The Senate may be voting on a "Hyde on steroids" amendment similar to Stupak-Pitts that would prevent millions of women from obtaining insurance coverage for abortion under health care reform. Floor debate begins next week, and senators are being pressured to accept this outrageous evisceration of Roe v. Wade in order to get reform legislation passed. It is not acceptable to achieve health care reform by pushing women back to the back alleys. The Senate must not adopt this House-passed amendment that would expand the Hyde Amendment (which prohibits federal funding of abortion, except in cases of rape, incest and threat to a woman's life). Please tell your senators Stupak-Pitts is not status quo and it is not okay.

Please Take Action NOW!

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote as early as this Saturday, Nov. 7, on the most important piece of health care legislation in more than four decades. While the Affordable Health Care for America Act, (H.R. 3962) is far from NOW's ideal health care reform bill, it is a necessary step towards repairing our failing, profit-driven health care system. We need you to act now by sending a message to your representative urging their support of the Weiner amendment for a national single-payer health insurance plan; failing that, members should support a stronger public insurance plan and, then finally to vote for adoption of H.R. 3962.

Abortion rights opponents are continuing their tactics to stall major health care reform legislation and to press for even more restrictions that would make it impossible for women to obtain insurance coverage for abortion services. This effort threatens to derail an existing compromise known as the Capps amendment that was previously agreed upon in order to allow the health care reform bill to go forward. Tell your House member that you oppose any further changes to language relating to abortion services in health care reform and urge her/him to support this position as well.

Abstinence-only education is dangerous and ineffective, and has no place in our health care reform legislation. But Senator Orrin Hatch's (R-Utah) abstinence-only-until-marriage amendment has been tucked in with the health care reform legislation -- and we need your help to strike it when it reaches Senate floor. Women everywhere need the Senate to support comprehensive sex education programs, not ideological crusades.

Consideration of Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. Max Baucus' (D-Mont.) proposed legislation to reform our broken health care system continues this week. Please send a message to your senators today urging them to oppose all restrictive amendments that would limit women's access to reproductive health care and to withdraw discriminatory provisions that would charge women (and men), aged 40 to 64, five times the average premium amount charged to younger persons. Also, stress the need for the legislation to offer a strong public health insurance plan; Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) is set to soon offer an amendment that would establish a public health insurance plan.

The beauty of the Internet is that it is open to everyone. It offers a platform for dialogue amongst feminists who might not otherwise have a chance to strategize together. This is OUR Internet, and we can save it.

Your voice is urgently required: Baucus bill is profit-driven insurance industry dream! In an attempt to write a bipartisan health care reform bill, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has produced a bill that fails to effectively solve problems in our dysfunctional health care system and is unlikely to overcome strident right-wing opposition, anyway.

Tell President Obama that you want to have a strong public health insurance plan and that you are depending upon his unwavering support. Call the White House TODAY at 202-456-1111 or send an email!

From NOW President Terry O'Neill:

"I need you to share your story. Has private insurance failed to cover your health care? Is your insurance company refusing to cover your birth control? Was your pregnancy declared a pre-existing condition? Are you one of the millions upon millions of women uninsured or underinsured by profit-driven health insurance?

I'm going to take your stories and share them widely. I'm going to share them with members of Congress. I'm going to publicize them on our website. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this country knows women won't stand for right-wing extremists or profit-driven health insurance companies discriminating against us."

Soon the U.S. Senate will be reviewing an international treaty that could dramatically advance women's rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The U.S. is one of the very few countries that have not ratified this treaty since it was introduced some three decades ago. Known as the "women's treaty," CEDAW addresses many areas where women are denied equal treatment and opportunity.

Unfortunately, a set of conditions have been attached to CEDAW -- known as Reservations, Declarations and Understandings (RDUs) -- which place severe restrictions on various parts of the treaty as it would be applied in the U.S. Currently, the treaty and its attached conditions are being reviewed by various executive agencies. Send a message to President Obama urging that all unnecessary, undesirable and objectionable RDUs be eliminated before the treaty is sent to the Senate for their advice and consent.

