Crowds Gather To Protest ‘Rape Cops’ Verdict

LOWER MANHATTAN, NY (PIX11) — An angry crowd of roughly 400 gathered outside Manhattan’s Criminal Court on Centre Street Friday to protest the not-guilty verdict of Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, the two NYPD officers who were acquitted on felony rape charges yesterday.

“We are here to say rape is not ok,” chanted protestors. ”NYPD shame on you.”

Other chants included, “Why a victim wouldn’t trust the justice system. Look no further than the acquittal of NYPD officers Moreno and Mata.”

Moreno and Mata were only found guilty of three counts each of official misconduct — for entering their accuser’s apartment three times back in 2008.

Friday’s rally exploded in size and popularity overnight over Facebook.

Once the non-guilty rape verdict of now fired officers came down, activist Lori Adelman started a Facebook page, called “Protest The Acquittal Of Officer Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata.”

In less than 24 hours, her planned protest had 1400 followers.

“People are just so angry and infuriated because the evidence seemed so overwhelming in this case,” said Adelman.

This wasn’t the only protest that surfaced today.

Outside city hall, city leaders explained their frustration with the not guilty verdict.

“As a former criminal defense attorney I recognize the verdict yesterday demonstrated the imperfections of the system,” said New York Councilwoman Latisha James

Both officers were fired Thursday after they were found guilty of official misconduct.
Commissioner Ray Kelly stood by the department’s actions to terminate the officers.

“The jury has spoken.”

But protesters say firing is not enough. They want Commissioner Kelly to implement new sexual assault and anti-rape policies within the department.

“We want him to respond one week from today,” said Adelman.

http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-rape-cop-verdict-protests-planned-20110526,0,6007537.story

Kansas Abortion Bill Poised To Become Law

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas legislators approved restrictions on private insurance coverage for abortions and adopted a state budget stripping funds from a Planned Parenthood affiliate, capping a string of victories Friday for abortion opponents only four months after sympathetic Gov. Sam Brownback took office.

This year, five major proposals favored by abortion opponents cleared the GOP-dominated Legislature as members heeded a call from Brownback to create “a culture of life.” But Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, the target of much of lawmakers’ efforts, confirmed that it is consulting with attorneys over possible legal challenges

“Four or five anti-choice bills, as we would characterize them, is pretty significant,” said Tait Sye, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “It would be in the top tier of anti-choice legislatures, which is probably what Brownback wants.”

Brownback, a Republican, is expected to sign the bill sent to him by the state House a mere 15 minutes before lawmakers adjourned their annual session. The House’s early-morning vote was 86-30 in support of a larger bill that included the abortion coverage restrictions. The state Senate had approved it Thursday night, 28-10.

The measure prohibits insurance companies from offering coverage of abortions as part of their general health plans, except when a woman’s life is at risk. If the bill becomes law as expected, starting in July, individuals and employers who want abortion coverage would have to buy supplemental policies that cover only abortion.

Supporters of the bill argue that it will protect employers who oppose abortion rights from having to pay for policies that cover the procedures. The legislation also says that no state or federally administered health-insurance exchange in Kansas established under last year’s federal health care overhaul law can offer coverage for abortions, other than to save a woman’s life.

The $13.8 billion budget approved by legislators, also early Friday, includes a provision diverting about $330,000 in federal family planning funds away from Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri to public hospitals and health departments. The group’s top executive warned that it will be forced to reduce services dramatically at clinics in Hays and Wichita that don’t perform abortions without affecting one in the Kansas City suburbs that terminates pregnancies.

Brownback already has signed legislation to tighten restrictions on late-term abortions and require doctors to obtain written permission from parents before terminating minors’ pregnancies. Legislators also have sent him a bill to impose new health and safety standards specifically for abortion clinics, which the governor plans to sign Monday.

“Governor Brownback has never been shy about the fact that he’s pro-life,” spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag said.

Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director for the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life, said the state’s new laws will protect women who seek abortions from dangerous clinics and provide more accurate reporting by doctors about their activities.

“It has obviously been a good session,” Ostrowski said after lawmakers adjourned.

Democratic Govs. Kathleen Sebelius and Mark Parkinson, who held the office before Brownback, blocked most major changes in Kansas abortion laws, vetoing legislation that is becoming law this year.

“There’s clearly a message here that women are dispensable,” said state Rep. Annie Kuether, a Topeka Democrat and one of the Legislature’s shrinking number of abortion rights supporters. “I’m sick and tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.”

The measures in Kansas are part of a wave of anti-abortion legislation across the nation, as abortion opponents have been encouraged by the election of new Republican governors last year and conservative legislators.

The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization supporting abortion rights, says Kansas and Missouri are among seven states now with restrictions on private health insurance coverage of abortion. Also, a dozen states, including Kansas, restrict coverage in health exchanges.

Planned Parenthood officials say moves to strip funds from affiliates are afoot in at least five other states; one in Indiana has filed a lawsuit there.

“Why would we want to continue to give Planned Parenthood tax dollars to ostensibly prevent pregnancy, when they make even more money performing abortions when that ‘prevention’ fails?” said Mary Kay Culp, Kansans for Life’s executive director.

But Brownlie said the Planned Parenthood clinics offer a wide range of services, including thousands of breast exams and tests for sexually transmitted diseases each year. The federal dollars account for about 10 percent of the budget for its Kansas operations, he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/kansas-abortion-bill-law_n_861525.html

More women suing Bayer unit

A class action suit alleging that Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals discriminated against women employees has been expanded to include female pharmaceutical sales representatives and all women in Bayer HealthCare’s Consumer Care unit — groups who weren’t originally included in a gender bias complaint filed earlier this year against the drug giant.

In an amended complaint filed Wednesday in federal court in New Jersey, lawyers for the women said the sales representatives were paid less and not promoted as often as male peers while the women in the consumer care division were sexually harassed by Bayer executives and the company ignored their requests for help.

The original complaint, filed in March in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., by six current and former female Bayer HealthCare employees on behalf of other women at the company, seeks $100 million in lost salary and benefits. It alleges Bayer executives were openly hostile to women — especially pregnant women, working mothers and women who took maternity leaves.

Bayer HealthCare, based in New Jersey, is a division of Bayer Corp., a German company with its U.S. headquarters in Robinson.

In a statement, Bayer denied the allegations, pledged to defend itself and said it is “committed strongly to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal treatment for all employees.”

In the amended complaint, Natalie Celske, a senior sales consultant, said that in 2009 she was replaced in a district trainer position based in Boise, Idaho, by a male colleague who had lower sales results and lower overall performance. When she asked a manager why, he replied that the male candidate was “more into [the man's] career path, not yours.”

Since then, the male supervisor has declined to consider her for any promotions and exhibits hostile behavior to her compared with how he treats male employees, the complaint said.

In a portion of the complaint that broadens the gender bias allegations to the consumer care division, Vera Santangelo, a financial specialist in that unit, said that despite several exceptional performance awards, she received less pay than male colleagues and was subjected to sexual harassment and retaliation for reporting the harassment.

Ms. Santangelo alleged a senior attorney for Bayer HealthCare repeatedly made comments about her body and her attire and once made an inappropriate comment to her during an elevator ride.

She sought help from an on-site counselor and reported the incident to a company hotline, Bayer’s corporate ombudsman and an official in human resources, the complaint said.

When the harassment did not stop, according to the complaint, she confided in her manager who “dismissed or diminished her concerns and … made it seem like the sexual harassment she was experiencing was her fault or her problem.”

In a subsequent performance review, the complaint said, her manager said she was “too emotional” and threatened to lower her rating, which could prevent her from receiving a pay raise and make her ineligible for future promotions. She is currently on a short-term medical leave related to stress caused by the harassment, the complaint said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11146/1149204-28.stm?cmpid=business.xml#ixzz1NVkz9FYk

2 NYPD officers acquitted of rape in ’08 encounter

NEW YORK – Two police officers were acquitted Thursday of raping a drunken woman they’d been called to help, with a jury convicting them only of misdemeanor official misconduct charges in a case that pitted a stunning claim of police abuse against the officers’ insistence that it simply didn’t happen.

Looking exhausted but relieved as they left court, Officers Franklin Mata and Kenneth Moreno said they felt vindicated by the verdict, though it could send them to jail and immediately got them fired. Moreno called it both “a lesson and a win.”

“My intentions were, from the beginning, just to help her,” Moreno said. He was accused of raping the woman, with Mata serving as a lookout; the two had returned to her apartment three times after an initial call to help her get home. Moreno, 43, said he did so to check on her, at her request, and to counsel her about drinking.

“I made a judgment call … and I paid for it,” he said.

