These billboards continually sadden me because it is an example of a group that refuses to extend the common trust while demanding it from everyone else.  Without fact or understanding, The Radiance Foundation undermines the independence and liberty of all women who decide to have an abortion, minority women especially, for their decision.  Furthermore, instead of investing in options and programs that could ease the burden of those who would prefer to carry a pregnancy to term, they invest in condemnation.  The Radiance Foundation’s campaign is meant to imply or reinforce the notion that these women are abusing the liberty and independence of others.  This is done to justify the persecution of women who chose abortion, when in fact these women are having their liberty and independence abused.

As of last month, a Republican majority controls the House of Representatives, and it has already launched significant attacks on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights at home and abroad. We wanted to share with you CHANGE’s thoughts on what’s happening and what’s to come, both the challenges and the opportunities.

What Does a Republican Majority in House of Representatives Mean for Women’s Health?

• Republicans now set the agenda, make the rules, and lead the committees. In addition, the majority of representatives in the current House, both Democrat and Republican, oppose international family planning and reproductive health funding and services. This means the Republican majority is now poised to set an anti-women’s health agenda that could muster enough votes to pass in the House and move on to the Senate. They have already started—Rep. Chris Smith (R-New Jersey) recently introduced a bill that significantly limits access to safe abortion in the United States (take action here). CHANGE expects this trend to continue during the tenure of the Republican leadership.

• Republicans now Lead all Committees and Subcommittees: Many of these new leaders pose significant threats to international family planning and reproductive health funding and services. Some committee leaders to watch include:
  • Rep. Kay Granger, R-12th/Texas. Rep. Granger is the new chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs. In this role, she oversees spending on U.S. foreign aid, which includes global women’s health programs. She defines herself as a supporter of maternal health, but is anti-choice. 
  • Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R- 18th/Florida. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen is the new chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She has already stated that her top priority is to cut foreign assistance funds, including funding for global women’s health. She also defines herself as a supporter of maternal health, but is anti-choice.
  • Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th/New Jersey. Rep. Smith is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. He is also among the most extreme anti-choice members of Congress, and is responsible for H.R. 3, the previously mentioned bill that will limit access to safe abortion. While Smith is seen by some as an ardent supporter of women’s and human rights because of his anti-trafficking work, his track record in Congress is consistently anti-women’s health. Legislation that is introduced in the House pertaining to global health will have to pass through his subcommittee.

The good news: Anti-choice leaders can only take their agenda so far. The Senate and administration limit the chances of hostile legislation becoming law. Legislation that passes the House must also pass the Senate, which maintains a slim pro-women’s health majority. President Obama must also sign legislation before it becomes law, and his administration remains solidly in support of women’s health and rights, domestically and internationally. 

What can you do? Gear up for action!
We will need you this year! CHANGE expects the Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act will be re-introduced in the new Congress, which will be an essential tool for education and advocacy. We need to show anti-choice leaders our strength. We have support for our issues in the administration, and will continue our advocacy with members of Congress. We will depend on you to raise your voice at pivotal moments and support international family planning, maternal health, and HIV/AIDS funding and services for women worldwide!

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Dear Mr. Butler:

Recently it came to my attention that The Great Dane provided a charitable donation seen as inappropriate by some in our community.  The donation was to NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin.  This came to my attention on Facebook, from friends who posted this link: http://blog.prolifewisconsin.org/2011/02/02/the-great-danes-defense-of-supporting-naral/ from Pro-Life Wisconsin’s blog, which included your letter.

All I can say is thank you.  Thank you for supporting organizations that make our communities better places to live.  Thank you for using your business to demonstrate your commitment to ensuring that our future has as much promise as our past.  Thank you for living JFK’s charge of “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”  Thank you for your courage and conviction.

I have always enjoyed visiting The Great Dane for the great food, drink and atmosphere.  As a result of your response to this challenge, I am please to tell you that I now consider myself a proud patron of your establishment.  I very much look forward to my next visit to The Great Dane and will definitely bring a friend.

Sincerely,

Frances Irwin

Wausau, WI

P.S.  I’m having a Ladies’ Night In later this month.  I was just going to make desserts and mull some wine.  Now I’m adding appetizers from The Great Dane and a growler to the menu in appreciation of your trust in women!

GRAND FORKS — Like Rod Lammer, I too have noticed the 40 Days for Life campaign’s signs urging North Dakotans to “pray and fast to end abortion” (“Advice for the faithful: Trust but verify,” letter, Page A4, Sept. 30).

