2012 Silver Wings Award Winner

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The Rev. Dr. Doug Wadkins recieves the 2012 Silver Wings Award from Linda McCarthy, Executive Director of Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood and Rev. Vincent Lachina, Regional Chaplain for Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest.

The Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest Silver Wings Award is presented annually to one outstanding clergy person who has made exceptional contributions and given support to the mission of reproductive justice and the work of Planned Parenthood in the Northwest (Washington, Idaho and Alaska). The four Planned affiliates who serve women, men and teens in the Northwest select one remarkable woman or man from among the many faith communities and traditions in our region for this unique recognition.

The 2012 Silver Wings Award recipient is the Rev. Dr. Doug Wadkins, minister at Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship. Rev. Wadkins has been a staunch supporter of Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood for many years. As an active participant in the Bellingham progressive clergy group and a key member of Mt. Baker’s “Love and Faith Project,” Doug has been a leader in bringing together faith and reproductive justice.

Also receiving nominations this year were The Rev. Elizabeth Patrick, an American Baptist minister in Seattle, and The Rev. Connie Jones, a United Methodist minister in Anchorage. Both of these remarkable women have exhibited strong and compassionate support for Planned Parenthood. It is this type of support from our faith communities and leaders that helps to build on the important work of our mission.


President Obama supports marriage equality–and we do too

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The news and social media sites have been overtaken by the announcement today that President Barack Obama supports equal marriage. This is very exciting for Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest in Alaska, Idaho and Washington, especially as we have been working very hard on LGBT issues in all three states this year.

Before I go into those, some have asked why Planned Parenthood supports equal marriage and rights for all sexual orientations and gender identities. The answer is simple, really–just as decisions about a woman’s health should be left to her, her family, her doctor and her faith, all loving and committed couples deserves to have the rights and protections afforded by civil marriage.

We support sexually healthy communities, individual privacy and personal freedom. That includes the right to be free of discrimination and the right to marry.

It’s an apt time that this announcement was made today because the One Anchorage campaign to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Anchorage Municipal Human Rights Act in Alaska is facing a ballot recount today. The One Anchorage initiative lost the night of the April 3 election. However, temporary ballot shortages at about half the city’s precincts, along with unusually high voter turnout, caused many to feel that something was amiss. A recount has been ordered at 15 of the 119 total precincts.

Also, the campaign for marriage equality in Washington State is kicking into high gear, as their fundraiser “Get Engaged to Defend Marriage Equality” is now one month away — June 9 at 6pm. We are part of a broad coalition of supporters who will be at the table supporting Washington United for Marriage’s efforts to preserve marriage equality. Though a law was passed making it legal for same-sex couples to get married in Washington State, signatures are being collected by those against marriage to fight it. With the total signatures expected to be above the small amount needed to get the referendum on the ballot, we anticipate working to approve Referendum 74 in the fall.


Elaine’s Blog: News from the Barricades

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No war on women’s health? We wish.

By Elaine Taylor Rose, CEO Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest

When RNC Chairman Reince Priebus made a statement last week that the GOP’s War on Women is “fictional” and no more real than a “war on caterpillars,” he could not have been further from the truth.

Alaska’s own GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski knows that isn’t true. She told the Chamber of Commerce in Homer Alaska, “If you don’t feel this is an attack, you need to go home and talk to your wife and daughters.” Murkowski herself must have had a heart to heart with the wives and daughters in Alaska, because she has publicly admitted regret for one of the greatest attacks on women’s health passed by the House in Congress, the Blunt Amendment, which would have allowed any employer to determine what health insurance coverage their employees can access based on religious beliefs.

Murkowski has also criticized GOP presidential candidates for not condemning Rush Limbaugh for calling Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” for speaking out about a lack of access to affordable birth control at her Catholic University. Though he later apologized, Murkowski expressed her frustration that the candidates did not “condemn the rhetoric” of his “slurs.”