Mata, 29, said he had “been innocent from day one. I’m glad everybody sees that now.”

Jurors, who left court without speaking to reporters, deliberated for about six days before returning the verdict. They found each officer guilty of three official misconduct charges for returning to the woman’s apartment without telling dispatchers or superiors where they were. They face possible sentences from no jail time to a total of two years behind bars at their sentencing, set for June 28.

The police department dismissed them within hours after the verdict; they had been suspended when indicted in 2009. At the time, Commissioner Raymond Kelly had called the allegations “disgraceful” and “a shocking aberration” in the department’s work. Moreno’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, had said Thursday before their firing that the two didn’t expect to resume police work.

Besides the rape acquittal, they were acquitted of other charges including burglary and falsifying business records.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement that prosecutors “respect the jury’s verdict, which acknowledges that the defendants’ actions that night not only violated the law, they violated the victim’s rights, and the public’s trust.”

The verdict puzzled and outraged some observers, including women’s advocates. Several activists organize a protest outside the courthouse for Friday evening, while members of the City Council Women’s Caucus and the National Organization for Women planned a news conference Friday afternoon on the City Hall steps.

“Never mind professional behavior, and they’re held to higher standard because they’re police officers — to hear some of the facts in this case that they (the officers) put forward” was disturbing, Councilwoman Rosie Mendez said.

During the trial, prosecutors told a stark story of police misconduct and a perverse abuse of power. The officers acknowledged a number of missteps — including Moreno making a bogus 911 call about a sleeping vagrant as an excuse to return to her building — but said that they weren’t crimes and that the rape allegation was a product of the woman’s muddled memory.

“I thought she made the whole thing up,” Moreno said Thursday, adding later that “she was mistaken or confused.”

The officers were called to help the woman get out of a taxi on Dec. 7, 2008. A fashion product developer who’s now 29, the woman had gotten very drunk while out with friends celebrating her impending promotion and move to California.

The woman testified that she passed out and awoke to being raped in her apartment. Moreno told jurors that he lay alongside her in her bed for a while but that they didn’t have sex. Mata said he was napping in the living room while the others were in the bedroom.

While she acknowledged during days of testimony that her memory of the night was spotty, she said that she acutely remembered the rape, and that other vivid snippets — police radio chatter, flashlights, the same man’s voice urging her to drink water in her bathroom and later asking her if she wanted him to stay in her bedroom — made her certain that her attacker was an officer.

“I couldn’t believe that two officers who had been called to help me had, instead, raped me,” said the woman, who has sued the city seeking $57 million over the incident. Her lawyer didn’t immediately return a call Thursday.

After consulting prosecutors, she secretly recorded a conversation with Moreno a few days later. He alternately denied they had sex and seemed to admit it, particularly by saying twice that he’d used a condom when she asked him.

Moreno told jurors he was just “telling her what she wanted to hear” because she had suggested she’d go into the stationhouse where he worked and make a scene. He has been a police officer for about 20 years.

No DNA evidence was collected in the case, and experts debated whether an internal mark found during an examination of the woman could be interpreted as a sign of rape.

Moreno said he was only trying to console and counsel the woman about drinking during his series of visits, as he shared his own struggle with alcoholism some years before, killed a cockroach in her bathroom, made plans to have breakfast with her and sang to her a verse of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.”

On the last visit, Moreno said, he suddenly found himself fending off drunken advances from the woman.

“I told her, `There’s another time for this. Not tonight.’ … I kind of had her by the shoulders, and I said, `We’re not doing this,’” he told jurors.

But, he said, he wound up in her bed after she fell and got stuck between her bed and a wall and needed to be freed. He said he stayed there “snuggling” with her for a time, out of sympathy, but kept his uniform on and didn’t have sex with her.

Mata, a police officer for about five years, acknowledged during his testimony that he couldn’t be sure what had happened between the two while he was snoozing on the woman’s sofa. But he said he didn’t believe Moreno had raped the woman because “Ken wouldn’t do something like that.”

He was charged with rape under state legal principles that hold an alleged accessory as responsible for a crime as the main defendant.

Asked whether the official misconduct conviction was a disappointment, Mata lawyer Edward Mandery said, “We’ll deal with it.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110526/ap_on_re_us/us_nypd_rape_complaint

Traditional marriages decline in South Carolina

Traditional households with a husband and wife raising their children are no longer the majority in South Carolina.

Of the state’s 1.8 million households, 47.2 percent are made of a husband and wife living under the same roof, according to the 2010 Census statistics. Ten years ago, there were 1.5 million households in the state, and 51.1 percent of them were headed by a married man and woman.

South Carolina is following a trend that has spread across the nation. The traditional concept of a family is changing, whether it’s single parents raising children, gay couples sharing a home or men and women who move in together but are not married.

“It just doesn’t exist like it used to,” said Bobby Bowers, director of the S.C. Office of Research and Statistics. “You just can’t believe how much it has changed.”

In Richland County, traditional married couple households fell below the 50 percent mark years ago, while the majority of Lexington County’s households remain a traditional husband-wife set up.

The census statistics do not offer an explanation of why households are changing, and theories abound as to why it is happening. But the change is important to note because family structure affects important decisions such as health insurance coverage, end-of-life decisions, estate planning and child custody, according to the authors of a book about the definition of family, “Counted Out: Same Sex Relations and Americans’ Definitions of Family.”

Lala Carr Steelman, chairman of USC’s sociology department, is one of the book’s co-authors. There are many definitions of family whether they come from scholars, the judicial system or census questionnaires, Steelman said. She and her co-authors wanted to know how Americans defined family and set out to poll them about that question.

“What we’re finding is people are growing increasingly more flexible in how they define what a family is,” she said. “The main thing is alternative family forms are expanding at a very high rate and acceptance of them is expanding.”

Pop culture is contributing to the acceptance with television shows like Modern Family, which features an extended family that includes a multicultural marriage, a traditional husband-wife family of five and a gay couple raising a daughter.

In tracking acceptance of gay families, the authors addressed 11 other types of living arrangements.

“There’s more of a menu to choose from,” she said.

All sorts of factors are contributing to the trend of nontraditional households, Steelman said. Widows and widowers are living longer. Young women prefer to stay single as they establish careers. The divorce rate is up. Same-sex marriages are more acceptable as are out-of-wedlock births. And more male and female couples are choosing to live together without getting married, Steelman said.

“It used to be called shacking up, and it was unacceptable so you got married,” she said.

But even traditionally conservative South Carolina is growing more tolerant.

Debi Schadel, 37, and her boyfriend, Derek Riley, 41, have lived together for nine years in their Columbia home. The two moved into together for the same reason married couples do, Schadel said.

Although people constantly ask when will they marry, no one seems to have a problem with the couple’s relationship, Schadel said.

“I tell people that things are going fine the way they are,” she said. “We’re just chugging along.”

Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2011/05/23/1829707/traditional-marriages-decline.html#ixzz1NQhAh7rj

House bans funds for teaching abortion techniques

WASHINGTON – The House voted Wednesday to ban teaching health centers from using federal money to train doctors on how to perform abortions, the latest in a series of anti-abortion measures pushed by the Republican majority.

The author of the measure, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said she wanted to make it “crystal clear that taxpayer money is not being used to train health care providers to perform abortion procedures.”

The proposal was presented as an amendment to the latest of several GOP bills to restrict funding for the health care act that was enacted last year. This bill gives Congress control over spending for a program to encourage health centers to provide training to medical residents. The amendment applies to funding in that grant program.

The Foxx amendment passed 234-182 despite the objections of some Democrats that it would prevent health centers from teaching a basic medical technique that can be critical to saving a woman’s life during emergencies.

“This amendment would jeopardize both education and women’s health care by obliterating funding for a necessary full range of medical training by health care professionals,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.

The Foxx amendment and the overall bill to restrict the health care act both are likely to die in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Since coming to power in January, the Republican majority in the House has acted to write permanently into law the ban on federal funds to perform abortions, to make it easier for hospitals to refuse abortion cases and to make it more expensive for small businesses to choose insurance plans under the health care act that provide abortion coverage. The House unsuccessfully tried to cut off federal money for Planned Parenthood as part of the battle over this year’s budget.

“If organizations want to provide elective abortions or train abortion doctors they need to find someone other than taxpayers to write the checks,” Foxx said.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said Foxx’s amendment was an unprecedented restriction on medical training. “Regardless of how one feels about legal abortion, reasonable lawmakers can agree that doctors should be as well-trained as possible to deal with any medical situation that may arise,” she said.

The amendment also states that no funds available under the grant program can be used to perform abortions and that teaching health centers will not be eligible for funds if they discriminate against providers that deny abortion services.

Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the anti-abortion group National Right to Life, said the anti-discrimination provision was important because “the Obama administration has severely weakened enforcement of existing laws.”

He said conscience protections get a better reception in the Senate and that, even if the Senate does not act, it was important for the House to push its anti-abortion agenda. “It usually takes more than one Congress to accomplish worthwhile legislative goals,” Johnson said. “It is necessary often to build up momentum over several Congresses.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110525/ap_on_re_us/us_house_abortion_4

State budget panel trims university funding 15%, caps welfare

Lansing—Welfare benefits would be limited to 48 months and 124,000 children will no longer get an $80 clothing allowance under a joint House-Senate Department of Human Services budget approved by the Senate this afternoon.

The Senate earlier today approved by a 26-16 vote a joint House-Senate budget for higher education that trims 15 percent in funding from state universities that Snyder has proposed. Both budgets now head to the House, where they are expected to be approved by the Republican majority.

A $1.9 billion Department of Corrections budget passed out of committee and awaits action in the Senate. The plan would cut $70.8 million from the department’s budget, including $31.3 million to be saved by competitively bidding the housing of 1,750 prisoners.

The House and Senate are reconciling budget bills for various state departments. They must both concur and pass the final budgets before they can be sent to Gov. Rick Snyder for his signature. Earlier, the Legislature passed a tax reform plan that awaits Snyder’s signature. The plan eliminates the Michigan Business Tax, imposes a 6 percent corporate tax on some businesses, eliminates many business and personal tax credits and imposes a phased-in tax on pensions.

The House will roll all of the state budgets into two “omnibus” bills, one for higher education, community colleges and universities, and the other for the rest of the budget.

The Legislature hopes to send the complete budget to Gov. Rick Snyder by May 31 to be signed into law.

The 48-month lifetime limit on welfare is retroactive, and would begin immediately if the budget also passes in the House and is signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder. The Senate Fiscal Agency estimates 12,600 families, about 15 percent of state caseloads, would be immediately tossed off welfare rolls, saving more than $77 million from the state’s main checking account.

Democrats on the committee said the cuts will leave many families without help at a time when few jobs are available for laid off workers. People with a mental or physical disability, who are caring for a disabled family member, domestic violence victims and women in advance pregnancy or who recently have given birth would be exempt from the 48-month lifetime limit.

“Ninety percent of families on (welfare) are working, but not earning enough to leave assistance,” Sen. Vincent Gregory, D-Southfield, told the committee. “I would have preferred to see it phased out.”

Republicans said the cuts are necessary and noted they aren’t as harsh as either chamber had approved in their separate budgets. Children of working parents would no longer be able to receive an average $80 allowance for school clothes under the budget, but the bill would increase the amount their parents can earn while receiving benefits by about $4,000. Children in foster care aren’t affected.

“We actually gave more to those people and encouraged them to work, incentivized them to work,” said Rep. David Agema, R-Grandville.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110524/POLITICS02/105240398/State-budget-panel-trims-university-funding-15—caps-welfare#ixzz1NQcuRxYM

Transgender widow’s marriage debated at hearing

WHARTON, Texas (AP) — The transgender widow of a Texas firefighter will likely learn next week whether his family’s request to nullify their marriage and strip her of any death benefits will be granted, a judge said Friday.

State District Judge Randy Clapp made the announcement after hearing arguments in a lawsuit filed by the family of firefighter Thomas Araguz III, who was killed while battling a blaze last year. The suit argues that his widow shouldn’t get any benefits because she was born a man and Texas doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.

The widow, Nikki Araguz, said she had done everything medically and legally possible to show that she is female and was legally married under Texas law. She believes that she’s entitled to widow’s benefits.

“I believe the judge is going to rule in my favor,” Araguz said after the court hearing.

The lawsuit seeks control over death benefits and assets totaling more than $600,000, which the firefighter’s family wants to go to his two sons from a previous marriage. Voiding the marriage would prevent Nikki Araguz from receiving any insurance or death benefits or property the couple had together.

Thomas Araguz died while fighting a fire at an egg farm near Wharton, about 60 miles southwest of Houston, in July 2010. He was 30.

His mother, Simona Longoria, filed a lawsuit asking that her son’s marriage be voided. She and her family have said he learned of his wife’s gender history just prior to his death, and after he found out, he moved out of their home and planned to end the marriage.

But Nikki Araguz, 35, has insisted that her husband was aware she was born a man and that he fully supported her through the surgical process to become a woman. She underwent surgery two months after they were married in 2008.

Longoria’s attorney, Chad Ellis, argued that Texas law — specifically a 1999 appeals court ruling that stated chromosomes, not genitals, determine gender — supports his client’s efforts to void the marriage.

The ruling upheld a lower court’s decision that threw out a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a San Antonio woman, Christie Lee Cavazos Littleton, after her husband’s death. The court said that although Littleton had undergone a sex-change operation, she was actually a man, based on her original birth certificate, and therefore her marriage and wrongful death claim were invalid.

Ellis presented medical and school records that he said showed Nikki Araguz was born without female reproductive organs and that she presented herself as a male while growing up and going to school. He also said her birth certificate at the time of her marriage indicated she was a man.

“By law, two males cannot be married in this state,” Ellis told the judge.

Nikki Araguz, who was born in California, did not change her birth certificate to reflect she had become a female until after her husband’s death, said Edward Burwell, one of the attorneys for Thomas Araguz’s ex-wife, Heather Delgado, the mother of his two children.

But one of Nikki Araguz’s attorneys, Darrell Steidley, said that when his client got her marriage license, she presented the necessary legal documents to show she was a female. He also noted changes made in 2009 to the Texas Family Code that allowed people to present numerous alternatives to a birth certificate as the proof of identity needed to get a marriage license. That was an example, he argued, of the state trying to move away from the 1999 appeals court ruling.

The changes in 2009 allowed transgendered people to use proof of their sex change to get a marriage license. The Texas Legislature is currently considering a bill that would prohibit county and district clerks from using a court order recognizing a sex change as documentation to get married.

After the hearing, the firefighter’s family and attorneys for his ex-wife criticized plans by Nikki Araguz to star in a reality television dating show and implied she was only interested in money and fame that the case would bring her.

“That is absurd,” Nikki Araguz said in response. “I’m after my civil equality and the rights that I deserve as the wife of a fallen firefighter.”

If the judge rules against the firefighter’s family in their motion for a summary judgment, the case would then proceed to trial. Araguz said if the judge rules against her, she would appeal, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Transgender-widow-s-marriage-debated-at-hearing-1388734.php#ixzz1NISN5qUn

Abortion Rate Down Overall, Up Among Poor Women

The abortion rate in the United States dropped 8 percent between 2000 and 2008, while rising nearly 18 percent among the country’s poorest women — a trend that researchers believe might reflect tough economic times. Of the more than 1.2 million legal abortions reported in 2008, women whose family income fell below the national poverty level accounted for 42 percent of them.

“In the middle of a recession, it’s possible women have reduced access to contraception and have more unintended pregnancies,” said Rachel Jones, senior research associate at New York City’s Guttmacher Institute and lead author of the report published Monday in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. “It’s also possible that women confronted with unplanned pregnancies when they are out of work decide to have abortions, even though they might have carried it to term in more stable times.”

Using information collected through patient surveys, Jones and colleagues estimated the rate of abortion among women of various ages, races, religions, income and education levels, calculating changes in the rate since 2000. The rise in abortions among poor and low-income women was the most worrying finding, Jones said.

A woman studies the results of a pregnancy test. While the U.S. abortion has declined overall, it has risen among poor women, perhaps reflecting tough economic times and limited access to contraception.

“Increasingly, we’re seeing restrictions placed on abortion services, and this shows that it’s going to have a disproportionate impact on poor women,” Jones said.

Planned Parenthood puts the the cost of an abortion during the first trimester at between $300 to $950 — a fee many women front out-of-pocket because of a lack of insurance coverage, confusion about whether the procedure is covered or a desire for privacy.

The abortion rate has been steadily declining since 1990 — a possible product of more and better contraceptive use as well as fewer teens having sex, Jones said. But the decline seems to have stabilized. If the 2008 rates persist, it’s estimated that almost one in three women in the U.S. will have had an abortion before the age of 45.

“A lot of people find this surprising,” Jones said. “But a lot of women have abortions and just don’t talk about it.”

About one-half of U.S. pregnancies each year are unintended, and about half of those end in abortion, according to a 2006 study published in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.

“Women who are deciding to have an abortion are women who have unintended pregnancies, and limited access to contraception is one of the key drivers of unintended pregnancies,” said Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research at the Guttmacher Institute and author of the 2006 report. “Most Americans want to control how many kids they have and when they have them. We should [ease] access to contraception when possible to reduce the substantial proportion of unintended pregnancies.”

