Updates from Around the States

Below the Belt: A Biweekly Column by NOW President Kim Gandy

August 19, 2005

In my last column I promised y'all a little virtual tour of the country this time — because we all know that the Right's "below the belt" hits aren't limited to Washington, D.C. Far from it! But there is good news from all corners of this country, too, where we and our allies are fighting back.

But before we start the tour, I just have to say a few words about the recent revelations of misogyny from Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court, John G. Roberts. We've opposed his nomination from the beginning, and have organized regular "No on Roberts" meetings at the NOW Action Center of all the groups that have taken a position against his confirmation — we knew that he would be a bad vote for women's rights based simply on the public record that was available at the time.

But the recent documents released by the Reagan Library (isn't it funny that so many documents have vanished, just coincidentally after their review by White House lawyers) demonstrate vividly his contempt for women and for equal treatment. When asked whether a staffer could be nominated for a Clairol award that recognized women who had changed their lives and made a contribution, he smirked: "Some might question whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good." And this from a young lawyer who was only 5 years out of law school at the time. He also criticized the concept of pay equity for women as "staggeringly pernicious" and "anti-capitalist" and repeatedly questions the very existence of our concerns, as in references to the "purported gender gap" and "perceived problems of gender discrimination."

We were right all along — and if you haven't already written to your Senators demanding a "NO" vote on confirmation, now would be a good time to do it. We're already down to one woman on the Court, and we don't need to add a man who disparages women's accomplishments and denigrates our desire for equal treatment. Write to your senators online.

Okay, now for the promised tour. Let's take a look and see what's brewing in the states...

We'll start our tour off in CALIFORNIA, where our opponents have managed to get an initiative on the November ballot for mandatory parental notification for young women seeking abortions. As we've seen before, ballot initiatives can be dangerous — remember our "Stop 209" campaign to defeat the initiative that destroyed affirmative action in the whole state of California! So this could be very bad indeed — if you live in California, please join our effort to educate people about the disastrous consequences this initiative could. Organizations like Life on the Ballot, the sponsoring group, argue that "there's a system in place" that reinforces teenage sex and in many cases provides "secret state-funded abortions." They say that requiring parental consent will "change the climate" for young women to communicate with their parents.

I don't know when I've heard something so ridiculous — the fact is that the vast majority of young women who need abortions already tell their parents, and when they don't, there's a damn good reason why not! Many who seek a judicial waiver do so because they're pregnant from incest, or because they live in a family beset by domestic violence, and they are afraid of being put out on the street. This is not a conspiracy, folks, and it's not a good idea — all this law would do is put young women's lives at risk.

Moving on now to TEXAS, join me in a chorus of disapproval for the state's All-State Choir, which refused to even audition 17-year-old Mikhael Rawls, who has won awards for his countertenor (the male parallel to soprano). You know why? Because boys don't sing soprano, and girls don't sing tenor or bass (even when they clearly do). It's just not done, you see. The Texas Music Educators Association says so. And since they're the self-appointed guardians of gender roles within music, there'll be no singing for Mikhael this year. All together now, in the key of high-C: BOOOOO!

And heading East, we'll run into ALABAMA, where last month Birmingham was home to the trial and sentencing of Eric Rudolph. Rudolph received two life terms without parole for the 1998 bombings of an abortion clinic there that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed nurse Emily Lyons. This month he is to receive two more life sentences for the 1996 Centennial Park Olympic bombing and other attacks in Atlanta, which were also intended to emphasize his opposition to abortion. Rudolph was defiantly unrepentant during his sentencing, declaring that abortion must be "fought with deadly force," and leaving us to wonder, yet again, how people can justify killing "for life." In the midst of the "global war on terror," this is one U.S. terrorist that we're glad is behind bars.

And here's an important news flash from right here in DC, where they hit below the belt as well as below the "Beltway." Two weeks ago we were treated to a classic Bush maneuver, this one from the "If you can't win, cheat!" files. Bush, who for months had been unsuccessfully trying to push his cantankerous nominee John Bolton through the Senate, finally just waited until the Senate took break and then made a "recess appointment" of Bolton as temporary ambassador to the U.N. It is such a sneaky and cowardly move that it conjures up the image of Bush as a little boy in grade school, waiting until the teacher left the room so he could write something nasty on the blackboard or spit in her water cup. Unfortunately, he hasn't grown up much.