I think Sen. Murkowski is spot on and that Mr. Priebus is living in a fantasy world of his own making. Consider the recent attacks on women’s health, just in our three states:

  1. Idaho lawmakers tried to pass a bill requiring a mandatory ultrasound prior to an abortion The bill, S 1387, prompted a massive outcry because not only was it a government invasion into private medical decisions, but it required a transvaginal ultrasound, made no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, had no medical emergency exceptions, and potentially violated Idaho’s privacy laws.
  2. The first proposed Senate Republican budget in Washington cut family planning funding by 93%, which would have eliminated almost all of the state-only Department of Health funds for birth control and cancer screenings for women. Luckily, the final budget did not include cuts thanks to our dedicated supporters, but the cut gave us a taste of what anti-women’s health foes have in mind for Washington.
  3. Alaska Representative Wes Keller introduced a bill that sought to eliminate public funding for abortion in most cases. The bill, HB 363, completely disregarded two Supreme Court rulings that protect abortion access for poor women in Alaska.

Not to mention all of the federal attacks: The attempted defunding Planned Parenthood, cuts to Medicaid that would hurt families, redefining rape, and the recent hold up of the Violence Against Women Act in the House.

These attacks are very much real. These policies are designed to shame and demean women by taking away their ability to make their own health care decisions and grant that control to the government and politicians.  If this isn’t a war I don’t know what is.  Senator Murkowski is right and Mr. Priebus is flat out wrong.


Final Washington budget makes NO CUTS to family planning

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Legislators worked through the night to pass a final budget that makes no further cuts to family planning, which is a major victory for low-income families and women in Washington State. Birth control and life-saving breast cancer screenings are now protected in this budget until the end of the biennium in June of 2013. Over 12,500 women were in jeopardy of losing services if the previously proposed Senate Republican budget had passed, at a cost of $12.3 million in unintended pregnancies starting right away.

“This is fantastic news for the women of Washington, and a true win for our state’s budget,” said Jennifer Allen, Director of Public Policy for Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest. “Our legislators recognize that cuts to family planning only increase the budget burden on our state, as every $1 cut costs the state $4.10 in unintended pregnancy costs starting within the same year.”

Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest supporters and activists worked tirelessly to contact legislators during the regular and special session. Women’s health advocates across the state made over 50,000 contacts to legislators by phone, email and in person visits. Volunteers contributed over 3,700 hours of their time and made unceasing efforts to encourage legislators not to compromise on women’s health up until the very end.

“After facing four cuts in three years, our supporters have a lot to be proud of for all the hard work they put in to ensure the safety net for women and families is maintained,” said Dana Laurent, Field Director of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest. “Our representatives know that standing up this way for women’s health and rights at a time when those rights are under attack across the country makes a statement. Washington is not a place where we will stand for the destruction of women’s basic health care access.”

“Anti-women’s health legislators fought hard to cut family planning, but our champions for women’s health in the legislature prevailed,” said Elaine Rose, CEO of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest. “Women are watching, and come November, they will be voting.”

Unfortunately, the Reproductive Parity Act was never brought to a vote during the special session. The bill, HB 2330 / SB 6185, would have required that all insurance plans in Washington State that cover maternity care also cover abortion. As the Affordable Care Act moves forward, this simple bill would ensure that Washington women don’t lose the health insurance coverage for abortion that they have today. The Reproductive Parity Act passed the House during the regular session before being caught up in the Senate Republican coup over budget issues.

“We made a huge amount of progress in drawing attention to the abortion access and coverage that women will lose if we don’t take action on this issue,” said Allen. “We would have liked to see the Reproductive Parity Act passed in 2012, but we are extremely proud of the progress we made, and we will not give up on protecting Washington women from losing access to equal coverage for all of their pregnancy choices, including abortion.”