Although teens account for 24.8 percent of U.S. abortions, women over 25 represent 49 percent, according to the report. Almost 20 percent of women who have abortions have a college education, and 44 percent are married or living with their partners.

“All types of women have abortions. People don’t realize that their friends, their family members have had this experience,” Jones said. “If people realize that a substantial minority of women will have one, maybe they will have a less harsh evaluation of abortion and the circumstances surrounding it.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/abortion-rate-poor-women/story?id=13665925

Welfare recipient drug testing passes state legislature

Legislation to mandate drug testing for people on welfare is on its way to the governor’s desk.

The House signed off on the bill this morning, which was even tougher when it came back from the senate.

“Recipients of welfare benefits, commonly called TANF, would have a drug test if there’s reasonable cause to believe that they may be using drugs illegally,” said Rep. Ellen Brandom (R) of Sikeston

Under the bill, welfare recipients would lose their benefits for three years if they fail a urine test that screens for narcotics.

The House originally said one year, but the Senate pushed it to three. The measure would allow drug users to receive benefits again after a time if they complete a drug treatment program and do not test positive again.

Critics say the legislation will have little deterrent value without treatment…

“And until we solve the underlying problem of drug abuse, you can take the money away all you want, those parents are gonna find a way to get the drugs,” said Rep. Genise Montecillo, (D), of St. Louis

Others question the expense.

“We’re gonna cost the taxpayers of this state a million dollars. And we don’t actually know how much it’s gonna save,” said Rep. Jacob Hummel (D), St. Louis. 

The senate also added a provision to require that the electronic cards used to claim welfare benefits include a photo of the recipient and be renewed every three years.

Lawmakers say that comes from recipients selling their cards to third parties for cash.

http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/story.aspx?id=616537

New Texas law mandates sonograms before abortion

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Texas Governor Rick Perry on Thursday signed into law a measure requiring women seeking an abortion in the state to first get a sonogram.

Texas is one of several U.S. states with strong Republican legislative majorities proposing new restrictions on abortion this year. The Republican governor had designated the bill as an emergency legislative priority, putting it on a fast track.

Under the law, women will have to wait 24 hours after the sonogram before having an abortion, though the waiting time is two hours for those who live more than 100 miles from an abortion provider.

“Governor Perry was pleased to sign this important legislation, which bolsters our efforts to protect life by ensuring Texans are fully informed when considering such an important decision,” said Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for the governor.

A sonogram is an imaging technique using high-frequency sound waves to produce images of a developing baby in a woman’s uterus.

Under the measure, women will be offered the option of hearing the heartbeat and seeing the sonogram image, which they may decline. But the woman’s doctor must describe the image, explaining the size of the embryo or fetus and the presence of organs and limbs.

In certain cases, including those involving rape and incest victims or serious fetal abnormalities, the woman could decline to hear the description of the sonogram.

Opponents of the legislation said the law interferes in the doctor-patient relationship by adding a government requirement for a procedure that could be traumatizing to women going through an already difficult situation.

During debate on the House floor in March, Democratic state Representative Carol Alvarado wielded a trans-vaginal probe used for sonograms early in pregnancy.

“This is government intrusion at its best,” she said during that debate.

http://dailynews.muzi.com/news/ll/english/10109243.shtml

Census shows big jump in women-led families in Wisconsin

When Ally Moll had her daughter three years ago, she felt isolated. Her family lives in Florida and New York, and the girl’s father was out of the picture.

So the Madison woman took her plight to an online classifieds board: “I’m a new mom and I’m alone. Does anyone want to hang out?”

It led to connections with many other moms in her situation and monthly social gatherings that continue today, perhaps not surprising given that the last decade brought a dramatic increase in women-led families here and across Wisconsin.

In the state, the number of families headed by women with children and no husband increased 13 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to Census figures released Thursday. In Dane County, they’re up 23 percent. In Madison, it’s 22 percent.

The data show a further decline in the traditional nuclear family approach, with married couples with kids comprising 19 percent of total Wisconsin households in 2010, down from 24 percent in 2000.

The changes come even as population in the state, Dane County and Madison increased. Nuclear families dropped by 10 percent in the state since 2000, but increased slightly in Dane County and Madison — but at a lower rate than the general population increase for the county and city.

Moreover, the percentage change in the number of unmarried partners living together rocketed up — by more than 40 percent in the state and even more than that in the city and county.

Changing reality

The American family structure began a significant shift in the 1980s, and it continues today for a number of reasons, including that women generally are getting married much later or not at all, said Stephanie Coontz, director of public education for the national Council on Contemporary Families.

But she called on society to catch up to the changed reality.

“We still organize our school schedules and work policies on the assumption that every child has someone at home and every worker doesn’t have competing obligations,” she said.

The impact on children can be profound. Single-parent homes tend to be poorer, especially in the vital first five years of a child’s life, because there’s only one income and women tend to earn less than men.

“At the point when child development is at its most important is when families are at their poorest,” said Ken Taylor, executive director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.

But Coontz pointed out that despite the challenges posed by the changing family structure, children’s lives have actually improved nationally over the past three decades. She cited declining rates of youth violence, binge drinking and teen pregnancy as well as lower rates of domestic and child abuse.

“Clearly the gold standard is two cooperating parents in a lasting relationship,” she said. “Since that’s not always what you draw, we’re actually kind of surprised by the trends in youth.”

Aging population

The new Census numbers also show the state continues to get grayer, with median age going from 36 in 2000 to 38.5 in 2010. Dane County and Madison didn’t age as much. The city’s median age barely increased, from 30.6 to 30.9 In the county, it increased from 33.2 to 34.4.

“You’re always going to have a younger population in communities with a university or a prison,” said David Egan-Robertson, demographer with the state Department of Administration.

The shift toward an older population shows in many of the family categories, as well. The average size of households and families declined statewide and locally, with a sizable jump in the number of households with at least one retirement-aged member.

An aging of Wisconsin presents opportunities and challenges, said Katherine Curtis, demographic specialist at UW-Madison. On the upside, older members of society tend to volunteer more and be more active in the community. On the other hand, their interests don’t always align with younger people, such as in funding education, which can create a rift and lead to younger people moving out with no one moving in to replace them.

“It basically becomes an issue of attracting new residents,” she said.

http://host.madison.com/news/local/88c1a5b0-7c38-11e0-9b2e-001cc4c03286.html

Born in the USA: Illinois women act as surrogates for foreign couples

With a flag hanging outside her house, a crate of Girl Scout cookies in her living room and a dog named for Disney sensation Miley Cyrus at her feet, Laurie Thompson is about as American as it gets.

The same cannot be said for the 14-week-old twins in her gently protruding belly.

Conceived with a donor’s eggs, they are the children of a same-sex couple from Spain who turned to Thompson because paid surrogacy is illegal in their country.

“There’s such pride in knowing that I did this for somebody,” Thompson says of her experience as a surrogate, which has also included a pregnancy for a married couple from Serbia.

“This is something that is probably hard for most people to do — with the emotional connection and everything — and I was able to do it.”

She laughs: “And do it again, obviously.”

Thompson, who lives in McHenry, five miles from another woman who recently carried a child for a European couple, represents a new twist in global fertility tourism.

In the last five years, would-be parents from as far as Istanbul and Uruguay have turned to healthy young mothers from Illinois to carry their children.

The babies are born U.S. citizens, surrogacy agency officials say, but that’s not a primary motivation for the parents, who typically come from European and Latin American countries where surrogacy is illegal or unavailable. The parents have exhausted other options and are willing to pay about $50,000 to $100,000 — part of which goes to the surrogate — to have biological children.

No one tracks how many of the estimated 1,400 babies via surrogacy in the U.S. each year are carried for international parents, but one of the larger U.S. agencies, the Center for Surrogate Parenting in Encino, Calif., estimates that about half of its 104 births in 2010 were for international parents.

In Illinois, which has had one of the most surrogacy-friendly laws in the nation, at least two dozen international babies were born to surrogates in 2010, according to a Tribune survey of major agencies. The only other states that explicitly allow contracts for paid surrogacy are Arkansas, California and Massachusetts.

“We’re getting inquires from international parents constantly. Because of the referral process, it’s skyrocketed,” said Zara Griswold, director of Family Source Consultants in Hinsdale. “We recently got an inquiry from somebody in China.”

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-13/health/ct-news-surrogate-mom-20110413_1_surrogacy-center-for-surrogate-parenting-international-parents

Texas Legislation Adds Conditions on Abortion

DALLAS—Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to sign a law soon requiring a woman seeking an abortion to have a sonogram and hear a description of the fetus, including whether it has developed fingers, toes or internal organs.

