In October, the House of Representatives passed the Protect Life Act, which prohibits women from buying health insurance plans that cover abortion under the Affordable Care Act and makes it legal for hospitals to deny abortions to pregnant women with life-threatening conditions. Current law requires that hospitals perform whatever procedures are necessary to protect the life of a person in their care. Despite House passage, the Senate is unlikely to take up the bill and the President has promised to veto the bill if it ever reaches his desk, based on a belief that the legislation impinges on a woman’s reproductive freedom and access to health care.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act has passed out of committee in both the House and Senate and is expected to be passed by both houses soon. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) made human trafficking a federal crime with significant penalties, it required the creation of agencies and task forces to consider domestic and international issues associated with trafficking, including a State Department’s “Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons,” and it created a number of other initiatives to prevent trafficking and protect victims.
Also this fall, both the House and Senate introduced bills establishing the Veterans Sexual Assault Prevention Act, which is intended to protect Veterans Affairs facility patients from sexual assault. The bills were introduced as a direct result of a June 2011 Government Accountability Office report which found serious gaps in the reporting of sexual assault in VA facilities stemming from a lack of clear definitions, requirements and a central database for collecting and storing reports of assault.
This fall, the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act overwhelmingly cleared both the House and Senate. The bill is named after a young Peace Corps Volunteer who was murdered in 2009. It will require the Peace Corps to develop sexual assault risk-reduction and response training and protocol in consultation with experts that complies with best practices in the sexual assault field. The bill requires a special advocate be established to deal with issues relating to sexual assault and other forms of violence against volunteers, and also the establishment of an advisory panel to provide guidance and input.
On July 29, the Senate unanimously approved a resolution, sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) supporting National Ovarian Cancer Month (S. Res. 242). The resolution recognizes that:
Congress and the Administration reached an agreement to increase the debt ceiling, but the legislation requires some cuts to spending that will affect women and families. The Act had three parts:
On July 20, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on repeal of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-marriages. While same-sex couples can currently marry in six states, they cannot access federal spousal and survivor benefits under federal law. The Respect for Marriage Act of 2011 (S. 598), would repeal parts of DOMA to allow equal treatment for same-sex couples.
As part of the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services announced new regulations which will eliminate co-pays and deductible limits on eight preventive care services for women. The services will include:
However under the rules, religious institutions that provide health insurance for their employees may opt out of covering contraceptive services.
The news is full of stories about the recent federal spending agreement covering the rest of this fiscal year. The appropriations contain severe cuts to programs benefiting women and families, including reductions to the supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children and the low-income household energy assistance program. The U.S. House did not succeed in getting its desired ban on Title X funding for Planned Parenthood, but they successfully negotiated a ban on District of Columbia public funding of abortions to low-income women.
The House also approved a FY 2012 budget and 10-year blueprint that calls for more severe cuts, including cuts to Social Security, ‘vouchering’ Medicare, block-granting Medicaid, and a repeal of the federal health care reform laws. Recent studies indicate that women are 61 percent of adult Medicaid recipients, 57 percent of the 65 and older Medicare recipients, and 57 percent of the 65 and older Social Security recipients. Historically, women rely on Social Security more than men due to pay disparities and the related shortfall of private pension wealth.
And that brings us to April 12 and Pay Equity Day, marking how far into a year the average woman must work to catch up with what the average man earned in the previous year. Even though today women are more likely than men to graduate from college, they are paid 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. To mark the day, bill packages were introduced in the House and Senate to prohibit discrimination in the payment of wages on account of sex, race, or national origin.
April 14 brought more positive developments, with the introduction of bill packages and resolutions to recognize Sexual Assault Awareness Month and improve federal laws relating to sexual violence.
Also on February 19th the Obama administration published rescission of a 2008 rule that granted protections to health care providers who oppose abortion, sterilization and other medical procedures on religious or moral grounds. The rule was widely believed to impede patient access to contraception and other medical services, and was therefore being challenged in federal court. The Obama Administration has not enforced it, and now has rescinded the controversial provisions leaving in place procedures to investigate complaints from health care professions who believe they have been discriminated against because of their religious beliefs or moral convictions.
