Image via WikipediaHelp! Please help! President Bush and HHS continue to chip away at patient rights to information and treatment choice. For years, health care workers have been excused from participating in procedures they oppose on religious grounds. But these proposed regulations go far beyond that.
Make your opinion known. Right now. Today. This is the 30 day comment period on these proposed regulations.
American Association of University Women - Two Minute Activist: "The new regulations, proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services, would allow health care employees to refuse to provide any health care service that is in any way contrary to their personal beliefs without any consideration for patients' guaranteed access to care and full information. Building upon three existing refusal clauses, the new regulation would allow individuals to withhold information about such services and refuse to refer patients to other locations where such services could be obtained. It would also grant refusal rights to any members of a health care facility's paid and voluntary staff, from appointment schedulers to janitorial staff. Further, the proposed regulations may undermine state laws protecting women's access to reproductive health care, including those requiring health insurance plans that provide drug benefits to cover contraceptives; laws that require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape survivors; and laws that require pharmacies to fill patients' valid medical prescriptions.
There is an extensive body of laws, regulations and court precedent that currently balance the religious rights of workers with the practical needs of employers - health services providers included - all while ensuring a patient's access to reproductive health care. This balance is vital to providing critical health services ..."
Use the link to AAUW's two minute activist to make HHS aware of your concerns.
"So, refresh your memory. Some women won't vote this year because . . . why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?"
The quote above comes from an email I received in celebration of the anniversary last week of women's right to vote. I've reproduced the email below. It tells the story of those women who fought long and hard and paid very high prices for that right. It sets the stage for our TV show which premiere's on Wednesday evening. It is a story we shouldn't forget.
But first, let me tell you about our premiere.
WHY VOTE? See your AAUW colleagues, Doris Goldberg, Ruth Wahtera, Kathy Pauker, Irvin Rosenthal, Bette Nitze, Louise Flood, and surprise guests discuss the voting issues. Co-hosts and producers Garnette Arledge, President of Kingston AAUW, and Janine Mower, Chairperson for Voter Education have been working all summer to address these questions. The result: an eleven-part public access tv show, (Woodstock Channel 23, or www.woodstocktv.org or ustream.com) from 8:30-9 pm, from Wednesday, Sept. 3 through Nov. 11.
We looked at all reasonable and true excuses, still excuses however. So we suggest watch our show tomorrow night, or anytime on the web then pre-plan your carpooling dates, take the children with you to the polls to model the voting privilege, remember polls are open before and after work. The one reason given above that cannot remain standing, the Power of One Vote, national AAUW's campaign. Each vote, even for states where the media calls it red or blue, or belonging to the other candidate, even then if the majority voters, that's women, would vote, we could have AAUW women in political office, we could have a government we choose taking our rightful response-ability seriously. Why Vote: because we can!
The email:
This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.
Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote. (photo: Lucy Burns)
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic. They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
(photo Dora Lewis) They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging,beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press. (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf)
So, refresh your memory. Some women won't vote this year because . . . why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work?Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
All reasonable and true excuses, still excuses however. So pre-plan your carpooling dates, take the children with you to model the voting privilege, polls are open before and after work. The one reason given above that cannot be remain standing, the Power of One Vote. Each vote, even for states where the media calls it red or blue, or belonging to the other candidate, even then if the majority voters, that's women would vote, we could have AAUW women in political office, we could have a government we choose taking our rightful response-ability seriously.
Why Vote: because we can!
A recent HBO movie 'Iron Jawed Angels' is a graphic depiction of the battle these women mentioned above waged so that each 'I' could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have her say. Frankly as a 'former' dis-enheartened voter, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.
HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all history and social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.
It is jarring to watch the politicians try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'
As you know, our branch is concerned about health care costs, quality, and accessibility. We've planned a public forum on healthcare for October 4th. So I was delighted to read about Jane Chen in the AAUW Dialog Friday series on AAUW fellows. (Picture credit: EmbraceGlobal.org)
....Her multidisciplinary team of public policy, business, and engineering students was charged with creating an incubator that would cost less than 1 percent of what incubators currently cost—as much as $20,000 in the United States. Jane and her team were able to do better than that. They created an incubator for $25.
Embrace, the company created to distribute the incubators, became incorporated this spring and began planning its product launch in India. The AAUW fellowship allowed Jane to focus on the project and take on a new role: Embrace CEO.