If there is a hell on earth for women and girls, it surely must be found in Afghanistan. Desperate poverty persists and gender-based violence is increasing. The Afghan Women Empowerment Act, S. 229, would give Afghan women and girls a chance at a better life with more opportunities. Take action now!

Abortion providers are under attack. Join NOW President Terry O'Neill in Nebraska to help Kansas and Nebraska NOW face down Operation Rescue, send a message of support to Dr. Carhart, or sign our pledge for reproductive freedom. Or do all three!

The House of Representative may vote this week on its bill (America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, H.R. 3200) to reform our dysfunctional health care system. Act NOW to keep state single-payer options in this important piece of health care reform legislation!

Please take time now to call or email your representative and senators to urge that no restrictions for women's reproductive health services should be included in health care reform legislation.

While there have been several wins in health care reform legislation concerning reproductive health services, a number of serious threats have emerged in recent days. Abortion rights opponents in both parties are moving to prohibit coverage in any public plan that is part of reform legislation. There is even an effort to prohibit private health insurance companies participating in the proposed health insurance exchanges to stop covering abortion services. Most private insurers currently provide coverage for abortion.

Under a single-payer health care system, no one would be denied care, no exclusions based on pre-existing conditions would be allowed, and women could not be charged higher rates because they use the system more for maternity and preventive care -- as happens currently in the private individual market. Take action now to make single payer health care more possible!

The first-ever hearing on important work/family legislation, the Healthy Families Act (H.R. 2460), is being held tomorrow, June 11, in the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee.

Sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the Healthy Families Act would guarantee seven paid sick days per year for workers at businesses with 15 or more employees, to be used to recover from routine illnesses, care for a sick family member or seek services to recover from domestic violence.

We need your help to urge your Representative to become a co-sponsor -- if they have not already done so -- and to take leadership in moving this important bill to a floor vote. Working people need assurance that if they or a loved one becomes ill they will not lose their jobs and that a critically needed paycheck will be there when they most need it.

We are angered. We are saddened. And we will not be silenced. We must redouble our efforts to maintain safe and legal access to abortion and birth control. When you sign this pledge, you can choose to send a message to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security and let them know that the murder and intimidation of abortion providers is domestic terrorism.

President Obama will soon nominate a new Supreme Court justice, now that Justice David Souter has announced his retirement from the Court. Please sign our petition urging him to name a woman like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is a proven advocate for equality and fair treatment under the Constitution.

Ginsburg said she can't help but wonder what people think when they visit the Court and see only one woman out of the nine justices."There I am all alone, and it doesn't look right," said Ginsburg, noting that women bring a life experience to the court that men can't.

As a first step toward universal paid leave, ask your representative to support upcoming legislation to guarantee federal workers four weeks of paid parental leave for a new child.

Countless military women and military spouses are victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. It is estimated that rates of marital abuse in the military are two to five times higher than civilian rates of domestic violence. Moreover, one in three women in the military will be sexually assaulted during their tour of duty. Ending sexual violence against women in the military must start now!

President Obama started the regulatory process to rescind the dangerous and unethical "provider conscience" healthcare refusal rule. But we need your help! Take a few minutes to send a message supporting the rescinding of this rule that dramatically undermines women's access to a wide range of reproductive health services.

Ask your senators to support upcoming legislation to guarantee federal workers four weeks of paid parental leave for a new child, as a first step toward universal paid leave.

The House version of the Paycheck Fairness Act was passed in January, and now it's time for Senate action. The House passed both the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, but the Senate considered and passed ONLY the Ledbetter legislation. In order to build up steam for this bill, we need to DOUBLE the number of Senate sponsors; currently, there are only 26 co-sponsors.

Your state's senators are key to the confirmation of Hilda Solis, a friend of women's rights and workplace equality, as the new Secretary of Labor.

Human needs programs, women's jobs and family tax breaks could be dropped as partisan bickering and corporate greed hold sway.