California NOW

International Women's Day!

Today is International Women's Day.  In commemoration, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet spoke today at the United Nations.

Here is a portion of what she said....

"We cannot move backwards, we must keep moving forward. It is what we owe to millions of women fighting for their rights around the world.

We find ourselves at a tipping point in history. Never before have we witnessed such global momentum and mobilization by men and women, girls and boys, demanding an end to violence against women and girls.

Never before have we witnessed such open, widespread public outrage and calls for change and action.

Never before have we had the instant and global outreach that new technologies afford—to record in mere seconds, and communicate in real time, the atrocities and horrors of violence committed against women and girls.

Violence against women is pervasive and knows no borders. It does not discriminate according to nationality, ethnicity, social class, culture or religion.

This is why women, men and young people have raised their voices in every region to say one thing: enough is enough.

People demand an immediate end to impunity. They insist on the protection of the rights of women and girls to live in dignity, free of violence and discrimination.

And let me say this: There can be no peace, no progress, no equality without women’s full and equal rights and participation. And there can be no gender equality without women’s realization. Women’s realization of their full reproductive rights, their right to sexual and reproductive health, are essential to the empowerment of women and to gender equality.

As social transformations in attitudes, beliefs, and values are happening, we must keep pace with the aspirations of people everywhere in the world. Their hope, our hope is to see gender equality become reality in this, our 21st century."

Click here to read Michelle Bachelet's full remarks.

 

 

Outrageous Rape "Facts" Come to California!

Remember when Senate Missouri candidate, Todd Akin (who served on the Science Committee in Congress for years) made that ridiculous statement about women not becoming pregnant as a result of rape if it was a "legitimate rape"? And remember when Indiana senate candidate, Richard Mourdock, followed up by saying that pregnancies resulting from rape were part of God's plan?

After the 2012 election, you'd think GOP leaders would realize that those sorts of outrageous statements are neither true nor a winning strategy in politics.

Guess the GOP has not quite learned their lesson because last Friday - here in California - Celeste Greig, head of the California Republican Assembly (California's oldest and largest GOP volunteer group), told the media that pregnancies by rape are rare "because it's an act of violence, because the body is traumatized."

If you are as disgusted by scientifically challenged Republican leaders like Greig attempting to defend rape related anti-choice policies, click here. Politicians and leaders in political parties who attempt to minimize the horrific consequences of rape in order to pursue a political agenda that degrades women must go!

Rapes cause pregnancy. Celeste Greig (and other politicians who just make their own "facts" up) need to resign from their high profile positions so that policies can be created based on science, not ideology. Click here to sign the petition demanding Celeste Greig resign.

For Equality & In Solidarity,

Patty Bellasalma
President, California NOW

It's 2013! Isn't it time to focus on gender equity?

In a few days, we'll begin celebrating Women's History Month. Throughout the month, we'll hear a lot of speeches from government officials about how they believe in gender equality and women's empowerment.

That's a good thing! But an even better way to celebrate Women's History Month would be for legislators to ask one basic question before they pass another bill or implement another policy - What is the gender impact?

Gender equality is the law!  We've found no constitutional or statutory exception to gender equality mandates.  There's no language stating anti-discrimination statutes and equal protection of laws apply to women and girls only if they don’t cost too much.

Therefore, California NOW will begin persistently demanding that state and local governments follow the law by ensuring that analysis of budget decisions, legislation, policies and programs include a gender impact statement.

The failure to find out the actual impact of budget decisions, laws and policies year-in and year-out is simply unacceptable, especially in 2013. It is time for California government to ensure compliance with equal protection standards and anti-discrimination laws.  Such a task cannot be done if state and local governments fail to collect data on gender equality and anti-discrimination compliance and make that data available to the public.  The failure to enact outcome and/or performance-based decision making to the budget, as well as policies and programs, has produced an unaccountable state and local government that fails to ensure gender equality and that further fails to promote women and girls empowerment. It’s time to put an end to such failures.

Click here to read our letter.

We have a super majority in both Houses and a Democratic Governor. The time for excuses is over. If we really want to move towards full equity, join me in asking for more than words this year.

Together, let's insist that legislation and policies coming out of Sacramento have a gender impact statement attached to them. The nearly 19 million women and girls in California deserve - and should settle for - nothing less.

Roe v Wade Turns 40 Today!

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court overturned a Texas interpretation of abortion law, making abortion legal in the United States. The Roe v. Wade decision held that a woman, with her doctor, could choose abortion in earlier months of pregnancy without legal restriction, and with restrictions in later months, based on the right to privacy.

During the case, forty-two briefs were filed on behalf of "Roe." One of those came from the California chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Let's face it, access to a safe and legal abortion has always been about women’s full participation in our society. It’s about women being able to decide when and if to begin and/or expand their families, which is why it is constantly under attack. Last year, 19 states enacted 43 new measures to limit abortion access. That came on the heels of 24 states enacting similar measures in 2011.

The sad reality is that with each new restriction, the impact is being seen disproportionately on women who are not white and middle-upper class. Instead, those most impacted by anti-abortion legislation are lower-income women. Six in ten women who have abortions already have one child, and according to the Guttmacher Institute, most chose abortion so that they can take care of the children they already have. When laws are passed that impose unnecessary regulations which close clinics, force women to check with more than one doctor prior to an abortion, or make women wait a full 24 hours after seeing a doctor to have one, poor women are the ones affected. Women who can’t afford to take more than a few hours off work, or can’t afford childcare, or do not have a car to travel (sometimes to another state) are the ones negatively impacted by these new restrictions.

While we’re lucky here in California that our state assembly and senate is pro-choice, we unfortunately have some of the most extreme anti-choice voices in Congress and local officials who have been quietly trying to shut down clinics in their communities. We also have Crisis Pregnancy Centers popping up in most of our major cities and Birth Choice mobile units are on our college campuses. And as progressive as our state is, less than half of our 58 counties have a single abortion provider.

So, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v Wade decision, California NOW will continue – as we have done for more than 40 years – to be on the front lines fighting for women’s equality and empowerment, including the right to a safe and legal abortion.

For Equality & In Solidarity,

Patty Bellasalma
President, California NOW

Equality at the Polls

We talk a lot about gender inequality.  How women represent over 50 percent of our state's population yet only comprise 28 percent of the state legislature. And how we earn just 84 cents for every dollar our male counterparts make here in California.

But at the ballot box, our vote counts every bit as much as any man's vote. Actually, our votes count more because there's more women registered to vote in California than men.

So let's not miss out on an important election that will set the direction of our country. And in many ways, the direction for women's equality. Do we want a president who isn't sure the Lilly Ledbetter Act was a good piece of legislation and who's gone back-and-forth on the question of pay equity? A president who chose as his running mate a man who is so stridently anti-choice that he thinks women and girls who are raped should be forced to carry the rapists' child? Do we want California Congressional members who share those same radical anti-women beliefs, who voted to cut HeadStart, rationalizing that vote by saying there is no need for the program because women should be home taking care of their children? Do we want state legislators who say that pay equity would bankrupt California?

If you think you're too busy to vote this year or that you can't decide who to vote for, think about what has taken place in just the past two years. Calling it "a war on women" is not an overstatement. It's the truth.

Here's the bottom-line. If we want gender equality and women's empowerment, then we are going to need to demand it. And that means taking responsibility for who we elect to represent us in our local communities, in Sacramento and in Washington. We ARE the majority so if anti-women candidates win again this year, that's on us.

We need to make sure that at every level, we are voting for candidates who respect and value women and we need to educate every other woman - and man - we know to do the same. I know it sounds overly dramatic but the truth is, this year our lives depend on it!