I found myself asking how prayer and fasting compares to proven means of reducing abortions.

Unlike comprehensive sex education and access to birth control, neither prayer nor fasting has been shown to prevent abortion. Instead of depriving one’s self of nourishment or mentally soliciting supernatural intervention, individuals opposed to abortion should make contraceptives available and ensure that consumers know how to use them correctly.

But it’s no secret that access to contraception and complete sex education programs face the greatest resistance from Catholics and other religious conservatives.

Presumably, most people who display these “pray and fast” signs would like elective abortion to be illegal. But outlawing abortion doesn’t “end” it. A 2007 comprehensive international study by the World Health Organization and the Guttmacher Institute found that women undergo abortions at a comparable rate in nations where abortion is outlawed. The only effect of outlawing abortion is a greatly increased number of women who are maimed or killed from unsafe attempts.

The data from this and countless other studies shows that the best way to reduce abortions is through greater access to birth control.

Correctly using contraception almost completely eliminates the risk of unplanned pregnancy, but contraception and information won’t stop abortion if it isn’t made available. Randomized controlled studies have shown that abstinence-only programs lead to higher percentages of unplanned pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections among teens.

Religious conservatives are doing a great disservice to their sons and daughters by keeping them uninformed.

We can all agree that unplanned pregnancies must be reduced to “end” abortion. Let’s invest our precious energy only in the most effective ways of doing so: sex education and birth control, not prayer or fasting.

Meg Brown

 I’m old enough to remember the “first” go round at health care reform back in 1993.  At the time, I believed that everyone had health insurance through work (like my parents) and I couldn’t fathom why the government couldn’t just give health care to the few people who didn’t have it.  (As a note to my readers, at the time I applied this same level of understanding to the provision of other basic need items like food, shelter, clothing and the latest Nirvana and Pearl Jam CDs.  I was, after all, 11.)  This time around, I know that we can’t wait another sixteen years to try again and that we have to figure out more than how to pay for it.

I’ve learned that under our current system, paying for health care doesn’t always mean getting health care and that paying a lot doesn’t guarantee better health care.  With deterrents like high deductibles, co-pays, prior-authorization, pre-existing conditions, and excluded services (to name a few), it is easy to understand how that happens.  $5000 for a family deductible may seem affordable to a Congressperson making $174,000 in a year, but when I consider that the median income for an American family is $50,233 per year, that deductible seems daunting for starters.  Furthermore, plans with deductibles that high almost always have co-pays and other hidden costs that continue to apply after the deductible is paid.  I think the first thing we should do to insure American families is guarantee affordability.  I define affordable as less than 7% of a family’s income – and that’s total cost, not just out of pocket expenses.  This will enable a family to use the insurance they have.

 Beyond making health care affordable, reform must provide Americans with the benefits they need.  For women, this is particularly critical.  Primary and preventive health care access is a given.  Beyond that, women need to have access to comprehensive health care.  This is particularly true when it comes to reproductive and sexual health.  Health care reform plans must include the following provisions for reproductive and sexual health:

• Confidential Care
• Choice of health care provider that is not limited by an HMO or PPO network
• Family planning education and methods
• Preconception Care
• Prenatal Care
• Labor and Delivery Care
• Access to hospital and non-hospital birth settings
• Postpartum care
• Miscarriage management
• Abortion and related after-care
• Prevention and/or testing and/or diagnosis and or/treatment of sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, sexual and erectile dysfunction, and reproductive cancers.

Now is the time for health care reform.  To do my part, I’ve contacted my Representative and Senators to tell them what I think.  I hope you’ll do the same.  Click here to contact your Representative.  Click here to contact your Senators.

As a result, I understand that health care workers who make abortion services available are everyday heroes.  But Dr. Tiller was different.  He was above and beyond the everyday.  He was a superhero.  And now he’s gone; brutally taken from this life in a way that many who disagreed with his work have implicitly condoned by failing to denounce his murder without qualification.  I haven’t yet fully verbalized my reaction to this event.  This is mostly because I like to accommodate and reassure others and I have no easy answers to the questions my thought will evoke.

My first two thoughts upon hearing of Dr. Tiller’s death were: 1. “Dear God, let this be a mistake.  Please – he can’t be dead,” and 2. “I hope I don’t get shot, too.”  The first part has been a somewhat universal reaction.  The second part requires explanation and reassurances that I don’t know how to provide because it’s out of my control.  This post is my attempt to explain that part and to share how Dr. Tiller’s death impacts my life.

