Tag Archives: Democrats

Due Protections: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act at 40

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1977. Photo: Lynn Gilbert

Today, Susan Struck’s political positions are nothing that would stick out in a red state like Arizona. A few years ago, she joined the chorus of support for the once-threatened A-10 fighter jet program at Tucson’s Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. In a 2010 article on immigration, a writer noted her concerns about automatic citizenship for U.S.-born children.

Despite the rightward tilt that would be assigned to her views today, Struck was once at the center of a fight for reproductive justice, a cause taken up by a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg, back when “The Notorious RBG” was still a lawyer for the ACLU. It was that fight that led to Ginsburg’s involvement in the writing of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, a landmark piece of legislation that turns 40 this month.

Despite 40 years of protections, pregnancy discrimination hasn’t gone away.

Now retired in an Arizona ranch community, Struck first arrived in the Copper State at the end of the 1960s, when she enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Davis-Monthan. She told Elle in a 2014 interview that she reveled in her newfound independence from the family and church she left in Kentucky. “She went on the Pill and stopped attending confession,” the article recounts, and she spent her free time enjoying her sexual freedom and the chance to experience Tucson’s foothills in a newly acquired Camaro.

Still, Struck wanted more excitement, so she asked to be sent to Vietnam. She was assigned to Phù Cát Air Force Base, where she quickly hit it off with an F-4 pilot — and ended up pregnant. Struck understood that the Air Force gave officers in her situation two choices: get an abortion or be honorably discharged. It was 1970 then, still a few years before Roe v. Wade, but the armed forces had made abortion legal ahead of civilian society. Continue reading →

Meet Our Candidates: David Bradley for State Senator, LD 10

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The time to fight back — and fight forward — for reproductive justice is fast approaching. The stakes are high in this year’s state election, with candidates for governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and other races on the ballot. The Arizona primary election will be held August 28, 2018, and voters need to be registered by July 30 to cast their ballots. Reproductive health has been under attack, both nationally and statewide, but Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who put our health and our rights first. Get to know them now in our series of “Meet Our Candidates” interviews, and make your voice heard in 2018!

[D]avid Bradley is a familiar name to many Arizona voters. From 2003 to 2011, he served four terms as a state representative. In 2012, he won his first bid for state senator for Arizona’s Legislative District 10, an area that covers portions of central and eastern Tucson. In that race, as well as his successful reelection bids in 2014, and 2016, he received the endorsement of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona (PPAA). Sen. Bradley is seeking another term to represent LD 10 and has received PPAA’s endorsement once again.

Bradley spent his early childhood in Phoenix and his high school years in Tucson, after which he spent eight years with the Navy in Spain, Iceland, and other locations. When Bradley returned to Tucson in 1980, he began a career in counseling. For the last 18 years, he has served as chief executive officer of La Paloma Family Services, Inc., a nonprofit child welfare agency. With his experience in administration and behavioral health, combined with his many years in the Arizona Legislature, Bradley brings solid credentials to the task of addressing the many issues facing Arizona. The values and convictions he brings to the table have also helped him earn the endorsements of numerous other organizations, including Las Adelitas Arizona and the Arizona Nurses Association Political Action Committee.

Sen. Bradley kindly took the time to tell us more about his background and his candidacy on July 6, 2018.

“Women have the right to access the full range of reproductive health services without fear and intimidation.”

What have you accomplished in your previous term?

The previous term’s accomplishments center around support for the #RedForEd movement. Being in the minority usually means being on the defensive and working with moderate members of the opposite party to mostly block bad legislation. This year the rallying cry of teachers rolled over the governor and the Legislature. I was proud to stand with them to further their cause. Continue reading →

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • Let’s start this week’s rundown on a ridiculous note. Apparently a bunch of weirdos think a sticker on the head of a penis is an alternative to a condom. #FacePalm (Slate)
  • 45’s administration defunding evidence-based sex ed in favor of abstinence-only propaganda will not make America great. (Tucson Weekly)
  • Rep. Ben Ray Luján — the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — became the latest to suggest that 2018 Democratic candidates don’t have to be pro-choice. While he didn’t clarify this comment, what I’m hoping he means is that Democratic candidates can be personally pro-life, as long as they are active in protecting the LEGAL RIGHT women have to abortions. If this isn’t what he meant, he’s sadly misguided and has no business representing or leading the party. (NY Mag)
  • More on that? This Atlantic article about the Democratic Party’s “abortion dilemma” is also concerning. It worries me that we continue to hear about “pro-life” Democrats and whether or not they should be “welcomed” by members the party and supported when they run for office. First of all, pro-choice people are also pro-life. We value the lives of all people. We value and respect the choices of women who wish to bring life into the world and women who do not. I think it’s perfectly acceptable for a Democrat not to embrace abortion personally. What is not acceptable is to legislate in a manner that disempowers women from making choices regarding their wombs. It would be a GRAVE mistake for Democrats to support candidates who would cruelly force women to endure unwanted pregnancies. Reproductive rights are human rights. This should not represent a “dilemma” to a party that purports to care about human rights. (The Atlantic)
  • Virginia, why is there a need for you to go down the forced vaginal ultrasound path other than to humiliate and violate women? (Rewire)
  • Texas, why is it easier to buy a gun that has the potential to kill scores of people than to access abortion in your state? What a shame we live in a society that so clearly values punishing women for their sexual behavior over protecting living, breathing people. (Houston Chronicle)
  • Other wretched news out of Texas? They’re looking to restrict insurers from covering abortion. What other safe, legal medical procedure would they dare try this on? Can’t think of any? Me neither. (Texas Tribune)
  • Renee Bracey Sherman wrote a great piece for The New York Times about the concern anti-abortion activists claim to have for “black lives” terminated by abortion, but not via police killings. She states, “Far too often, compassion for black lives doesn’t extend beyond the womb or to the black women carrying that womb.” (NYT)
  • Jessica Valenti of The Guardian reminds us all that pregnancy has the potential to be lethal and that no one should be forced to give birth against their will. (The Guardian)
  • A nonprofit in the U.S. is helping throw women in El Salvador in prison for having abortions. Disgusting. (Slate)

U of A Students Rally for Terry Goddard

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS6FBvT7ioo&hl=en&fs=1]

The University of Arizona mall was packed with students yesterday. Terry Goddard was the keynote speaker at a rally organized by several student organizations, included VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood. Other Democratic candidates for office, such as Rodney Glassman, Chris Deschene, and Penny Kotterman, also spoke to the enthusiastic crowd. And as usual, Planned Parenthood volunteers showed up in droves at the event to show their support for the PPAA-endorsed candidates.

Terry Goddard emphasized that if he is elected governor, his top priority will be education, because education is the key to Arizona’s economic recovery and its ability to compete in a world market. He closed his remarks by urging people to get involved by committing to tell ten people about what the election means to them. Continue reading →