Branch Meetings - 7 pm, the 4th Tuesday of the month, September - June, note exceptions on the calendar. Board of Directors Meetings - 2nd Tuesday, Noon lunch, location varies Literary Group - 3rd Tuesday at 1:00, Kingston Library Film and Potluck Supper - 2nd Sunday, 5 pm
Patrice Courtney Strong will bring her expertise on energy savings -- free energy audits, opportunities for those of us on low and fixed income,Low Carbon Diet groups based on the book by David Gershon, and much more.
Many of us know Pat from her work with NYSERDA and the Kingston Mid Town Business Association.
Details: September 23, Tuesday, 7 p.m. Kingston Area Library
Other 'green' opportunities offered this fall:
Heating Season Summit at the Mall co-sponsored by the Council of Churches and Central Hudson, Cornell Cooperative Extension
Cool Communities / Living Economies: Ten Years to a Green Economy, September 19 – 20, 2008, at the Seven21 Media Center, 721 Broadway, Kingston, NY . Please let AAUW know if you are going to attend our branch meeting as the speaker will be bringing materials and would like to know how much to bring.
We're launching a new tradition -- an every member potluck picnic to kick off the fall programming.
Given the current escalation in prices and the fact that we are all tightening our belts, we thought we'd share family stories about the depression. Vice President for Program Bette Nitzke will be moderator of "Coping With the Great Depression" -- how our enterprising elders survived and thrived in that period from the 1929 crash to WWII.
Details: September 14th, 1 pm, Vivi Hlavsa's home - bring a dish to share. Stay for the monthly film discussion at 5pm. Directions
Chinatown, the Chinatown Museum, and the Pearl River Mart
Leaving at 9:00 AM and returning around 5:30 PM Cost (for bus and driver tip) $40
********
All trips leave from the rear of the former Ames in the Kingston Plaza
For reservations, call Pat Whelan between noon and 9 PM at 845-657-6807
or write PWHL8@aol.com then send your check, made out to AAUW–Kingston Branch,
to Pat Whelan, 1321 County Rt. 2, Olivebridge NY 12461.
(Ask about our member discounts and cancellation policies.)
Open to all, AAUW trips are part of our mission to offer community enrichment and to raise funds for scholarships and grants to local, national and international programs, especially in support of women.
Membership in Kingston Branch of American Association of University Women is open to all people.
All trips leave from the rear of the former Ames in the Kingston Plaza
For reservations, call Pat Whelan between noon and 9 PM at 845-657-6807
or write PWHL8@aol.com then send your check, made out to AAUW–Kingston Branch,
to Pat Whelan, 1321 County Rt. 2, Olivebridge NY 12461.
(Ask about our member discounts and cancellation policies.)
Open to all, AAUW trips are part of our mission to offer community enrichment and to raise funds for scholarships and grants to local, national and international programs, especially in support of women. Membership in Kingston Branch of American Association of University Women is open to all people.
The Montebello Years: Three Decades of Acquisitions
New York, N. Why?: Photographs by Rudy Burckhardt
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
Calder Jewelry
Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
Leaving at 8 AM and returning around 6 PM Cost (includes bus, driver tip and museum) Seniors $55; Adults $59 (Add $4 to reserve an audio guide). NYC alone $40
All trips leave from the rear of the former Ames in the Kingston Plaza
For reservations, call Pat Whelan between noon and 9 PM at 845-657-6807
or write PWHL8@aol.com then send your check, made out to AAUW–Kingston Branch,
to Pat Whelan, 1321 County Rt. 2, Olivebridge NY 12461.
(Ask about our member discounts and cancellation policies.)
Open to all, AAUW trips are part of our mission to offer community enrichment and to raise funds for scholarships and grants to local, national and international programs, especially in support of women.
Membership in Kingston Branch of American Association of University Women is open to all people.
Hudson, NY for the Metropolitan Opera on the Big Screen Puccini’s “La Rondine”
Leaving at 9:30 AM and returning around 5 PM Cost (includes bus, driver tip and show) $58
********
All trips leave from the rear of the former Ames in the Kingston Plaza
For reservations, call Pat Whelan between noon and 9 PM at 845-657-6807
or write PWHL8@aol.com then send your check, made out to AAUW–Kingston Branch,
to Pat Whelan, 1321 County Rt. 2, Olivebridge NY 12461.
(Ask about our member discounts and cancellation policies.)
Open to all, AAUW trips are part of our mission to offer community enrichment and to raise funds for scholarships and grants to local, national and international programs, especially in support of women.
Membership in Kingston Branch of American Association of University Women is open to all people.
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