For nearly a year now, the clinic I work at has been targeted by “pro-life” demonstrators.  At various points they’ve carried signs reading, “Family planners promote child promiscuity,” “Stop ALL Abortion,” “Birth Control Leads to Abortion,” etc.  Usually they come once a week on Thursday afternoons, although this spring they participated in the 40 Days for Life Campaign and their website indicates they’ll be doing it again this fall.  One of my responsibilities at work is to document the demonstrators.  This mostly involves takign a few pictures and writing a brief report about what happened that day.

 A little more than four weeks ago, this changed for me.  They had a new sign.  The sign reads, “God Bless Francis Irwin.”  I do not know how they got my name.  I do not know what they intended when they made the sign.  I’d like to pretend that this is no more than a joke in poor taste.  But the actions taken by a “pro-lifer” on Sunday make me question my assumption and my gumption.  Dr. Tiller was a superhero.  He did what few were willing to do.  He never failed to serve his patients regardless of the level of property damage, physical injury, and intimidation he was subjected to as a result of his service.  I am not an everyday hero.  I do not provide abortion services.  I am not a doctor or a nurse.  Our clinic has not been damaged and I have never been physically hurt by our demonstrators.  On a very few occasions, I have been frightened by the demonstrators’ actions.  After Sunday, I realize that I could be intentionally injured by someone who opposes my work.  To some extent allowing myself to worry about that feels like cowardice because Dr. Tiller was a superhero.  And that’s a lot to aspire to.

 Coincidentally, Tara Malone of the Chicago Tribune took a look at the issue in Illinois which ranks fourth in receipt of Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage funds.  Her article, Sex ed: Abstinence-only programs under review, is a great read on the tough challenges that state faces.  As we see increasing numbers of teen pregnancies, births, and sexually transmitted infections, more communities are discussing the sex ed programs in their communities.  In my community, I know we have a curriculum for sex ed, but it’s hard to find out if it is being taught district wide.  What’s happening in your community?

The list is well worth the read for anyone who supports access to reproductive health care as it probably lays out our opposition’s strategy for the near future.  This is a great opportunity to thank our friends in the White House,  the House, and the Senate for their hard work and for supporting reproductive health care.  It is nice that most current policymakers are supportive; however, we cannot sit back and depend on them to protect us.  I think the best way we can thank the Heritage Foundation for sharing their views is to be ready with the rationale for these policy changes and to remind our allies (perhaps in a thank you note…) how the world and our nation will benefit from these changes.  We don’t need to bring the fight to them on this, but we need to be ready for it when it comes.  It’s the quickest way to avoid losing ground on the initiatives that will advance our mission and improve access for those we serve.

This week is an exciting week for me.  Through my work at Below The Waist, work I love to do by the way, I am getting the chance to go to New York City and attend the national “Speak Out” hosted by Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need.

I will be in New York City for the rest of the week and will have a chance to meet and learn from som of the greatest leaders and advocates in this field. I really could not be more excited for the chance. 

Through Below The Waist, I have been lucky enough to have had a chance to meet with and interview some of the true luminaries, the inspirational forces in this movement.  Now to get a chance to be around what I would call a tremendous concentration, well that is like adding a scoop of ice cream to a well frosted cake of greatness.

We have been working in partnership with RWV for a while now, and are going to launch a sister site to include the stories we have heard over the months.  Look for that coming soon.

For more information on the event, take a look at the agenda.  If you would like to meet up, please find me on Twitter at twitter.com/belowthewaist.  I look forward to seeing you.

Today we had some of the world’s smallest, happiest, and politest protesters. Everyone should smile for the camera.

I was born in 1982 on the day before Roe v. Wade’s 9^th Anniversary.  I’ve never lived in an America where it wasn’t possible for a woman to choose safe and legal abortion.  I’ve heard stories of what it was like before 1973, but to me it seemed more like a fairytale from the Dark Ages than the reality of a few decades ago.  In honor of Women’s History Month, I sat down with Mary Ann.  Mary Ann was a nurse in a critical care unit before 1973.  She saw and tried to save women dying from illegal and unsafe abortion.  In this podcast, she shares with us what that was like and her hopes for the future of women’s health.  We also spoke to Rachel Benson Gold about reproductive health care in America.  In that conversation, she discussed where we need to go from here.  We included that portion of the conversation here as a reminder of what we can do to avoid repeating the pain of our past.

I found this exchange ironic on many levels.