But wait, says White House press secretary Scott McClellan — there was a good reason for this. Their rationale? Bush absolutely "had" to abuse his emergency power so that he could "get people in place that have waited far too long to get about doing their business," and that "sometimes there comes a point" where Bush decides that he needs to act. Needs to act? How about nominating someone new?? It's just a thought here, but if they're that concerned about things getting done over at the U.N., how about giving the Senate another option, someone who won't cause a months-long stall because of his attitude problem? Or, here's a really radical idea, how about naming someone as ambassador to the U.N. who actually believes in the United Nations and doesn't have a record of mistreating subordinates?

But not all the news is bad. Let's head north, up to MARYLAND, where nine same-sex couples are suing for legal recognition of their partnerships. The suit especially focuses on medical decision-making and hospital visitation rights. Similar suits have been brought in NEW JERSEY, NEW YORK, CALIFORNIA, and WASHINGTON. In the meantime, thanks to the Reverend Andrew Foster Connors of the Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, who says it is especially important for the Christian community to speak out in support of same-sex marriage. "The voices of opposition that have been the loudest have come from the religious community - the right wing part of the Christian faith," Connors has said. "Not all Christians speak with that kind of voice." Hooray for religious leaders who recognize love in all its forms — three cheers! (Let's do it in the key of high-C again, just to spite the Texas Music Educators Association.)

Even further North now, and a little West - a leading group of pediatricians based in Chicago, ILLINOIS, have taken a strong stand in favor of emergency contraception (EC) and birth control, and especially minors' access to them. The American Academy of Pediatrics updated their teen pregnancy policies to clearly oppose abstinence-only sex education. The report notes that U.S. teen birth rates are higher than in comparable industrialized countries, which may be partly due to greater access to contraception in those countries.

In other words, our government's enthusiasm for retrogressive policies when it comes to sex ed, EC, and abortion are forcing us backwards - away from other industrialized countries, away from progress, and away from the gains we have worked for these past decades. Thank goodness for the scientists and doctors trying to point this out! Says Dr. S. Paige Hertweck, a pediatric obstetrician-gynecologist at the University of Louisville who provided advice for the report, "Teaching abstinence but not birth control makes it more likely that once teenagers start sexual activity they will have unsafe sex and contract sexually transmitted diseases." See that? Medical research has established what most people with common sense have known for years. So there!

And while we're on the subject of EC, our last stops on the tour are NEW YORK, where the news is bad, and in MASSACHUSETTS, where there is both good and bad news (but mainly good). In New York, the state legislature passed a bill that would make EC available to women of all ages directly through a pharmacist, without requiring a doctor's prescription. But then New York Governor George Pataki, a Republican who reportedly has plans to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2008, decided to start early courting the right-wing vote and vetoed the bill. A NOW protest of Pataki at the state capitol received wide media coverage, and a photo of NOW State President Marcia Pappas was in USA Today. Go New York NOW!

Over in MASSACHUSETTS, a bill to make emergency contraception available from pharmacists without prescriptions and to require hospitals to offer it to rape victims passed the Massachusetts Senate unanimously, and passed the state House last month by a vote of 135-17. Hip-hip hooray! Now the bad news: Governor Mitt Romney vetoed the bill on July 26, in violation of promises made during his 2002 campaign to support EC. The AP is hinting that he's trying to move to the right in anticipation of a Presidential run - yecch! Talk about playing politics with women's lives. Luckily for our team, the legislature has the votes to override Romney's disgusting veto. And anyway, there's a woman keeping him in line -Kerry Healey, the Lt. Governor, who has expressed strong support for the bill. You tell him, Kerry, we'll be right behind you: "Get off your high horse, Mitt!"

That's all for this week, hope you've enjoyed the tour. Hang in there, celebrate the good, organize against the bad. And more on those dangerous Beltway Bandits, that scheming Republican R-team, Rove and Roberts, coming up next time! See you then.