In a recent New York Times editorial, the Times highlights the mounting trend of efforts at the state level to make access to abortion care as onerous as possible for women. At the heart of the Times' argument is an ACLU case challenging a Kansas law that prohibits insurance companies from including coverage for abortion in their comprehensive plans.
My name is Jessica Lenahan and I am a survivor of domestic violence and an advocate for battered women and children. Six years ago, I turned to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an international tribunal responsible for promoting and protecting human rights throughout the Americas, because the justice system in the United States had abandoned me. Today, IACHR issued a landmark decision in my case that found that the United States violated my human rights and those of my three children, Rebecca, Katheryn, and Leslie.
Today, business and advocacy groups filed briefs in the Supreme Court in a lawsuit brought by women employees of retail giant Wal-Mart.
In 2001, a group of women brought a lawsuit against the retailer charging that the company engaged in systemic sex discrimination, paying women in stores less than men and discriminating against women in promotions to jobs as managers. Federal trial and appellate courts have ruled that the women may bring their claims as a class, because Wal-Mart's practices — such as leaving many pay and promotion decisions up to the unfettered discretion of store managers, with little objective guidance or oversight — were uniform across the company and may have led to the pay and promotion gaps for women.
By Elissa Berger, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 5:10pm
Today, North Dakota achieved the shameful distinction of enacting the most restrictive law on abortion in any state. In addition to passing a bill that would ban abortions after only six weeks of pregnancy, Gov. Jack Dalrymple also signed into law a separate bill that targets women with medically complicated pregnancies and a bill designed to shut down the one abortion clinic in the state.
We need to make sure our elected officials know they work for us. We didn't hire them to play doctor and to pass laws that withhold medical care. And yet, some are laser focused on banning a woman's access to abortion care under any circumstances. We need to tell them to #StopTheBans.
Picture this: You’re in fifth grade. Maybe you’re in sixth grade. And, you go to public school. You show up for class on Monday morning, and if you’re a boy, you’re ushered into a bright classroom. You’re given the option of sitting on a bouncy ball – or of standing at your desk or even of moving around the room, if you prefer. You’re also given stress balls to play with and headphones to keep out the noise the other students make, if you chose to use them. The teacher doesn’t look you in the eye, speaks in strong, direct tones, and gives minimal instructions, leaving you to figure out how to execute the assignment at hand. Your teacher talks about “‘being a man,’ that is, an adult male who is essential to his community’s care and development.” Businessmen from the community and other role models regularly come in to meet with your class or with you one-on-one.
We did it. After years of work from the ACLU of California and our allies, dangerous shackles and restraints can no longer be used on pregnant women in our state’s prisons and jails. Last week Governor Brown signed AB 2530, authored by Assemblymember Atkins, after it passed the legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support.
By Amy L. Katz, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 3:56pm
The Van Devender Middle School in Wood County, West Virginia, will return to coeducation next week, thanks to the efforts of a courageous mother who refused to allow her daughters to be assigned to discriminatory single-sex classes for another year. Girls and boys were separated at Van Devender for all core curriculum classes and were being taught using different methods based on dangerous sex stereotypes.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:10pm
Recently, the ACLU and numerous allied coalition partners wrote to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to request that HHS issue guidance to make clear that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s prohibition on sex discrimination applies to discrimination based on gender identity and sex stereotypes. The fact that someone is transgender or does not conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity should never be a barrier to accessing health care services.
By Dena Sher, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:51pm
Four years ago last month, then-candidate Barack Obama promised to ensure that religious organizations that receive government funds to provide social services abide by the Constitution and are not allowed to discriminate with government funding. Today, we sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Department of Justice to follow up on that promise.
The House Judiciary Committee has held eight anti-abortion or anti-family planning votes or hearings so far this Congress. This morning, they’re scheduled to make it nine. The Committee will be considering the so-called “District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” which would ban abortion in the District of Columbia at 20 weeks.
