Reported Sexual Assaults in Military Skyrocket As Air Force Chief of Ending Assault Charged With Sexual Battery

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Esmeralda Garcia, a health care assistant at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Edinburg, speaks with a client, Adriana Olvera. Eddie Seal for The New York Times

Great news for the poor women of Texas! The New York Times reports that legislators on both sides of the aisle are quietly working to restore financing for women’s health services in the state.The story reports that Dems aren’t falling on their sword for Planned Parenthood — a statement we find misleading, because the PP issue is already taken care of through the recent funding of a Texas women’s health coalition, of which Planned Parenthood is a key member.

“The major difference is we’re not fighting about it. We’re just doing what’s right for women and the state,” State Representative Sarah Davis, Republican of West University Place, said last month at a Texas Tribune symposium on health care.

While Davis is opposed to abortion, she is even more opposed to politicians interfering with the doctor/patient relationship. The Republican woman has emerged as the chief architect of a plan to restore the devastating cuts to poor women’s health services, including access to contraception.

As poor women in particular have suffered at the hands of the Republican War on Women in Texas, the tide may be turning. Further denying women abortion rights is in a holding pattern, with NONE of the 24 abortion-related bills filed reaching the House or Senate floor.

Military Assault Skyrocket

Responding angrily Tuesday to a new report on the steep rise of sexual assault in the military, New York Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand cold barely contain her anger at Air Force Secretary Michael Conley. The Pentagon says that in 2012 alone, 26,000 members of the military were sexually assaulted, a 35 percent rise since 2011.

Next week Gillibrand will introduce a bill that removes decision-making on sexual assault cases from the chain of command, says Glen Caplin, the senator’s communications director.

“You have an enormous gap between the number of sex assaults that are occurring and the number of sex assaults that are being reported,” Caplin said. According to the Department of Defense, 47 percent of servicemembers said they didn’t report sexual assaults and harassment for fear of retaliation.

Presently, the military operates under a code called “convening authority”, giving military commanders the power to overturn court-martial decisions, including those dealing with rape.

Gillibrand’s bill would apply Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel’s recent suggestion that “convening authority” be eliminated, by amending the Uniform Military Code of Justice’s Article 60 so so that “convening authorities” cannot set aside convictions or change guilty ones. Her bill would also add independent prosecutors who decide whether a case warrants a court-martial, but reserve commanders’ convening authority for the cases that aren’t moved forward in this new process.

Sens. Patty Murray D-Wash and Kelly Ayotte R-NH introduced legislation to amend Pentagon policies while creating new laws to help victims.

“Murray and Ayotte’s bill, the Combating Military Sexual Assault Act, would guarantee victims access to an advocacy lawyer to guide them through the reporting, investigation and criminal law process following an allegation,” writes the Air Force Times.

Air Force Chief Charged

Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, charged with sexual battery.The Air Force officer in charge of the the branch’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit was charged with a misdemeanor offence of groping a woman in a parking lot on May 6, 2013. The misdemeanor sexual battery charge alleges that Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski was drunk and grabbed a woman’s breast and buttocks. The woman fought back before calling police.

Responding to the news, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said “We’re all outraged and disgusted over these very troubling allegations.”

Hagel said he would hold military commanders accountable “at every level,” improve the treatment of assault victims and conduct regular inspections of military workplaces to guard against “materials that create a degrading and offensive work environment,” writes Bloomberg.

The Air Force is “still reeling” from the convictions of at least five military instructors in sexual assault or unprofessional relationships with trainees or students at San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base.

Krusinski, who has served in his post since February, posted a $5,000 bond and was removed from his job pending an investigation.

Eve Ensler Appeals to Michigan Gov Snyder on New Abortion Laws As Texas Searches for Contraception Funding

Eve Ensler has sent an emergency video to Michigan women from the Philippines about the most anti-woman legislation passed during Michigan’s lame duck session. Click here to hear video on Facebook.

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Michigan state legislators have passed laws eliminating insurance coverage of abortions and imposing medically unnecessary regulations on providers of women’s reproductive health services.

The first measure bars insurance coverage for abortion services without the purchase of an additional “rider” at added expense. This legislation extends extends the restriction to health insurance exchanges created through the health insurance exchanges that are part of Obamacare, as well as private insurance plans sold outside the exchanges.