Rep. Eileen Cody (D-34) is the prime sponsor of HB 2330, which was supported by a coalition including Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, Legal Voice and NOW. Starting in 2014, everyone will be required to have health insurance coverage, but unfortunately, anti-choice provisions in the federal Affordable Care Act will make it more difficult for insurance carriers to continue offering abortion coverage.  In some states that have enacted restrictions similar to those in the Affordable Care Act, insurance coverage for abortion has entirely disappeared from the market.  Since nearly every insurance plan in Washington today covers abortion, this means that women who currently have coverage for all of their legal pregnancy choices – prenatal care as well as abortion coverage – are likely to lose their coverage for abortion, and women entering the insurance market may not be able to purchase coverage that includes abortion.  This increases gender disparities in health care by increasing women’s out of pocket health care costs, and effectively coerces pregnancy decision-making through women’s insurance coverage.  The Reproductive Parity Act is critical to preserve the access women have today and continue Washington’s long history of support for reproductive health and rights.

 

BUDGET BACKGROUND:

Under all three of the budgets approved by the Washington House, as well as the budget proposed by the Senate Democrats, no additional cuts to family planning were made. The Governor’s budget proposed $1.8 million in cuts to family planning funding, which would have eliminated birth control and cancer screening services from 7,500 people. The Senate Republicans’ original budget proposal cut family planning by $6 million, which would have eliminated services for 25,000 low-income Washingtonians and cost the state nearly $25 million in new unintended pregnancy care costs, and the second Senate Republican budget proposal revised that cut to $3 million.  Ultimately, the legislature made the most fiscally responsible decision regarding family planning, which was to protect the struggling women and families and protect the state’s budget by preventing any additional cuts to family planning.

Funding for family planning has already been dramatically and disproportionately reduced in recent years. Since 2005, nearly $16 million per year in public funding has been cut from Washington’s low-income family planning programs due to state and federal reductions. In 2011, an additional $2.25 million in state family planning dollars was cut, eliminating health care such as life-saving cancer screenings and birth control for 10,000 women, and costing the state $9 million. Over the past three years, 8 family planning health centers have been closed in Washington State, reducing access to birth control and life-saving cancer screenings for thousands of people.

Washington legislators also  recognized family planning as a cost-saving solution to our state budget during the 2011 legislative session when they passed Senate Bill 5912—which asks the federal government for permission to increase income eligibility for Medicaid family planning services from 200-250% of the Federal Poverty Level. The state Medicaid office has not yet secured approval from the Center for Medicaid Services for this change, but anticipates approval later this spring. Through the passage of this commonsense bill, legislators booked a savings to our state budget of at least $3.85 million for the current biennium’s budget.

 


AK Rep. Wes Keller’s “Question” on Planned Parenthood and the Girl Scouts

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Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, held up a resolution honoring 100 years of Girl Scouts and celebrating the Year of the Girl Thursday in the House State Affairs Committee, according to multiple news sources.

“I’m sure you are aware of the information that’s floating around the Internet, and I’d like to give you the opportunity to respond to your connection, the Girl Scout connection, with Planned Parenthood and the activist role in that — is there a connection?” Keller asked, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

When news of the statement broke, women and men across Alaska expressed their discontent, and opinion/news columnists from Julia O’Malley (“Can someone explain this to me?”) to Shannyn Moore (“Shame on him.”) to Jeanne Devon (“Unbelievable.”) expressed disbelief at the statement.

To hold up a resolution so completely benign as the support of the Girl Scouts over anti-choice, anti-women unfounded rumors on the Internet is the definition of using his legislative position to further his own biased belief system.

Planned Parenthood shares the Girl Scouts of the USA’s commitment to promoting self-confidence and good-decision making skills that will help girls make wise choices in all areas of their lives. The same groups that pressured Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to take away funding for breast cancer screenings for low-income patients at Planned Parenthood are now targeting Girl Scout Troops.

But just as they did with Komen, these political pressure groups are promoting falsehoods in order to pursue their own political agenda. There is no national partnership between Planned Parenthood and the Girl Scouts. The only link in common is that we both support trusted and healthy conversations about sex education from professionally trained sexuality educators that offer parents and their children programs and resources to communicate.

Rep. Wes Keller has since issued a press release stating that he “just asked a question,” but a question intended to fan the flames of the ongoing attacks on women’s health is more than just a question–it’s a partisan attack, and no one will stand for it.


