Collapsing 'Universe' in Health 'Reform'

Framed as yet another "wedge issue," and superfluous to true health care reform, immigrants' rights joins reproductive justice on the Congressional chopping block. Excuse us, but what ever happened to the term universal?

Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, shares his thoughts on the matter in the Huffington Post:

All of the plans getting serious consideration in Congress would exclude undocumented immigrants. Many proposals would even bar access to community health centers and emergency rooms -- a historic shift from America's humanitarian tradition that in an emergency no one should be turned away. Some proposals would exclude legal resident immigrants who have been in the United States for less than five years. Unless the debate takes a different turn, millions of immigrants will be left out of the system.

We should not enshrine discriminatory principles into a new health care system. A "universal" health care program that leaves out millions of Americans is a fraud. Just as we stand up for other core principles in the health care debate -- quality, affordability, a strong public plan -- we need to stand up for immigrant coverage as an essential component of just and effective health care reform. Read more

Reproductive Health: Once Again, Ripe for Conservative Compromise

With the health care reform debate in full swing, it's become frighteningly clear that key elements of reproductive health care are in danger of being barred from whatever package emerges from Congress. The National Women's Law Center, a Ms. Foundation grantee, today wrote, "Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee are demanding the introduction of health care reform language that will strip women's access to abortion." And it's not just Republicans. As Time Magazine reports, a group of conservative House Democrats sent a letter at the end of June to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stating that they "cannot support any health-care-reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health-insurance plan."

Anti-choice demands from both sides of the aisle would have dangerous implications for women--and their families, and their communities. They would further cement the deeply discriminatory Hyde Amendment, which since 1976, has prohibited the use of federal funds to cover abortion, with an overwhelming impact on low-income women and women of color. They could also prohibit coverage of abortion for millions of women who are now guaranteed it by their private health insurance.

So, once again, women's health and human rights are framed as a "wedge issue" and as such, considered ripe for compromise. And it isn't just women, of course. As Raising Women's Voices, another Ms. Foundation grantee at the forefront of the health care debate, writes, "If conservatives get their way on health reform, we will soon have quality, affordable health care for all --- except for women, terminally ill patients, gays and lesbians, people with HIV and anybody else conservatives don't like!" And let's not forget that women's health is intimately connected to the health and economic well-being of children, families and communities. Nobody can afford to let this pass.

The Senate Finance Committee is meeting this week. Take action by contacting your senator at help_comments@help.senate.gov if s/he is on the Committee (find out here) and urge her/him to refuse such politically-motivated exclusions and ensure access to comprehensive reproductive health services for all women.

New York Times Editorial: Pass the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights

An editorial in today's New York Times calls on Albany, which "has not been able to govern its way out of a paper bag" to "bestow some fundamental rights and protections on the invisible workers whose labors are a cornerstone of the New York economy."

Bringing domestic workers up to parity with employees in other industries is the just, responsible and long-overdue action for New York State. See our recent postings from the Ms. Foundation’s Outrageous Acts campaign and learn how to contact your legislators to ask that they vote in favor of the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, legislation that was drafted by our grantee, Domestic Workers United. There is currently a tremendous opportunity for victory: If New York State lawmakers can put aside their differences in time to pass the bill, Governor Patterson has pledged to sign it into law. The full text of the Times editorial follows.

The Rights of Domestic Workers
New York Times Editorial
June 15, 2009

There are more than 200,000 workplaces in New York State where fundamental labor standards do not apply, not even in theory. These are not sweatshops or salt mines. They are private homes, where housekeepers, nannies and caregivers for the elderly do work as important as it is isolated and unprotected.

The exclusion is a relic of the New Deal, when labor protections like overtime pay were written specifically to exclude domestic and farm labor. From exclusion it can be a short distance to abuse: to long hours, low pay, dehumanizing treatment, physical and sexual harassment.

Domestic workers and their advocates in New York have been pressing for reforms. They have been telling their stories in Albany and across the state and steadily gathering support for a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights. The legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, would reform state labor law to provide basic protections like time-and-a-half pay for every hour over a 40-hour week; one day off a week; paid vacation and sick days; severance pay and health coverage — and a means of enforcing these standards in court.

Most other workers take these standards for granted. They don’t know what it’s like to have to show up for work sick rather than be fired, to be denied privacy and dignity, to be powerless to demand decent treatment from their employers.

Backers of the bill had been confident that this could finally be the year for a groundbreaking victory, at least before the recent power struggle brought the Capitol to new depths of shame, ridicule and paralysis.

If the Legislature decides to return to its senses and start passing meaningful legislation that improves New Yorkers’ lives, it should include the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights. Albany, which has not been able to govern its way out of a paper bag, should at least be able to bestow some fundamental rights and protections on the invisible workers whose labors are a cornerstone of the New York economy.