Today we had to ask one of the protesters to move his truck out of our parking lot. I understand that it’s inconvenient to have to walk a few blocks, but I’d rather inconvenience him than the parents coming into our WIC clinic who need to negotiate strollers and car carriers. This time of year, you never know when the temperature is going to change and the sidewalks will suddenly turn into skating rinks. I’m very grateful that to date this is the largest inconvenience we’ve encountered. I’m hopeful things will continue to be respectful.

It is somewhat surprising the number of families we’ve seen praying outside the clinic. Prior to the campaign, we saw one family on a regular basis, but now there are a few. I’m a little challenged when it comes to the issue of the kids. This summer one of the children was quite adamant about not wanting to be protesting (praying) because it was boring. These kids seem to be praying, but I have to repress the desire to bring them some hot tea and a basketball.

I’m not sure if they’re standing in such an orderly way this Thursday because of the snow, the attention they’ve been getting from the community, they’re concern for safety, a combination of these factors or something entirely different.  I guess only time will tell.  When I left today, the demonstrators were wearing their hunting gear to ward off the cold and snow.

40 Days for Life began a prayer vigil outside our family planning and WIC clinic on Ash Wednesday. According to their website, their purpose is to pray for an end to abortion. We were initially concerned that a large gathering, similar to those that occurred in the past, would create a safety hazard. For more information, see this story that was featured on the front page of The Wausau Daily Herald. As you can see, on the first day, the demonstrators greeted me warmly, like an old friend. Throughout the day, they were very cognizant of the traffic and respectful of our entrances and exits. Channel 7 ran this story about the demonstration. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

What: Women’s Health Speak Out

When: January 29, 2009; 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Where: 1st Floor Lecture Hall of the David R. Obey Health Sciences Building at Northcentral Technical College (1000 W. Campus Dr., Wausau, WI)

We hope you’ll join us.  Call 1-800-246-5743 if you need more information.  If you can’t make it, keep your eyes on BelowtheWaist because we’ll post follow up here.

CNN – Amid Protests, Obama backs ‘right to choose’ on Roe Anniversary

New York Times – Obama Resverses Rules on U.S. Abortion Aid

New York Times Editorial – Women’s Health, Ungagged

For more information, check out RHRealityCheck.org or Change.org.

What: Women’s Health Speak Out

When: January 29, 2009; 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Where: 1st Floor Lecture Hall of the David R. Obey Health Sciences Building at Northcentral Technical College (1000 W. Campus Dr., Wausau, WI)

We hope you’ll join us.  Call 1-800-246-5743 if you need more information.  If you can’t make it, keep your eyes on BelowtheWaist because we’ll post follow up here.

This is a time as it was in 1776 and as it was again in 1863.  A time when we must come together now in pain, hardship, hope and compassion so, “that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom….[1]” I sense we are at a time when that very essence of our identity as Americans is at stake.  If we do nothing, the result of this neglect will last longer than the lives of the children I hope to have and the children they may have.  Personally, this is the most painful part of our present reality.

I was raised by Kennedy Democrats.  My parents were too young to vote for JFK, but he forever impacted their views on civic responsibility.  The statement, “…ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” was a maxim by which my sisters and I were (and are) expected to live our lives.  More simply, we were raised to know that we will not get anywhere unless we go together.  For more than a decade, I have watched our leaders bicker over which of our people should be served first rather than how best to serve all.  Worse, we have pushed many problems off to tomorrow because they are daunting.  Instead of serving each other as sisters and brothers, we wasted time confronting each other over our differences while promising to “get to it later.” 

In this context, “later” was supposed to come well before everything fell apart.  Now we know it could be too late.  On January 20^th and in the weeks prior, I took solace in watching our leaders – new and old – and the people I see daily.  For the moment, we have stopped asking, “What are you going to do?” and are asking, “How will we do this together?”  Our leaders acknowledge that our problems are real and coming together to put forth solutions that we can all benefit from.  We have remembered that above all else we are a family and that all families must work in the present to plan for the future.

January 20, 2009 will be a defining moment in my life and in the history of this country.  I see it as moment in which we came together and went forth in service to this beautiful family with respect and dignity to all.  I do not know if this is coming to us from President Obama or if he is reflecting the hope and compassion of the nation he will lead.  I believe we will go forth from this moment to do as Mother Jones instructed, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”  I have faith that he will continue to lead us as once she and women like Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Betty Ross and Sacagawea led us – to better ourselves by bettering our neighbors.  As I sit at my keyboard today, I hope that purposefulness and respect will apply to all aspects of our society, but in particular to the daily and intimate choices we must make for our families.

[1] Abraham Lincoln.  Speech at

2006 Emergency Contaception Survey Report