The Michigan legislation provides for a single exception for life of the mother, but not rape or incest.

In passing these lame duck session laws, Michigan legislators have shown clearly that they could care less about the voters of Michigan who made their views regarding the Republican War on Women loud and clear in November.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney failed to carry his original home state in November. Michigan Democrats picked up five seats in the state House in November, but the GOP will still have a 59-51 edge during the 2013-2014 session. There were no state Senate races in 2012, leaving the Michigan Senate in Republican hands with a wide margin of 26-12.

Michigan legislators also put new restrictions on reproductive health offices in an effort to close them. Facilities that provide 120 or more abortions a year will be regulated as “mini-hospitals”, even in the absence of established medical or safety needs.

Lastly, doctors are forbidden to counsel low-income and rural women online on matters of reproductive health. “Under such a regimen, patients are examined at a local health clinic by an on-site professional and then electronically consult with a doctor working at a different location who would review her health records, answer questions, and approve the pills,” writes the New York Times.

Texas vs Planned Parenthood

Texas’ request to force the US Health and Human Services to continue funding its Women’s Health Program even though the state has virtually eliminated Planned Parenthood as a service provider has failed in federal court.

The Texas decision affects an estimated 130,000 low-income women receiving a wide variety of basic health care services from Planned Parenthood. Texas had demanded that the federal government continue delivering funds to the state, a request denied by US District Court Judge Walter Smith.

Texas insists that it has found $40 million necessary to fund substitute services provided by Planned Parenthood, without any abortions. The funding is in place through September 2013, says the state, with $70 million of federal funds being cut off on December 31, 2012.

The state’s Health and Human Services Commission projects that without the federal funds, low-income women will deliver an estimated 23,760 additional babies during 2014 and 2015. The commission projects that state taxpayers will have to shoulder an additional $273 million in medical expenses and Medicaid coverage for those infants.

Their projection was previously on the table when the Texas nonpartisan Legislative Budget Board estimated that the proposed cuts would lead to 284,000 women losing their family planning services. Social conservative legislators insisted they were willing to pay the price — but of course, THEY DON’T pay the price.

Poor women pay the price, and the statistics on the downward spiral of unplanned pregnancy victims and their babies in the state of Texas is already at the bottom of the heap nationwide. Several media sources report that legislators are trying to reinstate family planning funding without Planned Parenthood — even though that organization is best equipped to meet the family planning needs of the poor women of Texas.

Texas 5* Unwed Pregnancy State

You Want to Defund Planned Parenthood & Title X? Look at Texas AOC Sensual Rebel

Texas As An Example of What’s Ahead for States March 2011

The state of Texas has some of the most restrictive policies in the US regarding minors’ access to prescription birth control without parental consent, according to the Dallas Morning News. Texas has the highest rate of teen pregnancy live births in America, according to a 2010 Guttmacher Institute report, while the state ranks 4th in overall pregnancy rate.

While we all celebrate the new survey results suggesting that sexual activity may be down among teens, Texas is a real-world look at what’s ahead for taxpayers. In terms of educational test scores, Texas is at the bottom.

• Texas is #49 in verbal SAT scores in the nation (493) and #46 in average math SAT scores (502).
• Texas is #36 in the nation in high school graduation rates (68%).

A Vicious Cycle

Only 40 percent of teen moms giving birth at age 17 or earlier finish high school. About 23 percent of young mothers earn a GED, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

The facts are that daughters of teen mothers are three times more likely to become teen parents than girls with older moms. Sons born to teen parents are more likely to be incarcerated. Note that the Texas Department of State Health Services quotes the Guttmacher Institute extensively.

Tina Brown Kicks Off Women in the World Summit | Texas Drops130,000 Poor Women As Republicans Reject Title X

Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

2012 Summit: Who’s On Stage The Daily Beast

Co-Hosts

Tina Brown | Editor in Chief, Newsweek & The Daily Beast

Lauren Bush Lauren Chief Feeder & Cofounder, Feed Projects, LLC

Watch the conference livestream and read the bios of these incredible women who are devoted to improving women’s lives worldwide.

War on Women Update

Pennsylvania | Just in from Planned Parenthood to women activists. That would be Anne.

