This Week with UHPP

This week with Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood Women's Agenda In The NYS Budget   New York has a long and proud legacy of leading the way to advance women’s rights. From the birth of the women’s rights movement at Seneca Falls to the recent passage of the most comprehensive Paid Family Leave policy in the nation, New York continues to champion women’s rights and break down barriers to equality. In 2018, we have an opportunity to build on this progress and continue to advance equality across all areas of life. While the federal government seeks to roll back women’s rights, New York State looks toward the future. With these bold set of proposals, the 2018 Agenda will create opportunity for women to succeed in every area: work, health, safety, education and family life and you can learn more about each of them here. Call your elected officials in the NYS Senate and Assembly TODAY and urge them to include the Women's Agenda, including the Comprehensive Contraceptive Coverage Act, $750,000 legislative add for the Family Planning Grant, decriminalization of abortion, and the creation of a maternal mortality review board in the NYS Budget!   Find your NYS Assembly Member        Find your NYS Senate Member #TheFWord - April Book Club Meeting As you all know we try to focus on national themes with our book club selections and this month is no different. March is Women’s History Month, and to celebrate all the amazing women who have gone down in history as feminist icons, we have decided to read about a young woman who embodies just this. This month The F Word will be reading, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai. We will be meeting at 3Fish Coffee on Sunday, April 8th at 11am to review this incredible novel and discuss ways we can support and uplift the women in our communities who make us all stronger. When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate.     Sunday, April 8th at 11:00am 3Fish Coffee 466 Madison Ave, Albany, NY 12208 Volunteer Training Night Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood is looking for volunteers to get involved and to help us engage our community through outreach efforts and get out the vote opportunities this Spring! Are you interested in working side by side at community events across the capital region spreading Upper Hudson Planned Parenthoods mission? Are you ready to continue to fight for reproductive freedom and help educate our community on the importance of safer sex? Together, we can demostrate our power, engage our people and move our work of expanding access to sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights forward! As we head into the warmer months, we are looking for passionate, committed advocates who want to volunteer for community outreach initiatives including tabling at summer fairs, Healthy Neighborhood Canvassing and with our non-partisan our voter registration campaign! Join us at our next volunteer training night to learn more about available volunteer opportunities and start the training you will need to join us in the streets. Dinner will be served! Reserve your spot today!  Monday, April 16th 6-8pm Albany Conference Room 855 Central Avenue #Abortion Access Bowl-A-Thon 2018 Say NO to back alleys, and YES to bowling alleys! Join Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood at Del Lanes in Delmar on April 29th at 2pm to #FundAbortionBuildPower. We're lacing up our bowling shoes and getting to work! Want to show up for abortion access? Support us by making a donation to our team or join the squad! The process is fast, easy, and secure! Bowl with the UHPP staff, invest in abortion funds and raise money with us. Get more info on the UHPP team here! Send a message that you believe we all should be able to access abortion, no matter how much money we make or where we live. Care, no matter what!    Sunday, April 29th at 2:00pm Del Lanes in Delmar 4 Bethlehem Ct, Delmar, NY 12054 Copyright © 2018 Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood, All rights reserved.  Thank you for joining our list Our mailing address is: 855 Central Avenue Albany, NY 12206

I want to be more like Eleanor Roosevelt

You think that women in NYS have equality? Think again.

Click to enlarge

It's About Equality...

Grabbed this from the cool folks at www.upworthy.com.  Awesome website.

ORIGINAL: Quote by Ellen Page ("Inception," "Juno") in an interview with The Washington Post. Graphic by Women's Rights News.

No, Stop, Quit it, ENOUGH!

The video below addresses the apparently confusing matter of how to treat a girl who has had too much to drink. Rather than treating her like an inflatable doll and then blaming HER for any assault she may have withstood while in a drunken stupor, think about some of your less sober college days.  Hey, perhaps you still indulge in the hooch to excess in your free time.  No judgment here-- as long as nobody gets hurt.  I'm also sure that none of you have ever done anything really, really, stupid (I'm not just talking about funny stupid-- I'm talking about potentially life-threatening or at the very least end-up-in-jail stupid). 

