Tag Archives: Alex Azar

Women Against Forced Breeding

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Justice for Jane demonstration. Photo: Karen Thurston

Why are these women, awash in a sea of “pink slips,” all of whom have had abortions, standing on the steps in front of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in late February 2018, demonstrating live on YouTube? Why are they demanding the firing of the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Scott Lloyd, the bureaucrat who forces young women to breed against their will?

Why are we protesting? Because we are not having it! And neither is Sen. Patty Murray, who took to the floor of the Senate to amplify our views, pointing out that, once again, our government has overstepped its authority, ignored the rule of law, and allowed one man’s ideology and/or religion to determine the rules for women in his custody. And neither is the House Pro-Choice Caucus having it, as members lined up soon after the protest to sign a “pink slip” to terminate Lloyd.

House Pro-Choice Caucus members Zoe Lofgren, Diana DeGette, and Jerrold Nadler sign “pink slip” to terminate Scott Lloyd. Photo: @RepJerryNadler

Here is the latest story in the long line of stories about our government’s disrespect for women.

Teenager Jane Doe escaped an abusive Salvadoran family and entered the United States as an undocumented, unaccompanied minor. She was detained in Texas and placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is responsible for sheltering these youth. When she discovered she was pregnant she asked for an abortion. So, imagine Jane, alone in a foreign country, uncertain of her immigration prospects, but holding onto dreams for a better future for herself. Unfortunately for her, the ORR is headed by an ideologue named Scott Lloyd. Continue reading →

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • New Jersey’s new governor, Phil Murphy, undid the damage of his awful predecessor by restoring funding to Planned Parenthood. Yay!  (The Hill)

  • Democrats in the U.S. Senate are pressuring Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to reverse a strategy coordinated with a prominent hate group to undermine family-planning access for people with low incomes. (Rewire)
  • The Department of Justice is appealing a California judge’s decision to temporarily block new Trump administration rules allowing more employers to opt out of providing no-cost birth control in their insurance plans. (ABC News)
  • South Carolina is trying to ban ALL abortions by granting legal rights to fertilized eggs from the moment of conception. Literally the worst idea ever. Eggs are not sentient beings. Period. (Salon)
  • Hmm … What to think of those who call themselves “pro-life” but sit quietly and idly by while gun violence steals the lives of innocent bystanders? (WaPo)
  • The abhorrent goons in the Trump administration are quietly helping states defund Planned Parenthood. (Vox)
  • This is unbelievable! Some states — including Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas — directly divert public funds allocated to feed hungry children to fake women’s health centers. (Rewire)
  • Get a load of this bull: The Trump administration created a new HHS office just to discriminate against people — and they housed it under the Office of Civil Rights. (The Hill)
  • A man crashed a stolen bakery truck into a Planned Parenthood clinic on Valentine’s Day in East Orange, New Jersey, injuring three people, including two staff members and a pregnant woman. Thankfully none of the injuries were life-threatening. (Southern Poverty Law Center)
  • Hey, North Carolina, maybe strapping female inmates to beds during childbirth isn’t the most compassionate protocol? (News & Observer)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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Greetings, Dear Readers! Highlighting the hypocrisy of Republicans is a regular occurrence on this blog, so we’ll start this post off with yet another example of how their words don’t always match up with their actions.

  • You’re familiar with CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, correct? For those who aren’t, CHIP is a federally funded program that provides health insurance to 9 million U.S. children whose families earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to pay for health insurance. Additionally, 370,000 pregnant women receive care under CHIP.

    Well, the funding for that program expired on September 30. And our Republican-controlled congress is in no hurry to do anything about that. They are, however, working ULTRA diligently to rush through tax cuts for the richest Americans ASAP.

    The health and lives of almost 10 million Americans is hanging in the balance! Where are our “pro-life” leaders when we need them? Preparing to fork over barrels of cash to the wealthy. (WaPo)
  • BTW, this dumb-ass tax cut bill has “personhood” language in it! (Snopes)
  • Also, Ivanka should stop pretending this dumb-ass tax cut bill will help women and families! It won’t! So girl, give it up! (American Progress)
  • Roy Moore’s allegedly prolific history of preying upon teen girls as an adult may take a back seat to the issue of abortion in this month’s Alabama Senate race. It’s not all that surprising, really. Republican legislators and voters often prove to value unborn, potential children over actual ones who’ve left the womb. (Buzzfeed)
  • Alex Azar, Trump’s pick for Department of Health and Human Services secretary, thinks that an employer’s personal views about birth control should take precedence over a woman’s needs, aspirations, potential existing health issues, financial and mental fitness for a child, and RIGHT to control her own body. Alex is a moron and a misogynist. He’ll be right at home within the Trump Administration. #BirdsOfAFeather (Newsweek)
  • Nineteen Democratic state attorneys general disagree with Alex Azar. In a brief filed earlier this week, they argue that “allowing employers with religious or moral objections to contraception to block their employees from receiving coverage violates the constitutional separation of church and state and encourages illegal workplace discrimination against women.” We agree! (Bloomberg)
  • Not only does sexual education need to be more comprehensive and robust, it also needs to be FAR more inclusive of LGBTQ students. (Refinery29)
  • Notre Dame reversed its decision regarding birth control coverage in its health plans. They better keep it that way, dammit. (NPR)
  • Could not agree with this article more: Adoption Is Not a Universal Alternative to Abortion, No Matter What Anti-Choicers Say. (Rewire)
  • Despite their best efforts, the Trump Administration lost its fight to keep Jane Doe, a migrant teen, from having an abortion. But those vindictive goons are still fighting — to stop other pregnant teens like her from obtaining abortions, and to get the Supreme Court to sanction the lawyers who challenged the administration. UGH! (Mother Jones)