War on Women

The "War on Women" describes the legislative and rhetorical attacks on women and women’s rights taking place across the nation. In includes a wide-range of policy efforts designed to place restrictions on women's health care and erode protections for women and their families. Examples at the state and federal level have included restricting contraception; cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood; state-mandated, medically unnecessary ultrasounds; abortion taxes; abortion waiting periods; forcing women to tell their employers why they want birth control, and prohibiting insurance companies from including abortion coverage in their policies.

02/07/2012
Using Religion to Discriminate

ACLU on Today: Birth Control Rule Does Not Put Religious Liberty at Risk

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 12:09pm

Laura Murphy of our Washington Legislative Office appeared to discuss the Obama administration’s plan to retain a proposed rule that ensures new insurance plans cover contraception.

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11/17/2011
Using Religion to Discriminate

ACLU Lens: Using Religion as an Excuse for Discrimination

By Robyn Shepherd, ACLU at 12:21pm

This week, the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops is holding its annual meeting in Baltimore. The bishops are the lobbying arm of the Catholic church, and they hold substantial sway over lawmakers. But instead of focusing on issues like poverty or the economy, the bishops are instead complaining loudly that recent laws broadening women’s access to contraception and granting same-sex couples the freedom to marry amount to an assault on their religion.

However, as this Media Matters piece attests, this is hardly the case.

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11/09/2011
Abortion Insurance Ban

Message From Mississippi: Trust Women, And Leave Our Families Alone.

By Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project at 12:44pm

Red state, blue state — it doesn't make a difference. The message to government is clear: Keep out of our bedrooms, our doctors’ offices, and our personal lives.

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10/12/2011
EMTALA

Watch Your Back — They're Gambling with Your Life

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:28pm

The House is slated to vote today on an unprecedented bill that would allow hospitals to let women die at their doorsteps.

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09/08/2011
Alaska

Young Women Seeking Abortion Care Get the Cold Shoulder in Alaska

By Andrew Beck, Reproductive Freedom Project at 2:02pm

For decades, teens in Alaska had been able to obtain abortions without the state ordering the involvement of their parents. In 1997, however, the Alaska legislature passed a law preventing young women from obtaining abortions without parental consent. The ACLU, together with Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights, sued the state, and in 2007, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the law violated the Alaska Constitution.

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11/10/2012
Abortion Legislation

State Legislators Double Down on Most Restrictive Abortion Law in Nation

By Mike Brickner, ACLU of Ohio at 5:56pm

Yesterday, retiring Ohio GOP Congressman Steve LaTourette made national headlines while discussing the recent presidential election. He said:

My wife’s a Democrat, and she was so close to voting for Mitt Romney. But then, you know, Mourdock and Akin opened their mouth, and we sent [voters] running back to the Democratic Party, because they think we’re nutty […] We have to get out of people’s lives, get out of people’s bedrooms, and we have to be a national party…or else we’re going to lose.

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08/15/2012
Using Religion to Discriminate

Another Contraception Challenge, Another Misguided Argument

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project & Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Witold Walczak, Legal Director, ACLU of Pennsylvania at 4:14pm

As we’ve written before, history has a way of repeating itself. Private companies that are challenging the federal rule that requires employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception without a co-pay are also repeating their same, misguided argument that the rule violates their religious liberty. Yesterday the ACLU filed an amicus brief in the most recent case raising these arguments – this time in a case brought by a lumber company.

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06/12/2012
Abortion Legislation

Move Over Mississippi: Michigan is the Latest State Vying to Shut Down All Abortion Clinics

By Elissa Berger, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 4:36pm

As you may have heard, Mississippi passed a law earlier this year, which was explicitly designed to shut down the only health care center in the entire state where a woman can get a safe, legal abortion.  In passing the law, some politicians made quite clear that they knew the closure would jeopardize the health and lives of Mississippi women—and that they didn’t care.

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06/07/2012
War on Women

Michigan’s War on Women Hits Dangerous New Low

By Kary L. Moss, Executive Director, ACLU of Michigan at 1:24pm

It seems that Michigan politicians are hell-bent on making the cliché “when the country catches a cold, Michigan gets pneumonia” a reality.

For proof, look no further than the more than 50 pages that make up a three-bill package: HB 5711, HB 5712, HB 5713. This legislative behemoth is on a fast track in our State House of Representatives, and will make safe abortion services virtually inaccessible to Michigan women.

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05/17/2012
Abortion Legislation

Bubba And His Poor, Pitiful Women

By Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project at 12:10pm

Yesterday, a video leaked of Mississippi Representative Lester "Bubba" Carpenter (pictured above) gloating that he and his anti-choice cronies had passed a bill that could effectively put an end to safe, legal abortion in the state of Mississippi. The money quote:

It's going to be challenged, of course, in the Supreme Court and all — but literally, we stopped abortion in the state of Mississippi, legally, without having to — Roe vs. Wade. So we've done that. I was proud of it. The governor signed it into law. And of course, there you have the other side. They're like, 'Well, the poor pitiful women that can't afford to go out of state are just going to start doing them at home with a coat hanger. That's what we've learned over and over and over.'

But hey, you have to have moral values. You have to start somewhere."

And now everybody's reaching for their smelling salts because, oh my, a politician trying to outlaw abortion doesn't care if women die. You know what I say? Finally. Finally, someone willing to speak the truth. Finally, someone is willing to drop the bullshit about health, safety, and a "culture of life" and admit that he'd rather women die than abortion remain legal.

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