YOU DID IT! Thanks to the outrage of tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians like you, the Ultrasound Bill - HB1077- is on hold indefinitely! Every single State Representative received hundreds of emails and phone calls expressing outrage at the excessive government overreach of the bill. Earlier this week, the bill was sent back to the Health Committee where it will stay until major changes are made.

Because of our strength, our opponents have backed down, but there seems to be no limit to their willingness to curtail reproductive rights in Harrisburg. Even though dozens of your representatives have come out in opposition and an unprecedented TWENTY-SIX who had originally signed on have removed their names from HB 1077, we need to keep up the fight!

International Women’s Day, Congress Debates Measure To Limit Reproductive Rights Huffington Post

The House Judiciary Subcommittee began on Thursday to discuss the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA), sponsored by two Florida Republicans, Marco Rubio in the Senate and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the House. The bill would make it illegal for anyone but a parent to accompany a young woman across state lines to seek an abortion — even if her parents are absent or abusive.

Dem women senators press Boehner to nix birth-control vote The Hill

More DFR

Rosario Espriella and her children at Planned Parenthood in Edinburg, Tex. The agency has closed four clinics in the county. Eddie Seal for The New York Times Texas health care clinics are slashing poor women’s services, refusing federal funds under the Medicaid Women’s Health Care Program for 130,000 poor women. Gov. Rick Perry and Republican lawmakers have said the will forgo the $35 million in federal money that finances women’s health care rather than let Planned Parenthood have one dime.

In these state-level culture wars that seek to prevent women from receiving services that are legal in America including the morning-after pill, poor women are pawns in a men’s game of political chess.

Nationally, the four Republican candidates for president also want to abolish Title X at a federal level. Planned Parenthood sees about one-third of the five million low-income people covered under Title X, which has existed since the Nixon Administration, with dollars that represent one quarter of its budget.

Like other federal financing, Title X does not pay for abortions. Only some of it covers birth control. Title X also provides money for cervical and breast cancer screening, testing for H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases, adolescent abstinence counseling, infertility counseling and other services.

Texas Women Suffer Now

Texas already is a leading state in the nation, cutting back health services to poor women. A year ago, Anne wrote You Want to Defund Planned Parenthood & Title X? Look at Texas AOC Sensual Rebel

Texas is #49 in verbal SAT scores in the nation (493) and #46 in average math SAT scores (502). Texas is #36 in the nation in high school graduation rates.

Texas also leads the nation in repeat pregnancies, with Dallas being the top city. Even teens who have given birth once are prohibited from obtaining birth control without parental consent.

Only 40 percent of teen moms giving birth at age 17 or earlier finish high school. Daughters of teen mothers are three times more likely to become teen parents than girls with older moms. Eight of 10 teenage fathers do not marry the mothers of their first children.

Anne of Carversville

Filippa Hamilton | Pascal Chevallier | Elle Spain March 2012 | La Dona del Sur

AOC Style

Filippa Hamilton | Riccardo Tinelli | Elle Spain March 2012 | Affaire Flamenco

Irina Kulikova | Fred Meylan | Harper’s Bazaar Korea March 2012 | ‘Primitive Chic’

AOC Private Studio

Adriana Lima | André Passos | Vogue Brazil February 2012 | ‘Potência Máxima’

Adriana Lima | J.R. Duran | Vogue Brazil February 2012 | ‘On the Road’

Filippa Hamilton | Santiago Esteban | Elle Spain March 2012 | Un Nuevo Aire Gipsy

Filippa Hamilton | Juan Aldabaldetrecu | Elle Spain March 2012 | ‘De Casta … Sexy’

Sensuality News

SN Living

Shelby Keeton | Jason Hetherington | Marie Claire UK April 2012 | Rebel Rebel

Codie Young | Naomi Yang | Vogue Taiwan March 2012 | Pop Story

Hailey Clauson | David Vasiljevic | Numéro Tokyo April 2012

Kim Mooil | Harper’s Bazaar Korea March 2012 | Everything Is Fake

FACTOID | Contraception Works

Two-thirds of American women using contraception properly account for only 5% of all unintended pregnancies. The 19% of women at risk who use contraception erratically account for 44% of all unintended pregnancies, while the 16% of women at risk who use no contraception one month or more account for 52% of all unintended pregnancies.