Applied Resource Center Releases 'Race and Recession' Report

The Applied Resource Center has released a compelling report on the economic crisis and its effects on people of color. "Race and Recession: How Inequity Rigged the Economy and How to Change the Rules" uncovers root causes of long-term racial inequities that fed into the economic crisis. It proposes solutions to change a system that threatens future generations.

Their short video introduces the issues addressed and the voices of people affected.



Race and Recession: How Inequity Rigged the Economy and How to Change the Rules
Download the Full Report [pdf]
Download an Executive Summary [pdf]

See also: Women of Color Policy Network Releases Study on Race, Gender, and the Recession: Job Creation and Employment

Women of Color Policy Network Releases Study on Race, Gender, and the Recession: Job Creation and Employment

Our colleague, C. Nicole Mason, executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, has authored a sobering report, the first in a four-part series on the impact of the economic crisis and recession on women of color, their families and their communities.

The series focuses on effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the first report focuses on job creation and employment. It finds of the nearly 4 million jobs created or saved through the Act, only 917,675 will go to African-Americans and Latinos. An additional 1.7 million jobs would have to be created and go directly to Blacks and Latinos to cut the unemployment rate in those communities to Administration's projected national rate of 6.5 percent by 2010.

The study also finds:

• Of the jobs created or saved, African-American and Latino women will receive an estimated 420,991 and African-American and Latino men will receive 496,684


• African-Americans and Latinos are under-represented in the industries targeted through the Reinvestment Act. Black and Latino men comprise 5.1 percent and 8.4 percent of those working in targeted industries. Black and Latino women make up 5.9 percent and 5.6 of those working in targeted industries


• Of the targeted industries and occupations identified as green, African-Americans and Latinos comprise less than 25 percent of those employed


• Although women will receive nearly half of the jobs that will be created through the Act, they are under-represented in higher-wage occupations and in targeted industries


• White women will receive an estimated 1,377,879 jobs through the Reinvestment act; a figure nearly 70 percent higher than for African-American and Latino women combined

C. Nicole Mason says, "During this time of great economic need and distress, it is important to consider the most vulnerable in our society. To ensure that everyone recovers successfully, the Administration will need to dedicate significant and additional resources to communities hit hardest and to those with the least safety nets."

Download the full report [pdf].
Download an executive summary [pdf].

Update
See also: Race and Recession: How Inequity Rigged the Economy and How to Change the Rules

Sara K. Gould in Discussions About Immigration and Women

As discussions about immigration reform, health care reform and the economy dominate conversations in Congress and legislative halls nationwide, we're thrilled to have opportunities to join leading grassroots and national policy experts to discuss the current reality faced by immigrant women and their families and the policy and organizing solutions that are most needed to ensure human rights and social justice for immigrants throughout the U.S.

On Thursday 14 May 2009, Sara K. Gould, President & CEO of the Ms. Foundation and Sylvia Henriquez, Executive Director of Foundation grantee the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) appeared on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC in New York City. The radio session followed their appearance at the release of a new poll on women immigrants conducted by New America Media. On the panel, at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C., Sara and Sylvia were joined by: Olga Vives, Executive Vice President of the National Organization for Women; Karen Narasaki, President and Executive Director of the Asian American Justice Center; and Angela Kelly, Vice President for Immigration Policy at the Center for American Progress.

(Download the complete poll Women Immigrants: Stewards of the 21st Century [pdf]. Learn more about the poll, including an audio commentary by Sandy Close and Richard Rodriguez.)

Listen to or download the Brian Lehrer Show appearance

Download mp3 recording.

Sara K. Gould and Dusti Gurule of Ms. Grantee Latina Initiative Honored by Women's eNews

We are thrilled that Sara K. Gould, Ms. Foundation for Women president and CEO, and Dusti Gurule of Ms. Foundation grantee Latina Initiative will each be honored with a 21 Leaders for the 21st Century Award by Women's eNews at their annual gala this evening.

In "Activator with Leverage," Women's eNews celebrates Sara K. Gould's pioneering contributions to the field of women's economic development, her critical stewardship of the Ms. Foundation and her passion for "making connections to build larger constituencies...that can hold our new government and president accountable to the vision he put out."

In "Grower of Latina Power," Women's eNews recognizes Dusti Gurule's trailblazing efforts to build the grassroots political power of Latinas in Colorado. Her organization, Latina Initiative, and Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) have teamed up to run "Latinas Increasing Political Strength" (LIPS), a collaboration funded by the Ms. Foundation that "engages young Latinas in Denver in community action and civic participation." Latina Initiative's advocacy was key to last year's defeat of Colorado's Amendment 46, a regressive initiative that would have seriously undermined affirmative action and civil rights.

Congratulations Sara and Dusti, and thank you for your visionary leadership and unwavering commitment to social justice for all women, families and communities nationwide!