The goal, supporters say, is to improve medical care for women and encourage them to reconsider having abortions.

“We believe that when they see the miracle of life some will change their minds,” said Dan Patrick, a Republican state senator who represents part of Houston and who sponsored the legislation, which passed both houses of the state legislature last week.

Abortion-rights supporters say there is no evidence that sonograms, also known as ultrasounds, affect a woman’s decision on abortion, and say laws requiring doctors to perform the procedures and describe the results violate patients’ rights.

“It discounts women’s ability to make health decisions and interferes with the doctor-patient relationship,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a New York non-profit that opposes restrictions on legal abortion.

The group filed a suit challenging a similar law adopted last year in Oklahoma, contending that it violates state constitutional guarantees of privacy for patients and free speech for doctors. A state judge blocked enforcement of the law until the suit is resolved. The group plans to mount a legal challenge to the Texas legislation, if Gov. Perry signs it.

The Texas bill also calls for a 24-hour waiting period between the sonogram and the abortion, except for women who live more than 100 miles from a clinic. Opponents say that waiting period places more burdens on women.

Associated PressGovernor Rick Perry is expected to sign the measure soon.

Big Decision

Among provisions in Texas’s proposed measure on abortion:

Any woman seeking an abortion is required to have a sonogram and to hear a developmental description of the fetus.

Rape victims, minors or women carrying fetuses with abnormalities are exempt from hearing the description.

Women may sign waivers opting not to see the sonogram image or hear the heartbeat.

Required 24-hour waiting period between sonogram and abortion, except for patients more than 100 miles from clinic.

In the past decade, more than 20 states have passed laws involving sonograms for women seeking abortions. Most simply require that ultrasounds be performed. But the Texas and Oklahoma laws, as well as legislation under consideration in Alabama, go further by requiring a woman who wants an abortion to be told in detail about her fetus’s development.

Under the Texas law, all women seeking an abortion must have a sonogram but those who have been raped, are minors or who are carrying a fetus with abnormalities are exempt from hearing the description of the image. All women seeking abortions can sign a waiver and choose not to view the image or hear the fetus’s heartbeat.

Groups that oppose abortion say ultrasound can be a powerful tool in persuading a woman considering an abortion to continue her pregnancy.

“Ultrasound is literally a window into the womb,” said Kelly Rosati, vice-president of Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs, Co., ministry. “She actually connects with that child inside of her.”

Focus on the Family has supplied grants to install 520 sonogram machines in pregnancy centers run by abortion opponents around the country. Ms. Rosati calculates that the ultrasound images have prevented 90,000 abortions since 2004. The figure is based on patients’ stated plans after their sonograms; the centers have no way of determining whether the patients gave birth or had abortions, she added.

Many abortion clinics already routinely perform sonograms to determine a pregnancy’s length, said Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, a New York group that researches reproductive health and favors abortion rights.

At Whole Woman’s Health, a network of clinics in Texas, women seeking abortions can see their sonograms and discuss them with doctors, said Terry Sallas Merritt, a clinic executive. Some women ask for a printout of the image to take home.

“The difference is that it’s up to her,” said Ms. Sallas Merritt. “It’s not the legislators telling her what she must hear before she’s allowed to exercise her right to have an abortion or have a child.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704681904576315350526209130.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Some Women May No Longer Be Eligible for Credit Cards

The federal government is cracking down on who can and cannot own credit cards –and for some women, these changes could have dire consequences.

Under new rules in development by the Federal Reserve Board, banks will have to consider a consumer’s individual income as part of the credit card application process. Your household income or assets will no longer factor into the equation if you need credit.

This appears to be yet another law with unintended consequences. Although regulators undoubtedly saw these changes as a way to make it more difficult for consumers without income –particularly, underage students and the unemployed –to get in over their heads with credit card debt, they obviously missed an important point.

The result of this oversight is a gigantic step backward for women with little or no income of their own. That means the rules have changed significantly for stay-at-home moms, retirees and asset-rich, but income-poor women.

Think about it. If banks can only look at each applicant’s individual income –and not at their household income or assets, as they were able to do in the past –then these women will be shut out from obtaining credit, unless their husbands co-sign for them.

The implications could be quite serious. For example, establishing independent credit is often an essential first step towards ending an abusive marriage. Will these changes by the Fed make it harder for women to leave a dangerous domestic partnership? Likewise, once these rules go into effect, any woman considering divorce will find it more difficult to separate credit card accounts and establish credit on her own. If she can’t access marital funds because her husband controls those assets and she cannot establish any credit or a sufficient amount of credit in her own name, how will she get the funds required to hire competent divorce professionals?

A handful of advocacy groups and legislators are beginning to take notice. Earlier this year, US Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) asked the Fed to maintain the household income or assets measure for non-working spouses. This excerpt from their letter outlines some of the problems with the new regulations:

We are concerned that the Board’s proposal will hamper a stay-at-home mom’s ability to establish her own independent credit history by applying independently for a card. Many stay-at-home moms have a strong work history, yet the proposed regulations ignore their demonstrated credit-worthiness because of their lack of current market income. While stay-at-home moms may not be contributing to the market economy as workers, they make the majority of the day-to-day financial decisions on behalf of their household. Women’s consumer power represents 73 percent of household spending, or over $4 trillion in annual discretionary spending. Finally, requiring married women to have their own earnings in order to qualify for credit represents a serious risk for women in abusive domestic partnerships. Women trapped in abusive marriages may be unable to work due to a controlling spouse, a hallmark of relationships characterized by domestic violence. The availability of an independent credit card may represent her best chance at establishing independence and a path out of a dangerous relationship. By not allowing these women to apply independently for a credit card, the proposed regulations represent a significant -and potentially dangerous set-back. We would accordingly urge the Board to amend its proposed rules so that issuers have the flexibility to consider household income in the cases of non-working spouses applying for credit.

Despite the negative impacts on some women, policy specialists aren’t expecting the Fed to budge on its decision. As Businessweek puts it, “fixing the mom flap won’t be easy, especially in the post-financial-crisis environment where regulatory zeal is the norm.”

If you’re a woman without your own income, you’re probably wondering, “Is there anything I CAN do to help establish credit in my name?”

Of course, there is – but, don’t expect it to be easy.

If you don’t have your own income, you can start to establish credit in your name by:

• Creating a solid credit history as an authorized user on a shared card.
• Putting utilities and other accounts in your name. Of course, you must also  pay these bills on time! Every honored commitment helps build your credit history.
• Using a secured credit card.

More importantly, you should immediately start stashing away as much money as possible. (See more details in my article about the 9 Critical Steps Women Should Take To Prepare For Divorce).

If you have sufficient liquid assets available, not only will you be able to access those funds with a debit card, but hopefully you should be able to get a secured credit card with a higher limit.

Fortunately, you still have a few months to plan accordingly and possibly still get credit under the old rules. The Fed’s rule changes aren’t set to go into effect until October 1. Keep in mind, though, that credit card issuers can start enforcing these rules at any time.

http://blogs.forbes.com/jefflanders/2011/05/10/even-affluent-women-may-no-longer-be-eligible-for-credit-cards/

Feds: 4-state Latino prostitution ring busted

INDIANAPOLIS — Nineteen people have been arrested in connection with a violent Latin American prostitution ring that smuggled women into the U.S. to work in brothels across the Midwest and as far away as Florida and New York, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Federal, state and local authorities arrested the 19 people in Indiana, Michigan and Illinois on Tuesday on federal racketeering and conspiracy charges, Deputy U.S. Attorney Brad Shepard said during a news conference. Investigators have found no evidence that any of the 19 were in the U.S. legally, he said.

The ring was known to have operated five brothels catering to Hispanic clients in apartments in Indianapolis and others in Cincinnati; Addison, Ill., and Grand Rapids, Mich. It also is believed to have operated brothels in Fort Wayne and Elkhart, FBI Special Agent Michael Langeman said in a probable cause affidavit.

“It is believed that at least a good portion of the prostitutes utilized by the organization are smuggled into the United States from Mexico and Central America,” Langeman wrote in the affidavit.

Shepard said he could not say which other countries the women came from. None were minors.

“The organization advertised their services by distributing business cards which had advertisements and telephone numbers for auto repair or western wear outfitters,” U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett said at the news conference. “These business cards were known within the community as contact numbers for arranging appointments. Each of the appointments was referred to as a ‘ticket,’ and it would cost anywhere from $40 to $50.”

Only Hispanic clients were allowed.