How we Won in Idaho: The story of PPVNW beating the ultrasound bill

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Editor’s Note: Updated reference specifies national sympathetic blogs. Changes in bold.

The Idaho state legislature is known as one of the most conservative in the country, with numerous laws on the books that attack women’s health, including a 20-week ban on abortion passed in 2011. Only 21 of our 105 legislators are pro-choice. We knew going into the 2012 legislature we would be playing defense. The reality is that in the conservative Idaho legislative session we have to fight to even get meetings with certain legislators, and we have a difficult time finding more than 20 or 30 supporters and community members to attend hearings and events.

But this year was different.

In the last couple days of the legislative session, we succeeded in stopping two anti-choice bills — one that would have allowed any employer to deny birth control coverage for women for any reason, and another that would have mandated ultrasounds prior to any abortion. But we changed the face of our work in the State House.

The story about our success in Idaho begins with a plan to capitalize on the national debate and dialogue over anti-choice members of the U.S. Congress and Republican presidential candidates’ extreme positions on women’s health.

From the beginning, we knew we needed to reach out to supporters in the field, and work with the media to fan the flames of a national public outcry that bubbled over into Idaho (via Virginia). Our coordinated campaign included volunteer phone banks from October through the end of the session, and over 30,000 paid calls and several mail pieces sent to our target legislative districts. We organized over 23 events around the state, including a successful lobby day, and massive turnout at hearings, rallies, and vigils, with hundreds of supporters in attendance. The testimony at some of these hearings was so powerful that even the national media began to take notice. The country began to realize that the Idaho legislature was going too far.

Things began to shift in our favor during the Senate floor debate on an ultrasound bill that resulted in a 23-12 vote in favor of the legislation. State Senator Chuck Winder, sponsor of the bill, said in response to criticism that the proposed legislation did not include a rape exception:

“Rape and incest was used as a reason to oppose this. I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician, with a rape issue, that that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy cause by normal relations in a marriage, or was it truly caused by rape. I assume that’s part of the counseling that goes on.”

That remark resulted in a media firestorm not just here in Idaho, but in news outlets across the country. We knew there was power in pushing this story out to a broader audience, and connected with national feminist blogs who were sympathetic to the cause. We also worked with local reporters to send regular on-the-ground and timely updates. The goal was to shed light on the reality of the situation in the same way that Virginia’s mandatory ultrasound was depicted by the national media with their intrusive mandatory ultrasound bill. Our packed events on the ground combined with a robust media strategy brought attention to what was transpiring in our state. Stories were published in Jezebel, Huffington Post, and even Ed Schultz on MSNBC began to talk about it.

After the national media spotlight turned to Idaho, and after the anti-choice groups staged an ultrasound “demonstration” (read circus!) in the State House, the House Republicans cancelled the hearing scheduled by the House State Affairs Committee. After days of waiting to learn the final fate of the bill, on Tuesday morning the chair of the committee announced the bill was dead and said, “The big problem that’s been identified is the mandatory ultrasound.”

We couldn’t agree more!

(As seen on Women are Watching blog)


Save the Date! May 2 is our Luncheon.

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Join us at our WOMEN OF COURAGE Luncheon.

Valerie Plame Wilson, the best-selling author and outed former CIA agent, will be speaking during our annual Luncheon, May 2, at the Convention Center.

2012 is simply a fight we cannot afford to lose. Women are watching. Women are voting. And women will be counting on Planned Parenthood to stand with them and fight for the candidates that represent our values.

Please join us, and contribute to the cause of standing up for women’s reproductive health in all of Washington!


Join us! Valerie Plame Wilson will speak at the 15th Annual Luncheon

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The political and advocacy work we do helping elect champions like Sen. Patty Murray and Governor Chris Gregoire cannot be done without you, our donors.

That is why we invite you to our 15th Annual Luncheon, featuring special guest Valerie Plame Wilson. Plame Wilson is famously known as the outed CIA Operations Officer during George W. Bush’s presidency, and is a best-selling author of the book Fair Game.

