Blog of Rights
Vania
Leveille
05/14/2013
Pregnancy Discrimination

Mother's Day is Over - But Pregnancy Discrimination Isn't.

By Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office & Lenora M. Lapidus, Women's Rights Project at 12:03pm

Women make up almost half the workforce today, and, if they become pregnant, most will work throughout their pregnancy. Given this reality, you probably think the stories below are works of a bygone era. Well, you’d be wrong.

  • A woman was 16 weeks pregnant and worked as a cashier at a large retailer in New York City. One day she fainted and was taken to the emergency room. Despite doctor’s orders that she remain vigilant about drinking water, she was severely dehydrated. When the physician asked why she was not drinking enough fluids, she said that her boss would not allow her to drink water while working at the cash register.
  • When Shelly (not her real name) became pregnant, she was working two jobs in Indiana to support her family: the overnight shift stocking shelves for a major national retail chain and the day shift packing items to ship for a medical supply company. Her doctor advised her not to lift more than 20 pounds. The medical supply company immediately accommodated these restrictions, but the major national retailer refused to modify her duties. She experienced a lot of pain while doing the heavy lifting and miscarried shortly thereafter.
  • An airline ticket agent in Louisiana was told by her doctor not to lift anything heavy at work. Her employer refused to provide her with a “light duty” assignment and told her that she would be placed on unpaid leave if she brought a doctor’s note. Not having an income wasn’t an option, so throughout her pregnancy, she continued to lift heavy bags and spent 10- and 12-hour days on her feet. Toward the end of her pregnancy, she suffered stress-induced toxemia and went into labor prematurely. Her child suffered numerous health complications.
  • Julie worked as a full-time driver at UPS. During some months, the size and weight of the packages explode and the work can be physically exhausting. When she became pregnant, she requested a light duty position, just as she had done when she had been injured on the job. But UPS refused to accommodate her and put her on unpaid leave for the rest of her pregnancy.

Stories like these are all too common, and that’s why we need the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which was introduced in Congress today.

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04/27/2012
Women in the Military

Women in Combat: The Marines Take An Important First Step, But More Is Needed to Ensure Full Equality.

By Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women's Rights Project & Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office at 3:29pm

Less than three months after the Pentagon announced that it was loosening the rules that bar women from being assigned to ground combat units, the Marine Corps followed suit, taking important steps to open up previously restricted opportunities to women. Last week, the Marines announced that women volunteers would be allowed to attend the Infantry Officers Course in Quantico, Va., for the first time, and that enlisted Marine women would also soon gain access to infantry training. This week, Marine Corps General James F. Amos sent a message to all Marines explaining that the Corps would begin assigning women to a number of positions from which they had previously been restricted, including in artillery, tank, assault amphibian, and other staffs, for purposes of "research" on integrating women into the force. He also announced that the Marines will conduct quantitative research on how men and women Marines perform in tests such as marching with a heavy load and lifting a heavy machine gun.

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04/26/2013
Women in the Military

MARCH Onward for our Military Women!

By Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office & Elayne Weiss, Washington Legislative Office at 3:01pm

Enactment of last year's National Defense Authorization Act brought about a long overdue and welcome change on the military health care front by allowing military women and dependents to receive insurance coverage for abortion in cases of rape or incest. But the work to ensure that servicewomen's reproductive health needs are met is not nearly complete.

That's why we applaud the introduction in the Senate of the Military Access to Reproductive Care and Health (MARCH) for Military Women Act. Sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and 14 other stalwart supporters of our military women and families, the bill would allow servicewomen to use their own private funds to access abortion care on military treatment facilities. Earlier in the month, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) introduced a House companion bill, cosponsored by 40 representatives.

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11/17/2010

Ratify CEDAW, Because Women's Rights are Human Rights

By Lenora M. Lapidus, Women's Rights Project & Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office at 5:51pm

Tomorrow, November 18, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law will hold a hearing on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) — the landmark international treaty that affirms principles of fundamental human rights and equality for women. The hearing, chaired by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), will be the first hearing on CEDAW since 2002. It is high time that the Senate addresses this important treaty and this hearing will be a significant step toward a vote for ratification. We encourage those who can to attend this historic hearing at 2 p.m. in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. If you can't make it in person, watch it online.

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02/17/2012
Combat Exclusion

DoD Comes Closer to Recognizing that Women Are Already Serving on the Front Lines

By Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women's Rights Project & Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office at 5:13pm

Last week, Pentagon officials got a few steps closer to recognizing what those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have known for years: servicewomen fight on the battlefield alongside their male counterparts, despite a longstanding rule barring them from being assigned to units that engage in direct ground combat. The Defense Department didn't altogether scrap the rules officially banning women from being assigned to such units, but it did loosen them. Under the new rules, women will be allowed to serve in some jobs — though not infantry, armor, or special operations forces — at the battalion level — that is, closer to combat than had previously been permitted. To the Pentagon's credit, it scrapped the infamous ban on women serving in units that are physically "co-located" with ground combat units, recognizing that the policy has become "irrelevant" on the modern battlefield. Now, 14,000 new jobs and assignment opportunities are open to servicewomen, though 238,000 positions still remain closed across all the armed services.

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11/11/2011
Women in the Military

Soldiering On: The Fight for Greater Equality in the Military Continues

By Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office & Alicia Gay, ACLU at 4:31pm

This Veterans' Day, we thank our service men and women for their dedication, and we celebrate the strides our country has made towards greater equality in the armed forces.

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12/21/2010

The Senate Gives Up on Military Women's Access to Health Care

By Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project & Allie Bohm, Advocacy & Policy Strategist, ACLU & Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office at 3:29pm

On Veterans' Day, we told you that Congress had the historic opportunity to overturn the ban on privately-funded abortions on military bases.

Overturning the ban would have had a real impact on our servicewomen's lives. Because of the ban, women who are stationed overseas who need abortions are forced either to attempt to obtain care in a local medical facility in the country in which they are stationed or to travel to a medical facility in the United States or in another country. Even in countries where abortion is legal, local health facilities are sometimes inadequate, unsafe or lack trained medical personnel. Servicewomen who must travel to obtain abortion care are required to clear the leave time with their superiors, forcing them to disclose information about private medical decisions. Their superior officers may delay or refuse to grant leave even though each week of delay increases the potential health risks.

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11/18/2010

Watch It: CEDAW Hearing Today at 2 p.m.

By Lenora M. Lapidus, Women's Rights Project & Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office at 10:28am

Today at 2 p.m., the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law will hold a hearing on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) — the landmark international treaty that affirms principles of fundamental human rights and equality for women. The hearing, chaired by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), will be the first hearing on CEDAW since 2002. It is high time that the Senate addresses this important treaty and this hearing will be a significant step toward a vote for ratification.

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07/18/2011
District of Columbia

D.C. Gets Some R-E-S-P-E-C-T…But Not From Congress

By Elayne Weiss, Washington Legislative Office & Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office at 11:55am

We're happy to report that last Wednesday, the Obama administration criticized a provision in a bill that bans the District of Columbia from using its own local funds to pay for abortion care for low-income women. The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy, in which it stated that this provision "undermines the principle of states' rights and of D.C. home rule." 

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05/04/2011

House Gets Ready to Vote on Radical Anti-Abortion Bill

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Vania Leveille, Washington Legislative Office at 11:18am

The U.S. House of Representatives is getting ready to vote on the misleadingly titled No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 3) today. As early as noon, your representatives will be deciding whether or not to take away insurance coverage for abortion from millions of women. You can watch the debate in real time on www.cspan.org, or follow our twitter feed for live updates.

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