UPDATE: New York Magazine to Drop Sex Ads
November 8th Protest Cancelled
New York Magazine has decided to eliminate its "adult" advertisements and to work with NOW-NYC to fight human trafficking in the coming year. This is great news for the magazine, women and the movement to bring an end to human trafficking in our city. We applaud the leadership of New York Magazine, and we look forward to celebrating this progress in the very near future with you.
For nearly 2 years, BQNOW has worked with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women to end human trafficking in NYC and NYS.
We join with NOW-NYC in targeting New York Magazine next Thursday, November 8th. NY Magazine has been asked repeatedly to refuse Sex advertisements. They categorically refuse. It's time to tell them where we stand!
Tell your friends and coworkers. We must end this practice.
~BQNOW Board~
PROTEST
NEW YORK MAGAZINE PIMPS WOMEN!
Demand they get out
of the prostitution business!
Thursday November 8th at 12 Noon
75 Varick Street
(1, A, C, E to Canal Street)
With ads for sex tours that advertise “have your own harem” and ads for massage parlors that promise “accommodating Asian women”
New York Magazine is the marketing arm of the organized crime world of prostitution and trafficking.
The average age of entry into prostitution for American women is 14 years old. Many foreign and domestic women are trafficked to NYC to meet demand for commercial sex. The New York Legislature passed a law this year to combat this growing problem.
New York Magazine doesn’t care. It makes $10,000 a week facilitating the commercial sex industry. They even charge more for massage ads in the adult section than
for massage ads in the therapy section. There’s a premium on illegal businesses.
New York Magazine represents the life and times of New Yorkers. Demand that they take responsibility for their role in the commercial sexual exploitation of women in NYC by not accepting these blatant ads.
Sponsored by BQNOW; NOW-NYC; Equality Now, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women; NY State Anti-Trafficking Coalition
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Oppose Susan Orr as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Population Affairs
The Bush administration has announced the appointment of staunchly anti-birth control Susan Orr to a leadership role in the Office of Population Affairs. Orr's anti-reproductive health stance is clear. She applauded President Bush's reinstatement of the global gag rule and urged him to revoke approval for mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486) — both while working for the notoriously anti-choice, anti-birth control, anti-sex education organization, the Family Research Council.
It is hard to imagine a more mismatched role for Susan Orr than one in the Office of Population Affairs, the department that advises the secretary of health on policies concerning reproductive health. In other words, a virulently anti-family planning radical is in charge of family planning. Appointments don't get more egregious than this.
Thank you for taking the time today to tell President Bush to put women's health before politics.
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ACTION ALERT! DON'T LET THE SCHIP GO DOWN!
THE SCOOP ON SCHIP: This federal health care program (one of our favorites!) helps families afford health coverage for their children (and this help is critically important because right now 1 in 9 children are without health care coverage at all!). Under new rules, made by the President, some children who depend on lower-cost health care coverage will have to wait a full year--with no insurance at all--to qualify for help. This outrageous requirement is part of a slate of changes made to limit the number of children who can benefit from the lower-cost health care coverage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). These problematic changes include the following:
- Requiring a 1-year waiting period--with no insurance at all--for some children before they can be covered;
- Pushing states to only cover children whose families are at 250% of the federal poverty level, regardless of the cost of living in that state;
- Tying children's health coverage to private insurance enrollment rates: if private insurance enrollment is down in a state (for any reason), then the federal government won't cover more kids. This just plain doesn't make sense-particularly because private insurance enrollment is often tied to a job so there could be a scenario where unemployment would go up, but help for kids' health care would go down!
When Congress returns from its recess in September, it will take up funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program again. Tell your representatives that they must reverse these new and backward-thinking rules, and fully fund the program.
Stand together to send Congress a strong message: KIDS CAN'T WAIT FOR HEALTHCARE: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/momsrising/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12417
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14th Annual Safe Homes Project
Domestic Violence Remembrance Vigil
Please join us on:
Friday, October 12th - 6:30 PM; Rain or Shine
Outside PS 321, 7th Avenue corner of 1st Street
Park Slope, Brooklyn
In memory of those lost
To honor those who survive
October 2006 - October 2007
For more information call: 718 499-2151
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Pharmacists Do Not Have the Right to Determine Women's Health Care and Childbearing Decisions
Reports of pharmacists refusing to fill legally-prescribed prescriptions for birth control, including emergency contraceptives, have surfaced in states across the nation, including California, Georgia, Louisiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Washington state and Wisconsin. These refusals to dispense prescription contraceptives appear to be based on a pharmacist's personal religious beliefs, not on legitimate medical or professional concerns about safety and the welfare of the customer.