The ring was headed by Jose Louis Hernandez-Castilla of Indianapolis, who smuggled the women into the country and arranged their transfers each week among the brothels, Langeman said. Hernandez also provided prostitutes to brothels in Chicago, Louisville, Ky.; Kansas City, Mo.; Tulsa, Okla.; North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and New York.

Hernandez’s brothers, Gregorio of Indianapolis and Norberto of Addison, also helped run the ring. Authorities did not provide ages for any of those arrested.

The brothers were known to have guns and use violence to intimidate or discipline other in the rung, Langeman said. An informant told investigators that he was fearful of Jose Louis Hernandez, who was known “to have connections everywhere” and that he and his brothers are “capable of anything,” the affidavit said.

Gregorio Hernandez was brought back to Indianapolis from Grand Rapids because he caused too much trouble for his brother “due to his drug use and public displays of violence,” Langeman said.

Jose Louis Hernandez told the women they had to work as prostitutes to pay him back for the cost of smuggling them into the U.S., Langeman said.

However, Shepard said investigators have not determined if any women were held against their will. At least one of the 19 was a prostitute herself and had been smuggled back into the U.S. after having been deported.

The investigation began with a Crime Stoppers tip about suspected prostitution to Indianapolis police in December 2007. Hogsett said the ring may have operated as long as 10 years.

A message seeking comment was left with a federal public defender.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42906646/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Conservatives target program serving 120,000 women monthly

AUSTIN — A state health program that helps low-income women get birth control, Pap smears and cancer screenings could cease to exist as some lawmakers try to shore up their anti-abortion credentials.

About 120,000 women are covered monthly by the Women’s Medicaid Health Program, which must be renewed this year to continue. The state provides about $3 million annually to keep the program afloat and gets about $28 million in matching money from the federal government.

The Health and Human Services Commission estimates that, if renewed, the program would save the state about $84 million over the next two years by reducing unwanted pregnancies through contraceptives.

But conservative Republican state lawmakers, who have launched an

effort to cripple funding for abortion providers and “affiliate” organizations that work with them, are pushing a bill that could eliminate the program altogether.

A measure by state Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, would continue the health program but includes a provision that stipulates that it would cease to exist if organizations such as Planned Parenthood challenge the state in court and win access to funding.

“I think the election shows that a great majority of voters put people in office that do not want money to go to abortion providers or their affiliates,” Deuell said.

Deuell’s bill passed out of the Health and Human Services committee on a 5-1 vote and is headed to the full Senate.

State Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, cast the only vote against the bill.

Rodríguez said he opposes the bill because it cuts money for Planned Parenthood, which “has a track record and a history of providing services without complaints under the Women’s Health Program.”

By law, state and federal money for the program cannot be used for abortions.

Planned Parenthood provides abortions but has clinics that do not. Those clinics get funding through the program to offer women’s health services such as birth control and cancer screenings.

Rodríguez said his biggest concern with the bill is that if the state loses a lawsuit, the program could be eliminated entirely.

“We should have some kind of fallback position in the event that there is a successful challenge so that this program continues,” he said.

In 2005 the Legislature passed a bill establishing the Women’s Medicaid Health Program with an amendment that barred abortion providers or their affiliates from receiving funding.

Through the program, low-income women can visit a variety of health-care providers and get free health screenings, birth control and gynecological exams.

When the program was being implemented in 2007, lawyers from the Health and Human Services Commission said the exclusion of clinics that are connected in some way to abortion providers would not withstand a legal challenge. They advised the commission’s director to allow organizations such as Planned Parenthood to participate.

Since then, the attorney general has issued an opinion allowing the state to enforce the amendment. The state’s Health and Human Services Commission is now implementing measures that would bar organizations such as Planned Parenthood from receiving the money, officials said.

Planned Parenthood officials said that each year through the program their agency provides birth control and services such as cancer screenings to more than 40,000 women.

Peter Durkin, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, said the organization is “prepared to move forward with a lawsuit if that’s what it takes to continue to provide cervical cancer screenings and other health care to the women who depend on our health centers.”

The bill will have to get 21 votes to be heard on the Senate floor. That would require that at least two Democrats support the measure.

Republican lawmakers, as part of their anti-abortion platform, removed funding for women’s health and family planning services in the Texas House budget and have sought to advance similar measures in the Senate.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17986546?source=rss

Cash-Hungry States Could Eat Up Food Stamps

There’s a lot wrong with Republican Paul Ryan’s 2012 federal budget proposal, but one of its most heinous ideas is turning the federal food stamp program over to cash-strapped states.

That just won’t do.

Today, when states receive federal dollars for nutritional assistance those dollars can only go to that service. Ditto for low-income housing, home heating assistance, job training and school lunch programs.

Under proposed block-grant programs, however, federal funds would flow to states with few, if any, strings attached. A state could take all the fed’s money and use it to offset tax cuts to the rich, or build a golf course. Or whatever.

If nutritional programs are left to the states it’s easy to predict who’ll win and that women, in particular, will lose out.

The children who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are roughly 50-50 boys and girls–not that there’s anything to celebrate in gender-equitable child hunger. Among adults, however, women dominate: 65 percent of SNAP participants are women.

There are 9.3 million non-elderly female adults helped by SNAP, compared to 5.3 million non-elderly male adults. Fully twice as many elderly women are in the program: 1.8 million compared to 0.9 million elderly men.

Households with children receive 76 percent of all benefits, and of these 33 percent are headed by a single parent. You can guess the sex of the vast majority of them. That’s right, women.

Food Assistance Up

The number of households receiving food assistance is up 45 percent over 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program.

In March, nearly 15 percent of Americans participated in SNAP. A staggering 44 million people rely on this federally-funded program to feed themselves and their families.

The average monthly food stamps benefit is $284.73, down by $5 from last year. And food prices are rising. The Department of Agriculture projects food cost increases of between 3 and 4 percent during 2011. That’s over $9, or three gallons of milk a child won’t drink each month.

Another provision in the Ryan budget proposal eliminates the Workforce Investment Act, which funds 3,000 national job training centers serving over 8 million Americans a year.

This creates a Catch-22 for the millions out of work: You can only get food assistance if you are in a job training program, but whoops, there are no job training programs!

Ryan’s plan would convert monies currently dedicated to food assistance to block grants to the states, which could direct these funds to nutrition programs…or not.

Converting targeted grants to block grants–the fiscal policy backbone of President Ronald Reagan’s savaging of public programs–essentially wipes out the nation’s ability to target dollars to areas of critical need, such as food.

Disconnecting federal funds from specific state programs creates a host of expensive administrative problems as well.

Today, state programs follow rules and procedures established at the federal level. Changing over to block grants will require inventing 50 new wheels as once national programs devolve to the states.

Attacks on federal programs often invoke excess bureaucracy and red tape as a rationale for cutting. In this case, the cure is likely to be worse than the disease.

Proposed reductions in spending aimed specifically at nutrition assistance are part of social conservatives’ overall push to shrink government or “starve the beast.” But this plan actually starves real people and pushes the country backward, to a base and brutal have-and-have-not scenario.

http://www.womensenews.org/story/economyeconomic-policy/110428/cash-hungry-states-could-eat-food-stamps?page=0,1

Most educated U.S. women have most kids

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) — The fertility rate for mothers in 2009 was 2 children per woman, down 4 percent from 2008, which may be linked to the economy, the U.S. Census Bureau says.

However, the women who had the highest fertility rate are those with a graduate or professional degree and by states — there were 2.6 births per woman in Utah and 1.7 births per woman in Vermont.

In 2008, there were an estimated 85.4 million U.S. mothers and the vast majority lived with their own children, the Census Bureau says.

Ninety-four percent of the 37.8 million mothers living with children younger than age 18 in 2004 lived with their biological children only, 3 percent lived with stepchildren, 2 percent with an adopted child and less than 1 percent with a foster child.

Eighty-two percent of women ages 40-44 had given birth as of 2008, compared to 90 percent of women in this age group had given birth by 1976, the report says.

Hospitals were the most popular place to deliver a baby — of the some 4 million U.S. births, only 42,746 did not give birth in a hospital in 2008 with 28,357 mothers having her baby at home and 12,014 in a freestanding birthing center.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/05/03/Most-educated-US-women-have-most-kids/UPI-73521304448825/#ixzz1LMrfG4fk

More U.S. women using “morning-after” pill

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – More U.S. women seem to be using the “morning-after” pill now that the emergency contraceptive is available over-the-counter, a new study finds.

Researchers found that between 2006 and 2008, about twice as many women ages 15 to 44 said they had used emergency contraception, compared with four to six years earlier — when it was still restricted to prescription-only.

