of-its-kind decision
... Fresno County Superior Court Judge Donald Black concludes that, given the high rates of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy in the U.S., medically accurate sexual health information is “an important public right.”
Facebook's New Policies
This is seriously good news that deserves it's own sub-category. Facebook has announced a group of new policies for their low-wage workers. First, there will be a new minimum wage of $15 and a minimum of 14 days of paid leave for every worker. And workers who become new parents and don't get paid parental leave will receive in lieu $4000 in addition to their regular pay.
This is the most pro-family stand I can remember a major corporation take towards its minimum-wage workers. Kudos to Facebook for leading the way.
International News
In Indonesia, there is new evidence in the case of Mary Jane Veloso, a poor Filipino woman who thought she was going to work as a maid but who instead ended up convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death. Here is her story in her own words. She was used as a mule, carrying a suitcase she considered a gift that was lined with heroin. She was reprieved from execution already by Indonesian President Widodo after a personal appeal by President Aquino. Her recruiter turned herself in to authorities and now there is information of others also used by her and her associates in the same way. Change.org has a petition, but I cannot link to it from my computer since I already signed it.
And finally, a report on a conference held recently in Washington, featuring Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellin and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, on the question of whether the world economy would have collapsed in 2008 if women had been in charge instead of men.