The same pharmacists who refuse to dispense contraceptives because of their personal beliefs often refuse to hand a woman's prescription to
another pharmacist on site or refer her to a different pharmacy. This further compounds their unprofessional action and seriously impedes the
right of women to seek timely and safe prescriptions, especially when their whole physical, psychological and family planning future is at stake.
It is arbitrary and discriminatory for pharmacists to refuse to dispense
legally-prescribed birth control, holding the power over customers and
delaying or preventing women from meeting their most basic health needs,
including pregnancy prevention and treatment of various medical
conditions. Pharmacist refusals are particularly burdensome to rural and
low-income women, who may be unable to find or travel to another
pharmacy to have their prescriptions filled without considerable
hardship.
Urge your senators and representatives to support the Access to Legal
Pharmaceuticals Act, ALPhA, S. 809 introduced by Senator Frank
Lautenberg (D-NJ), and H.R. 1652 introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney
(D-NY) and Christopher Shays (R-CT).
This important bipartisan legislation will protect an individual's right
to have access to legal contraception. If a pharmacist has a personal
objection to filling a legal prescription for a drug or device, the
pharmacy will be required to ensure that the prescription is filled by
another pharmacist employed by the pharmacy who does not have a personal
objection. This includes all legal prescriptions.
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TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN AND GIRLS
Trafficking is a modern form of slavery. Women and children are especially vulnerable to violent coercion, and threats of deportation and arrrest. They are sujected to the worst abuses of trafficking and are highly valuable to the sex industry- a multi-billion dollar enterprise.
An estimated 14,000 to 17,000 persons are trafficked annually into the U.S. for purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. It is estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 victims of human trafficking currently reside in New York State. New York currently has NO laws against human trafficking. However, New York does has laws against prostitution- these laws often punish victims of trafficking, who are forced to perform certain illegal acts against their will.
Brooklyn-Queens NOW supports Assembly Bill A. 1898-B. This bill makes the specific crime of “trafficking” a felony, and provides services to victims, entitling them to benefits and victim compensation funds. Ask Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to support this legislation.
Speaker Sheldon Silver, New York State Assembly, LOB 932, Albany, NY 12248
For more information: www.equalitynow.org
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HANDCUFFING AND SHACKLING PREGNANT
INMATES DURING LABOR.
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery has written a bill to prohibit
the use of restraints on any pregnant female prisoner who is in labor.
This barbaric practice has been outlawed in several other states. In
April, the Senate Republican majority blocked her bill from coming to
the Senate floor..
If you live in one of the following state senate districts,
you’re represented by someone endorsed by the Republican Party in the
last election: Brooklyn members who live in SD 22 (Martin Golden) or 27
(Carl Kruger); Queens members who live in SD 11 (Frank Padavan), 14
(Malcolm Smith) or 15 (Serphin Maltese). We want THESE state senators to
get behind 2 pieces of legislation: S6895 (Anti-Shackling Bill), which
has no Republican co-sponsors and the Assembly-only bill against human
trafficking (A1898-B). There’s no senate version of this bill.
These people want your vote. Let’s make them EARN it!
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Stop Drive-Through Mastectomies. Since the 1990s, women in our country have had their health placed second to health care industry profits. After the fear of discovering they have breast cancer, women who have undergone surgical procedures to remove the cancer are then pushed out of the hospital, sometimes within 24 hours, to somehow cope with the open wounds and physical therapy and accompanying pain alone... all in the name of the hospital's bottom line..
There are bills in the House of Representatives and in the U. S. Senate which would mandate a minimum hospital stay. Sadly, nothing has happened since April, 2005. This year, an election year, is the time to change that. Of note is that
NEITHER CLINTON NOR SCHUMER are co-sponsors of the Senate bill S-910. In the House, Brooklyn and Queens representatives are mostly behind the legislation HR 1849, but still, the bill languishes in committee. Here's a link to the website and some information about the bills: http://thomas.loc.gov/
Title: A bill to require that health plans provide coverage for a minimum hospital stay for mastectomies, lumpectomies, and lymph node dissection for the treatment of breast cancer and coverage for secondary consultations.
Latest Major Action: 4/26/2005. Referred to Senate committee.
Status: Read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. In the House, the bill was referred to Ways and Means and various subcommittees. Nothing has happened in either house.