The emergency contraceptive Plan B has been available in the U.S. since 1999. The pills, which contain the hormone progestin, cut the risk of pregnancy after unprotected sex by stopping the ovaries from releasing an egg.

However, the contraceptive must be taken within 72 hours of having sex — and the sooner, the better. After the first 12 hours the risk of pregnancy increases by 50 percent.

So in 2006, after years of political controversy, the U.S. approved Plan B for “behind-the-counter” sales to adults — meaning they could get it from a pharmacy without waiting for a prescription. The age restriction was later lowered to 17 in 2009.

In the new study, researchers looked at data from a periodic government survey to see how national rates of emergency-contraception use may be changing.

They found that of more than 6,300 sexually active U.S. women surveyed between 2006 and 2008, nearly 10 percent said they had ever used emergency contraception.

That compared with a rate of about 4 percent among women surveyed in 2002, according to findings published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

“It has more than doubled since the last time the data were collected,” said Megan L. Kavanaugh, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute in New York who worked on the study.

However, she said in an interview, “its use still seems relatively low, given that it’s easy to access. So there’s room for improvement.”

Kavanaugh and her colleagues think that media attention is likely the reason for the increase in emergency-contraception use in 2006-2008.

The researchers found no change over time in the percentage of women who said their doctors had discussed emergency contraception with them. In both survey periods, 3

percent of women said they’d received such counseling in the past year.

That lack of change is not especially surprising, according to Kavanaugh, since smaller studies have suggested that health providers are not often bringing the topic up.

She suggested that women who want to learn more about emergency contraception ask their doctors — but as part of a discussion on all of their options for preventing unplanned pregnancy.

Emergency contraception is not intended as an alternative to routine, and more effective, birth-control options, like the Pill.

Instead, experts say, it should be used as a backup when routine birth-control fails — such as when a diaphragm slips, a condom breaks or a woman forgets to take her birth control pills. Emergency contraception is also used in cases of rape.

The hope, Kavanaugh noted, had been that emergency contraception would lower the national rate of unintended pregnancy. “But so far there’s no evidence that this is happening,” she said.

Regardless, Kavanaugh told Reuters Health, women should know that emergency birth control is an option.

“I think it’s important that the public be aware that, number one, emergency contraception exists, and that it’s available over the counter,” Kavanaugh said.

Along with the Plan B product One-Step, there is a generic equivalent called Next Choice available without a prescription. Side effects of both products include abdominal pain, fatigue, headache and nausea.

The current study was funded by government and private grants, and the researchers report no financial conflicts of interest.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110427/hl_nm/us_morning_pill_1

Mesa police: Officer used crime database to harass women

Mesa Police DepartmentTodd Duthie

A Mesa police officer has been indicted on charges of misusing a law-enforcement database to date and harass women he met on duty.

One of the women was a theft victim, and others were suspects he had pulled over for traffic violations.

The indictment came just a week after another Mesa police officer and his wife were indicted on felony mortgage fraud charges in an unrelated case.

 Mesa Police Chief Frank Milstead said he was “outraged” by the two cases and has placed both men on paid leave pending internal investigations.

Officer Todd Randall Duthie, an five-year veteran, was indicted on four felony counts of having unauthorized access to a state criminal history database and one misdemeanor count of harassment.

The charges stem from Duthie allegedly using his position to follow and score dates with four women, according to a police report.

Duthie’s attorney Scott Halverson declined to comment on the case and Duthie did not return a message left at his Queen Creek home.

Mesa police initially opened an internal investigation last fall after one of the women complained, a police report states. But once an investigator found Duthie may have violated the law, a criminal investigation was opened, Wessing said.

Duthie contacted the first woman Sept. 15, 2009, after she reported a theft at the Las Palmas Carniceria at 7246 E. Main Street, the report states. The officer then began calling her and stopping by the store and the woman’s residence.

A GPS system inside Duthie’s squad car tracked his movements as he repeatedly parked outside another woman’s house and as he continued to pull over two other women, who claim he tried to date them.

During a traffic stop with another woman July 8, 2010, Duthie reportedly said “I’m supposed to give you a ticket, but I won’t. Since I’m not . . . let me have a date or something,” the report states.

Duthie has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which came just a week after Officer Mark Anthony Escarcega and his wife Blanca were indicted on charges of mortgage fraud.

The charges stem from the purchase of a home in Mesa four years ago, authorities have stated.

Blanca Escarcega allegedly claimed she separated from her husband and received a mortgage loan modification from Bank of America stating the separation created a financial hardship, according to the Associated Press.

However, the couple never separated, and they purchased a new home and rented out the old one, court documents state.

Word of the Escarcegas’ housing deal reached the department and, sensing a crime had been committed, the FBI was contacted, Mesa police spokesman Sgt. Ed Wessing said.

The Escarcegas have also pleaded not guilty.

Wessing said the department is trying to remain as transparent as possible with officer misconduct cases.

“The public doesn’t need to worry that we have a corruption or misconduct issue. As an agency, we take these types of violation very seriously,” he said.

Wessing added that Milstead was furious when he learned of the initial internal investigation into Duthie’s activities.

“He was outraged that a member of our agency would conduct himself in that manner,” Wessing said. “When an officer engages in misconduct like this, it impacts all of us. We are as outraged as the community is.”

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/04/28/20110428mesa-police-officer-indicted-charges-harrassing-women0428.html#ixzz1KxYtgSsQ

Ex-DCPS Teacher Under Fire for Allegedly Sexually Assaulting Students

WASHINGTON (WUSA) — Last fall, a young woman filed a lawsuit claiming a teacher at her D.C. high school had inappropriate sexual relations with her and is the father of her child. The lawsuit claims DC schools did nothing to stop the encounters.

Thursday, lawyers for the young woman amended their complaint, alleging this same teacher had sexual relationships with at least four other students in the 1970s and 1980s.

“He whispered in my ear. He said, ‘If I was 30 years younger, I would marry you,’” said Ayanna Blue.

A witness in the case also stated, “We were in class, and we were playing indoor hockey, and he actually took the hockey stick and was trying to run it up the middle of my legs towards my private area.”

Another witness claimed, “It was a sexual relationship. And an emotional relationship, because he told me he loved me, he wanted to marry me, he wanted me to have his children.”

All three women say they are talking about the same former teacher, but they went to different schools in different districts, and their ages are three decades apart. Ayanna Blue is the youngest of the women.

Blue told 9NEWS NOW, “I was 18, and it was the year 2008 when I started going to Shadd.”

Transition Academy at Shadd is a public school for at-risk students in Southeast Washington, D.C.  It’s there Blue says that beginning in 2008 she had a five-month sexual relationship with her now 59-year-old English teacher, Robert Weismiller.

According to Blue, “Yeah, you could say it was a common thing… in school, around when the kids went to lunch, very often… in the classroom, in his classroom actually.”

Blue says she has living proof of the sexual relationship: her 16-month-old daughter.  According to the lawsuit Blue filed, Weismiller took a paternity test, and the result was positive.

One of the other women shared how she found out about Blue’s case. “My husband and I were in bed for the evening, and we were watching the news and… I heard the name Robert Weismiller, and I immediately sat up in bed… and I was like ‘this is unbelievable,’” she recalled.

This Virginia woman, who doesn’t want to give her name but is mentioned in Thursday’s filing, says the same Robert Weismiller sexually assaulted her in 1984 when she was an 8th grade student in Prince William County Public Schools.

She told 9NEWS NOW, “To find out that here it is still years later he’s with this young lady, to me it was mind blowing.”

A Maryland woman, who didn’t want to show her face on camera, said the same thing happened to her in 1976 when she was a 16-year-old student in Prince George’s County Public Schools.

“When I saw what had happened to Ms. Blue… I felt responsibility, because I wasn’t courageous enough to ever speak out about it,” she said.

Both women then contacted Blue’s attorney, Scott Gilbert, and are now potential witnesses in the lawsuit.

Gilbert told 9NEWS NOW, “We know so far, including DC, that there are a minimum of three school districts involved. We know counting Ayanna there is a minimum of five girls that were involved…There’s no question that there are other women who, when they were girls, were abused by this individual.”

Blue added, “I don’t want this to happen to nobody else. I want to put a stop to it.”

Weismiller has not returned any of our phone calls but according to court documents he filed in response to the original complaint, you can see he denies any wrongdoing.

He was laid off in October 2009 as part of Michelle Rhee’s layoffs. As for DC Public Schools, a spokeswoman says the District doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation. So far, both Prince William and Prince George’s County Public Schools have also declined to comment.