So why is it socially acceptable for some to treat women in such a terrible way?  Regarding the now-infamous Steubenville case, the victim blaming that occured afterward was horrifying.  Not only was there sympathy for the rapists, ("They had such promising futures!") but she was publicly humiliated when her name was released and her identity was revealed, resulting in death threats.  And the logic behind this, essentially, is that "she had it coming because she drank too much," or "she should have known better."  Just because she drank too much doesn't mean she should suffer the gross injustices inflicted upon her. 

If you are a college-age individual, I ask you: how would you feel if one of your less-than-classy moments of drunkenness was paraded all over the media for everyone to see and judge you upon?  Even without having been raped, I'm sure you would have been mortified.  If you are older and maybe have children of your own,  how would you feel if this happened to your daughter? 

It's time for the victim shaming to stop.  It's time for people to quit treating intoxicated women as public property, and it's definitely time to end this pervasive rape culture.  So who's with me?

Happy Birthday Gloria Steinem

Commentary Recommendation: Respect women's autonomy

"Gov. Andrew Cuomo designated women's equality as one of his top legislative priorities. There should be nothing controversial about promoting equal pay, fighting domestic violence and human trafficking, or affirming that a woman should be able to make her own reproductive health decisions.

 

Yet the governor's action has sparked a furious response from the New York's Catholic bishops, who argue that access to comprehensive reproductive health services has no place in a discussion about women's health and well-being.

Catholic values, however, say otherwise, and the bishops' claims are not consistent with the way that most Catholics, in good faith, live their lives."
Read more.  

Jon O'Brien's wonderful commentary, posted yesterday on the Times Union Website, makes a lot of great points about the most recent religious controversy: the issue of Catholic Bishops speaking out about the Women's Equality Agenda. I couldn't say it better myself, so I encourage everyone to give it a good read.

What You Probably Don't Know About the Women's Equality Agenda

If you're anything like me, you probably find the influx of all of these "acts", "agendas," and other hot topics in the news quite overwhelming.  It seems like everyone wants to shout about something these days, and who can keep track of it all?  Throughout most of my twenties I floated around in a haze of ignorant bliss, choosing not to be bothered by the rabble of politicians and lobbyists.

Until I woke up and started realizing that this stuff actually mattered.

I was too busy having fun and being self-absorbed to realize that I --in the 21st century-- still was not being treated fairly and with equality.  You may shake your head and say to yourself; no way, that cannot be true. Things are fine.  Well, you would be wrong.

I was astonished to find out that even today, women in New York earn between 55 and 80 cents for every dollar a man earns.  That's not speculation, that's a fact.

Women with children are less likely to be hired and/or promoted for a position if they have children, and in most cases, make a lower salary than men with children, if they are hired in the first place.

But here's where things get really crazy, because it's not just about pay equality.  In many cases, our safety and rights are directly affected.  For example:

• Women who work for very small companies-- with four employees or less-- can't file a lawsuit to stop sexual harassment.
• Landlords can legally evict or refuse to rent to victims of domestic violence; 85 percent of whom are women.
• Victims of sex and labor trafficking are often treated like the criminals, while the penalties for their abusers rarely fit the severity of the crime, and believe me, those crimes are horrifying.  Here's an excerpt from one story I read:

"I was involved in trafficking for more than six months. I compare that time to being held hostage in a timeless existence where my mind engaged itself in disassociation with my soul. This mental state was the only way in which I could keep any sanity. Repeatedly, I witnessed the beatings, rapes and murders of innocent women." --"A Survivor''s Story," StopHumanTraffickingNY

• There actually is no law on the books protecting pregnant women from being pushed out of their jobs if they need any modest workplace accomodations-- even simple things like an extra break, or perhaps a stool to sit on rather than having to stand behind a counter all day.
• New York abortion law fails to provide the same, comprehensive protections guaranteed in Roe v Wade, and is classified under the penal code instead of the health code. Tell me how that makes sense.

Overall, I would say our legislators have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to take NY out of the stone ages, or at the very least, out of the Mad Men days of Don Draper slapping behinds and calling ladies "toots."  There is absolutely no reason that violence against women or sexual harassment should ever be tolerated. Ever.

So could you do me a favor?  If you read this and thought, wow, that's not right, then utilize the links below to contact your legislators.  Make your voices heard, ladies. Stand up for your rights!

• Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood Online
• NYCLU - Take Action; sign the petition!
• NARAL - Contact your representatives!