ACTION: Contact your representatives, Senator Schumer and Senator Clinton. Tell them you want to see these bills become law this year.
NOTE THAT CLINTON (who is up for re-election this November) SITS ON THE COMMITTEE TO WHICH THE BILL WAS SENT.
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The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) 2005 Reauthorization bill will be introduced by both the Senate and House early this spring. Please help by asking your senators and representative to co-sponsor the reauthorization.
VAWA was passed in 1994, reauthorized and enhanced in 2000,
and is due to expire this Fall unless it is reauthorized again.
Because of VAWA, a broad range of services now exist to provide
much-needed aid to women who must cope with the aftermath of
domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, rape, incest
and stalking. Although we have made advances in
public attention to this issue and improved services to victims
since VAWA's passage a decade ago, much still remains to be done
to combat and prevent intimate, family and sexual violence
against women.
During these political hard times with budget deficits and
program rollbacks, advocates face an uphill battle to win
support for legislation that will call for more funds and expand
services and attention to this issue. But we cannot
abandon nor dilute our determination to make eradicating sexual
and domestic violence a fundamental national priority.
We must fervently and insistently ask for support for an
expanded and enhanced VAWA that continues the integrity of the
original bill and diversifies the prevention and program
efforts.
VAWA 2005 Improvements must include:
- Giving violence survivors reasonable unpaid leave from work to address their situation, including attending court hearings; unemployment coverage if they can't continue working or are released from their jobs; and protection from job discrimination.
- Increasing the options for survivors of domestic violence who need transitional housing.
- Expanding prevention and intervention programs targeted at children and youth, and including "minors" in all programs and services. Additional attention must be paid to underserved communities and individuals.
- Improving the training and education of health care providers to improve medical services for survivors.
- Extending VAWA's outreach to communities near and far to ensure that everyone has access to prevention strategies and to vital protective and recuperative services.
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EC for Rape Victims. Ask your representative to sponsor H.R. 1214, a bill introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). This proposal, which has more than 50 sponsors, will require the Department of Justice to include emergency contraception for rape victims in its national protocol for treatment of rape survivors. These first-ever national medical guidelines originally included EC as part of the rape treatment options, but recommendations about EC disappeared in the final version. Rape survivors who seek medical treatment must have information about EC and the option to take it as part of their medical treatment.
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DEMOCRATIC LEADERS RECRUITING ANTI-ABORTION CANDIDATES! Democratic leaders are actively recruiting anti-abortion candidates and forcing out pro-choice Democrats! Tell Democratic leaders that moving to the Right is the
Wrong strategy.
Democratic leaders recently forced winning pro-choice candidate Barbara Hafer out of the 2006 Pennsylvania Senate race against extremist Republican incumbent Rick Santorum. Why? So they could run an anti-abortion Democrat. This is the same losing tactic they used against Santorum in 2000. We must speak out to stop the Democratic Party from becoming "Republican-lite" on women's issues and undermining its own women candidates.
Barbara Hafer is a strong advocate for reproductive rights and was the frontrunner to take on Rick Santorum in the 2006 Pennsylvania Senate. She has just been forced out of the race by Democratic leaders and consultants in favor of an anti-abortion candidate they recruited.
Who did top Democrats pick to run against Santorum, one of the leading anti-abortion, anti-women's rights and anti-gay senators? Top Democrats recruited Robert P. Casey Jr., a staunch abortion opponent. And who made sure that Hafer would not run? She was pushed out by our Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who, as head of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, serves as the top Senate recruiter for the Democrats. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who previously supported Hafer, then made the call forcing her out of the race. Political consultants are already lining up with the Casey campaign.
Don't mistake this for a random act—it is a calculated effort by party leaders to build a so-called "bigger tent" at the expense of women's rights. It almost happened in Rhode Island as well, where Schumer and national Democratic leaders tried to recruit an anti-abortion candidate to run against a pro-choice candidate in the party's Senate primary and against a pro-choice Republican Senator in the general election. Thanks to the strong and vocal opposition of Rhode Island NOW activists, the anti-choice candidate decided to stay in his safe house seat, and every remaining potential candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination now professes his commitment to reproductive rights.
Call or write Senator Schumer and tell him that, moving to the Right is the Wrong strategy! If you won't stand up for women and women's rights - core Democratic values - then you can't expect women's rights supporters to stand up for you.
Senator Charles Schumer, 313 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510-3203, Telephone: 202-224-6542. Fax: 202-228-3027
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