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=148660

Students Arrested at Protest to Save Academy for Pregnant and Mothering Teens

When the school day ended on April 15^th, a group of students and teachers from Detroit Public Schools’ Catherine Ferguson Academy didn’t go home as usual. Instead, they settled in and made themselves comfortable, preparing to occupy their school for as long as possible. CFA is a school for pregnant and mothering teens, one of few of its kind in the country. Thanks to an on-site daycare and on-site prenatal care, young women there are able to integrate motherhood with education. An organic urban farm on the campus offers the students the chance to provide healthy, fresh food for their kids while learning about environmental sustainability at the same time. And while national drop-out rates for pregnant high school students are around 70 percent , CFA boasts an astounding 90 percent graduation rate—and 100 percent of the graduates go on to college. For young women with the odds so severely stacked against them—who, as young women of color, primarily from low-income backgrounds, were already facing an uphill socioeconomic battle even before becoming pregnant–CFA offers hope and opportunity they would never dream of having otherwise. And thanks to Detroit Public Schools’ financial manager Robert Bobb, the school is scheduled to permanently close its doors this summer. That’s why students decided to take matters into their own hands, staging an occupation of the school they love. “When people at my regular high school realized that I was pregnant, I was told my chances of being a success in life were over,” said Ashley Matthews, a junior at CFA. “At Catherine Ferguson, they told me they wouldn’t allow me to be anything BUT a success. I love CFA, and I am prepared to fight to keep it open, not only for myself, but for all the girls who will come behind me.”  

I was part of a group of protestors on the outside of the school—ready to speak to media or law enforcement, draw attention to the cause, and support the girls in any way they requested. When I spent some time inside with friends delivering bread and peanut-butter, the girls (some who had their small children inside) were serious and organized, but at the same time in high-spirits. They played CDs over the loudspeaker and danced down the halls as they stockpiled food and water in a classroom and hung signs in the windows that read “We’re Inside CFA And We’re Not Leaving.” They were young girls embarking on an adventure, but at the same time fully aware—probably far more aware than the people in positions of power and privilege—of just what was at stake. And it was completely inspiring to see these girls standing up and taking direct action, refusing to be silent and powerless.

Outside, it wasn’t long before we heard rumors that police were on the way. The students decided they preferred for us to continue supporting them from the outside, and barricaded themselves in the library while we did our best to keep watch at every entrance to the building. Initially just a few officers arrived, followed shortly by news vans. But when it became clear that the occupiers were not going to leave willingly, the officers quickly radioed in for backup. I’ve witnessed abuses and excesses by law enforcement in the past. But I was still shocked to see at least ten police cruisers arrive at the school, while what seemed like dozens of officers stormed in the front doors as if charging in to break up a violent, hostile riot instead of a peaceful, unarmed sit-in being staged by teenage girls. And even still—while they drove their cars up on to the lawn, surrounding us and blaring their sirens in an attempt to disperse the crowd—I kept thinking to myself: there is no way they are going to arrest those girls. It simply seemed too cruel a possibility to even imagine, that after everything these girls had already been through, they would be hauled off to jail—some in front of their small children—for an act of desperate and peaceful resistance, motivated only by a desire to go to school.

Unfortunately, my hopes turned out to be terribly naïve. It’s difficult to even describe the experience of watching those girls—some as young as fourteen—being dragged out of their school in handcuffs. I’ve seen friends taken away in handcuffs for peacefully protesting before; it is an experience that I find induces an adrenaline-fueled mixture of rage and desperation, an impassioned drive for action rolled up in a crushing sense of powerlessness. But watching that same thing happen to such young women—who have already been so disadvantaged by the society we live in—was like that experience multiplied by a thousand. Words fail to articulate how heartbreaking and infuriating it was to witness such a disgusting injustice.

Fortunately, at least, the girls were ticketed and released quickly rather than being slapped with misdemeanor trespassing charges. But that hardly seems like a bright spot when considering how far beyond ridiculous it is that they were ever arrested and taken to jail in the first place. In interviews on the eleven o’clock news, school officials and law enforcement stated that they understood the girls’ frustration, but that this kind of action is no way to go about getting the point across, and suggested that perhaps the girls should instead write financial manager Robert Bobb a letter. What the students of CFA know, of course, and what all successful civil rights activists throughout history have known, is that some things call for more than just writing a letter, signing a petition, putting in a call to a local representative. “Desperate times call for desperate measures” might be a bit of a cliché, but it’s also the truth. CFA is the one thing offering these young mothers—and all those who will come after them—hope for the future. Without this school, chances are they will always struggle just to meet their families’ basic needs, or they will end up dangerously financially dependent on men. CFA offers an alternative. CFA teaches these girls that whatever choices they’ve made, it’s not too late to have dreams and goals and aspirations, and that motherhood needn’t mean giving up on those things. CFA doesn’t treat teen moms as statistics, but as human beings with their own desires and potential. These girls have every reason to feel as though they’re fighting for their lives. And that’s not something to just sit at home and write a letter about. “As a teacher, I can find another job,” said Nicole Conway, a CFA science teacher who made the choice to join her students in the occupation, “but for my students, if Catherine Ferguson closes, there are no alternatives.”

In a city with a graduation rate of just 62 percent–and that’s after a dramatic increase in the past few years—it is painfully ironic that the students of CFA have been criminalized for desperately fighting for an education. But if any good can possibly come of last Friday’s events, I hope at the very least to draw nationwide attention to these young women and their ongoing fight, and to send a message to Robert Bobb not just from Detroit but from around the country that closing CFA is simply unconscionable. The rights of young women to an education are not expendable, and they do not suddenly become expendable when those young women become young mothers.

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/04/18/students-arrested-protest-save-catherine-ferguson-academy-pregnant-mothering-teens

Photos released of women who stole groceries in Newark

Newark police are asking the public’s help in identifying two women who reporting stole about $1,000 worth of merchandise Saturday at an area grocery store.

They released photos from the store’s video surveillance system today.

The incident occurred about 10:20 a.m. at the Pathmark in the College Square Shopping Center, said Newark police spokesman Lt. Mark Farrall.

The women reportedly loaded up their shopping car with diapers, body cleansing products and laundry detergent and then walked out of the story without paying for the groceries.

Two Pathmark employees approached the suspects in the parking lot as they were loading the stolen items into their car but they drove off.

The car is described as an older model white Toyota Camry with no license plate and a broken rear passenger side window that had been taped.

The car was last seen driving out of the shopping center toward Marrows Road, Farrall said.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110425/NEWS01/110425025/1003/rss01

Indiana and Illinois women make thousands less per year than men

Full-time working women in Indiana and Illinois make on average about $11,500 less than their male counterparts, according to U.S. Census Data.

Women in both states worked until April 11, 2011, to earn what their male equivalents did in 2010, as men’s weekly paychecks tally about $150 more than women.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the pay issue has been improving over the past few decades — from women making 62 percent as much as men in 1979 to making about 80 percent in 2009.

That gap is closing at a rate of less than half a cent each year, and discrimination issues recently have come to a head with what could be the largest class-action lawsuit in history. Female Walmart workers who were employed any time after 1998 are trying to sue the corporate giant on a variety of discrimination claims — including that it does not pay women as much as men or offer equal opportunities for promotions.

Walmart is arguing the class-action suit is too large and covers a variety of situations that cannot be lumped into one case. The U.S. Supreme Court, which heard arguments at the end of March, will decide whether the federal case can continue encompassing such a large pool of plaintiffs.

An employee at a Lake County Walmart, who would not give her name for fear of retaliation, said there are a lot of discriminatory practices that go on at the store. But she said women feel stuck and are scared to speak out to anyone.

“What can we do?” she said. “Work. Because we need to make our money.”

Walmart did not respond to requests for comment.

Identifying discrimination is not easy because it is difficult to define equality when no two people are exactly alike, said Jaishankar Raman, an associate professor of economics at Valparaiso University.

“That’s part of the problem,” he said. “It is very easy to justify the woman is doing something different and the man is doing something different, and the man gets a higher salary than the woman.”

The wage gap is perpetuated when employers claim the skill needed for one position is slightly different from the other, he said, when in practice they are essentially the same.

Companies actually try to keep gender and race out of the equation when doing salary audits, human resource veteran Desila Rosetti said.

“(Salary) shouldn’t be based as much on the person as it should be based on the position,” said Rosetti, who now owns the Chesterton employee training and development company, Organizational Development Solutions Inc.

And because salary is typically viewed as personal information, many employees might not know if a disparity exists.

“Usually it doesn’t hit you like a board,” Rosetti said. “Usually you don’t even know that it’s happened, at least until someone brings it to your attention. Then it’s your job as a manager, not just as the director of HR, to go back and look at those things.”

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/illinois/cb05230f-d33a-5b3c-b5c4-405f5f8ebbc6.html