On February 19, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a Continuing Resolution funding the federal government through the end of the fiscal year. The House budget plan contains substantial cuts to a number of programs, and would completely eliminate current year funding for Title X, the National Family Planning Program, which is now funding 4,500 family planning clinics at $327 million.
Title X of the Public Health Service Act is the only federal program devoted solely to funding family planning services in the United States. It was a bi-partisan initiative established in 1970, set up to fund clinics which provide free, comprehensive family planning services vital to a woman’s health, including counseling, contraception, education, preventative health screening, basic infertility services, and referrals for other health and social services.
The centers service more than five million low-income and uninsured men and women, seventy percent of whom are at or below the federal poverty line and many of whom are minorities. In 2009, Title X providers performed 2.2 million Pap tests, 2.3 million breast exams, and over six million tests for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including nearly a million HIV tests.
Senate action on the budget is not expected until Congress reconvenes on February 28th.
Sen. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) with Sen. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor) as a co-sponsor, introduced legislation that would increase the felony penalty for domestic assault in cases where an assailant has two or more prior convictions.
Sen. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor) introduced legislation entitled the Safe Children’s Products Act, which would require the state to create a list of chemicals of concern in children’s toys and other products. The act would require importers and large manufacturers to disclose the presence of these chemicals in any of their products.
Sens. John Proos (R-St. Joseph) and Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor) have announced that they are introducing legislation to allow school boards to adopt policies to help address problems of child sexual abuse. The bill would create a Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children composed of legislators, state officials, and other experts to suggest changes to Michigan laws to tighten protections. The bill would be named after Erin Merryn, a sexual abuse survivor from Illinois, whose advocacy led to passage of a similar bill there last year.
Senate Bills 612-614, which had hearings prior to the year end in the Senate Health Policy Committee, ensure that health insurance policies sold in Michigan do not include abortion coverage. They are sponsored by Sen. Mark Jansen (R-Gaines Twp) and supported by the Committee Chair, Sen. Jim Marleau (R-Lake Orion). The bills provide that no insurance policies sold on the new MiHealth Marketplace website or in the current market will not cover abortions, although they do allow such coverage to be purchased through an additional rider, paid for with a separate premium. The bills have not yet reached the Senate floor.
State Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and state Sen. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor) have introduced into the state House and Senate bills protecting women from discrimination while breastfeeding in public. The bills amend the state anti-discrimination statute to specifically protect women who are breastfeeding in public and prohibit businesses from denying a breastfeeding woman service or accommodation.
Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) and Sen. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor) submitted bills in the Michigan House and Senate to give unmarried couples the right to adopt children in Michigan. The bills extend the legal rights and responsibilities of parenthood to unmarried couples, and as a side benefit expand the number of potential foster care and adoptive parents in Michigan at a time when our child welfare system is on the verge of collapse. "Studies have shown the importance to children of maintaining a safe, loving home with two stable parents," Rep Irwin said in a press release. Sen. Warren stated that "We have many diverse families here in the state of Michigan, it is high time we recognize these families and work to guarantee legal and financial security for all of our children."
Closer to home, we also marked Pay Equity Day in Lansing with the introduction of a package of bills that will strengthen Michigan’s laws against sex-based wage discrimination in our state. Michigan currently ranks 43rd in the nation for wage parity, with women here making just 72 cents on the dollar compared to men. The bills would specifically strengthen our state civil rights act to make it clear that sex-based wage discrimination is illegal under Michigan law, increase penalties for wage discrimination based on gender, and establish a Pay Equity Commission to look into how best to enforce these laws.
Michigan budget bills are also moving through both chambers of the state legislature. With the state’s economy in such poor shape, the budget bills focus on cuts to many programs relied on as a safety net by our most vulnerable women. Budget bills approved by the state House and Senate Appropriations Committees this week anticipate eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit relied on by the working poor, end public assistance for 12,600 of the state’s poorest families on the Family Independence Program, cut or severely limit the back-to-school clothing allowance for nearly 160,000 children in families receiving cash assistance, and eliminate funding for the Early Childhood Investment Corp., instrumental in developing a system of child care quality improvements around the state.
