News & Commentary

Last week, the Department of Education released a very important guidance document for schools looking to offer single-sex classes. The crux of it is great news, and very much in line with what the ACLU has been saying for decades: single-sex education programs based on sex stereotypes are unlawful.

This morning, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Young v. UPS, a case that asks whether or not pregnant employees must be granted the same work limitations as those granted to disabled and injured workers. The plaintiff in the case is Peggy Young, a woman who worked for UPS delivering letters and packages. She became pregnant while working for UPS and, based on her doctor’s recommendation, requested a light-duty position so that she wouldn’t have to lift packages weighing more than 20 pounds. UPS denied Young's request and forced her to take unpaid leave. While on unpaid leave, she lost both her salary and her health benefits – crucial support she needed as she prepared for the birth of her child.

Last week, the United Nations Committee Against Torture issued a report in which it took the United States to task on a wide range of issues, from lack of accountability for torture and overuse of immigration detention to criminal justice practices and police accountability. This report came after a month spent reviewing U.S. compliance with a major human rights treaty, the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which the U.S. ratified in 1994. The last compliance review was in 2006.

On Monday, Bangor station WLBZ featured a segment called “The Difficult Journey” – a news story about the increased numbers of Canadian women coming to Maine for their abortions. The segment featured Ruth Lockhart, Executive Director of the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center. The Mabel Wadsworth Center has seen the largest influx of patients, most of whom are traveling from New Brunswick. The increase in patients is due to a couple of issues. New Brunswick’s sole abortion clinic, the Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton, closed its doors at the end of July 2014. Limited abortion services are available at two hospitals in the province, but because of the strict abortion regulations the province enforces, a person must have prior written permission from two doctors stating that the abortion is “medically necessary” before even scheduling an appointment at one of the hospitals. And, even if a woman is able to get written permission from two different doctors, the hospital waiting lists are excessively long. Because the two hospitals in New Brunswick only perform abortions up to 12 weeks, the extended wait time leaves many women unable to access abortion. Women who are able to get into the hospital to have their procedures end up paying exorbitant hospital fees on top of the cost of the procedure. 

The 1 in 3 Campaign has organized an online abortion speakout forthis Thursday, November 20 from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST. The event will feature over 100 people sharing stories about their experiences with abortion. The speakout brings together movement leaders, celebrities, politicians and abortion advocates from across the country to share their experiences during this premiere event. Some notable participants include Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Jessica Valenti, author of The Purity Myth; Jessica González-Rojas, Executive Director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health; and Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley. You can tune in to the livestreamed event here. 

On November 5, we received the exciting news that Proposition 47 passed in California with a solid 59 percent of the vote. Not only will this measure reclassify six low-level offenses from felonies to misdemeanors, it is retroactive - meaning that thousands of individuals sentenced under these laws may now go before a judge to be resentenced or released, and hundreds of thousands of people with felony convictions for these offenses may have them removed from their record. Prop 47 enjoyed widespread support, from advocacy organizations, faith leaders, law enforcement, crime victims, judges, labor unions and republican and democratic leaders. 

Tuesday night, I had the chance to spend a couple of hours in the presence of SisterSong’s execute director, Monica Simpson. The SisterSong collective, one of the first reproductive justice organizations, was formed in 1997 to address the reproductive and sexual health and rights for women of color. You can read more about Monica Simpson here. 

Does this biology textbook’s page on contraceptives seem inappropriate? According to a school district in Arizona, some of the content on the page is so inappropriate, it needs to be removed. Last week, officials on the Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board voted 3-2 to redact content from a textbook used in the district’s honors biology classes. Alliance Defending Freedom, a Scottsdale-based conservative Christian legal and advocacy group, brought the offending content to the board’s attention. After listening to a presentation from Natalie Decker, a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom, the board came to the decision that the content should be removed from the textbook. 

The journal Women and Health just published a special issue on abortion stigma research. Abortion stigma has been under reasearched in the academic world. This issue, Bringing Abortion Stigma Into Focus, is groundbreaking. The stigma associated with abortion is based on a belief that abortion is socially or morally wrong. Culturally, the stigma manifests as silence and shame. As a result of the stigma, people are reluctant to speak openly about abortion and are even more reluctant to share their abortion stories. In the media, abortion stigma manifests as either silence, or myths and mischaracterizations about abortions and the women who have them. In medical and research fields, abortion stigma is reflected in the marginalization of the procedure within health care facilities and the dearth of scholarly research dedicated to abortion stigma.