The luncheon will take place on May 2 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle. Tell your friends, your family, your neighbors and everyone you know! Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest wants to continue advocating on behalf of women’s health and rights with your kind contribution. Please purchase your tickets here.


Idaho Broadcasts Ultrasounds Live at the Statehouse

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In a new twist of attacks on women’s health, the Idaho legislature will be viewing live ultrasounds tomorrow at noon, courtesy of a limited service pregnancy center.

Hannah Brass, our legislative director at Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, released this statement on the absurd political stunt:

“Broadcasting an ultrasound isn’t testimony—it’s political theater. Tomorrow’s unprecedented ultrasound display at the Idaho statehouse has nothing to do with women’s health or women’s safety, but instead has everything to do with scoring political points.

“This is a political stunt using women’s health as theater and women’s bodies as a stage. Politicians in Boise have no business playing politics with women’s health in this way.

“Forcing doctors to use ultrasounds for political, and not medical, reasons is the very definition of government intrusion.  Women who seek to terminate a pregnancy do so prior to 12 weeks gestation 90 percent of the time. An abdominal ultrasound would not provide the detail or the heart beat sounds required by law.

“This should be a wake up call to women and men in Idaho that the real purpose of this bill is to put politicians between women and their doctors, making government intrusion into personal health care decisions the new norm.”

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Please see national media attention on this issue:

New York Times

RH Reality Check: Idaho Demonstrates How They Do It Trans-Vaginally

Huffington Post: Sen. Chuck Winder on Women Who are Raped

 


The War on Women has come to Alaska

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Women’s health is under attack!

In 1970, Alaska was one of the first states to pass a bill legalizing abortion. Decisions from our State Supreme Court have consistently upheld a woman’s right to make reproductive health decisions without government intrusion, including abortion. Yet today, the Alaska Legislature is wasting time introducing bills that mandate unnecessary medical procedures and restrict access to abortion.

From Texas to Virginia, we have seen states mocked for proposing mandatory ultrasound bills for women seeking abortion that have nothing to do with women’s health, and everything to do with shaming and demeaning women. Now, Alaska has entered into the fray as well. Our new ultrasound bill, SB 191, mandates that the physician perform an ultrasound regardless of its medical necessity prior to performing an abortion—even though the Alaska Supreme Court has stated repeatedly that Alaska laws may not place unnecessary burdens on a woman’s right to an abortion. Forcing doctors to perform ultrasounds for political and not medical reasons is the definition of government intrusion.

Last week, Representative Wes Keller introduced a bill that seeks to eliminate public funding for abortion in most cases. HB363, which will be heard on Thursday, forbids full disclosure of pregnancy options and referrals for abortions, in flagrant violation of requirements made by federal funding laws. But Abortion is a fundamental right in Alaska, as protected by two State Supreme Court rulings in 1997 and 2001. Any law limiting access, particularly one such as HB363 that targets poor women, is an attack on our Alaskan values:  individual freedom from government interference, privacy and fair treatment under the law.

“Any attempt to restrict abortion access for poor women is blatant government reach into women’s private, personal decision-making,” said Clover Simon. “Our legislators would be better off focusing on what we can do to provide family planning services to all Alaskan women, which  would reduce the need for abortion, instead of participating in the ongoing attack on women’s health.”

Are Alaskan legislators denouncing these attacks on women’s health? Certainly not Rep. Alan Dick, who advocated for criminalizing women who have an abortion without the signature of the man who impregnated her.: “…If I thought that uh, the man’s signature was required, required! in order for a woman to have an abortion, I’d have a little more peace about it…”  [emphasis included by Rep. Dick]

Showing no regard for the health and safety of women and their choices, including victims of domestic violence or rape, like-minded legislators would set the clock back to a time where women were the property of men.

Alaska should not be the place for the next frontier on the national war on women. As a state, we need to focus on continued revenue generation, addressing critical health care issues like children’s health and other public health issues in our state, and ensuring that all Alaskans are afforded the rights put in place by our constitution regardless of their socioeconomic status.

Take action now to tell Alaska legislators to vote NO on HB 363!