Tag Archive for "state legislature"

Posts Tagged state legislature

Laughing to the polls

Last Tuesday, I attended the launch of the Lady Parts Justice campaign, a newly designed rapid response reproductive rights messaging hub centering around comedy to mobilize women voters to the polls for local, state and national elections. Some weeks ago, LPJ asked women from across the country to send their stories on abortion to share. I, along with Sally Kohn and Zerlina Maxwell, read stories from women around the country at the event.

I read a story from a woman in Indiana. Her candor was compelling:

By Katherine Cross • 10 years ago

Out From Privacy’s Penumbra: What the “Peeping Mike” Case Tells Us About Women and Law

In her peerless analysis of privacy’s social construction, feminist legal theorist Catharine MacKinnon pointedly observed in Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws that,

“The realm in which women’s everyday life is lived, the setting for many of these daily atrocities [rape, battery, sexual assault], is termed ‘the private.’ Law defines the private as where law is not, that into which the law does not intrude, where no harm is done other than by law’s presence. In everyday life, the privacy is his.”

This dramatic reframing of women’s experience was one that forced us to consider what our cherished notion of “privacy”—that evanescent constitutional right that Supreme Court Justice William Douglas found in the “penumbras and emanations” of the 1789 document—actually ...

In her peerless analysis of privacy’s social construction, feminist legal theorist Catharine MacKinnon pointedly observed in Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws that,

“The realm in which women’s everyday life is lived, the setting for many of ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

Could this be the year the pro-choice movement goes on the offensive?

According to the tally from the Guttmacher Institute, 51 pro-choice measures have been introduced in 14 states this year–the highest number in a couple decades. Bloomberg reports:

The volume of state-level, pro-abortion-rights legislation outstrips that of any year since the early 1990s, when states sought to codify access to the procedure, said Elizabeth Nash, states issues manager at the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based reproductive health researcher. Some proposals seek to repeal restrictions fresh on the books, enacted during the past three years after Republicans took control of more legislatures and governorships. Others would ease access.

“Women’s legal right to access a safe abortion is being eliminated,” said state Representative Dan Frankel, a Democrat leading the effort in Pennsylvania. ...

According to the tally from the Guttmacher Institute, 51 pro-choice measures have been introduced in 14 states this year–the highest number in a couple decades. Bloomberg reports:

The volume of state-level, pro-abortion-rights legislation outstrips that ...

By Sharkfu • 11 years ago

Notes from a bitch – making the case for Sue Shear by trying to cut funding for it…

Let’s jump right on in, shall we?

I’ve long said that people need to keep a close watch on their state legislature. I’m a Missourian and my state Assembly meets for five months each year. That means five months of watching the Republicans who control both the House and Senate file bills to restrict access to reproductive health care, drug test people who receive food assistance, and cut funding for social programs to the bone.

Even with that wretched history, I was surprised by a Republican amendment to cut funding for the Sue Shear Institute created to increase the number of women in government, civic and policymaking roles.

In my defense, my surprise comes from the fact that the Sue Shear ...

Let’s jump right on in, shall we?

I’ve long said that people need to keep a close watch on their state legislature. I’m a Missourian and my state Assembly meets for five months each year. That means five ...