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The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health applauds the Obama Administration for its recent release of the United States’ first ever nation-wide comprehensive HIV/AIDS reduction strategy as part of the recent health care reform law.  With 56,000 new infections in the nation every year and 1.1 million Americans living with HIV/AIDS, the strategy will focus on prevention through increased education, testing, and removing the stigma associated with the disease.  Read more »

 Statement from the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health

Yesterday, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. If confirmed, Kagan would become the third woman to sit on the nine-person court, making it the most representation by women in the history of the court. Solicitor General Kagan would fill the seat of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, a long-time supporter of civil and reproductive rights.

The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) applauds President Obama for his decision to nominate a woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kagan is a well-qualified nominee with extensive legal experience, who has long been known for challenging traditional stereotypes. A former Harvard Law School Dean, she currently is the first woman to hold the position of Solicitor General. Read more »

Last night, the House of Representatives voted 219-212 to pass health care reform.

The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health commends Congress and the Administration for continuing to push for much-needed health reform and we encourage the Senate to pass the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act that includes critical pieces affecting our community.  

However, this battle was fought on the bodies of women and immigrant women.  In the eleventh hour, President Barack Obama caved to the demands of a handful of anti-choice Democrats by agreeing to use the lives of women as trade.  He will use his pen to add weight to the already cumbersome abortion restrictions in the health care bill.  Latinas, immigrants, and women of color are deeply affected by any language restricting abortion access – because women of color and immigrants are disproportionately poor, they are less likely to be able to pay for reproductive health care out-of-pocket, which puts them at risk for seeking alternative, unsafe abortion methods. While health reform might lead to more Latinas being covered, it leaves out a significant portion of the population.  By excluding and stigmatizing immigrants and women who need abortions, we are pushing them to the shadows of our health care system and placing unfair burden on the already-strained system of community health care centers and emergency rooms.  Over half of all immigrants are women, and 53% of all immigrants are from Latin America; though it has yet to be signed by the President, this bill is outdated already. 
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This upcoming Sunday, March 21, thousands of people from all over the nation will fly, drive, and walk to Washington D.C. to march for immigration reform.

March for America, organized by Reform Immigration for America, is scheduled to begin at 1:00pm with an Interfaith Prayer Service on the National Mall.

Staff from the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and other members of the National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights (NCIWR) will be at the event handing out posters, pins and other information. To find us, just come to the corner of 12th and Madison Street on the North side of the National Mall.

Want to know more about why we march? Don’t know how to get around on the nation’s capital? No problem! NCIWR has developed a tool kit with all this information and more helpful hints for you to make the most out of the march. To access it, go to this page on NCIWR’s website.  There you will also be able to download the posters and other advertising documents to hand-out and/or to bring with you to March of America.

See you there, and please spread the word!

More information available at our blog.

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On Monday, February 21st, President Obama unveiled the proposed health care reform plan that was discussed by Congress during the bi-partisan health care summit that took place on February 25th. The President hosted the six hour televised summit on health care reform where he brought together Republican and Democratic leaders to hammer out key provisions in the President’s proposal and offer new ideas and solutions. Read more »

On Monday, President Obama delivered the proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 to Congress.  
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The fight for health care reform has reached its last stage, and the bills passed by the House and the Senate are currently being merged by Democratic leadership.  It has been long and it has been tough, and now we are advocating for the best possible result even though closed-door meetings have replaced an open conference process.   Our efforts have not led us where we would have liked given the momentous opportunity that health care reform presented.  Certainly, the final bill will contain a number of key provisions that will improve the way people access health care by ending pre-existing conditions exclusions, expanding Medicaid, and ending gender-rating (the practice of charging women more than men for similar policies).  Although we knew from the beginning that this legislation would not create a system of truly universal health care, we dedicated our best efforts into improving reform options for Latinas and their families. Read more »

To those of you that have been paying attention to NLIRH’s work during the long process to craft and pass health care reform legislation, it might seem as though what was a flurry of action at the end of the year has died down.  Behind the scenes, however, we are hard at work.  Though many provisions in both the Senate and the House version of the health care reform legislation are deeply flawed, NLIRH is not ready to give up.  We are currently developing strategies and materials for the last leg of this struggle, and we are continuing our work both with activists on the ground and our colleagues in the movement to ensure that the merged bill comes out free of provisions that are hurtful to women of color, low-income people, and immigrants. 

The Senate and House versions of the bill will be merged soon, but right now it is not clear exactly how that will happen.  Though legislation typically enters a conference committee made up of members of both the House and Senate to resolve differences and emerge with a final bill, there is speculation that health care reform will undergo an alternative process in order to avoid Republican stalling tactics. 

Stay tuned – we will need all your help soon!

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Health care reform legislation is being debated right now, and your representatives need to hear from you!

Go here to take action and demand that health care reform legislation meet the needs of women and immigrants by sending an email or calling your Representatives.

Statement from the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health

Women, particularly Latinas, suffer tremendously under the current health care system and the ban on funding for comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion. In fact, one in four women living in poverty who want to choose abortion can’t because politicians prevent federal tax dollars from covering the procedure.   

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Day two of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings began with questions from Senators and Judge Sonia Sotomayor's answers under oath on the issues that impact the lives of our community. This conversation between the Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Judge Sotomayor marks one of the only times in which we will hear her explain her opinion on important issues affecting Latinas and all women. The right of privacy, upholding precedent and settled law such as Roe v. Wade were among the legal issues discussed during the second day of the hearings and are critical to ensure the reproductive rights and liberties of all Latinas. Read more »

Yesterday, the questions from Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee continued during the Sotomayor’s Confirmation Hearings in Washington, DC. Judge Sotomayor was asked many questions about her views on abortion rights, based on cases such as Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood.

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Yesterday marked the final day of the confirmation hearings and the last day where the public will hear directly from Judge Sotomayor.  The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman hopes to have a full committee vote on Judge Sotomayor’s nomination next Tuesday, July 21st, 2009. Read more »

Congress has recently launched a formal debate for reforming the ailing U.S. health care system. A Senate committee is currently considering a comprehensive bill backed by Democrats and the Obama administration. In the House, hearings on the Tri Committee Proposal, a single health care reform bill, are scheduled for this week. Both chambers are striving to vote on bills before the August recess in order that the conference committee can negotiate a compromise and send it to President Obama by October. Read more »

Commissioner von Eschenbach has assured Congress that the Office of Women’s Health (OWH) will be allocated $4 million in 2007. The Commissioner has made this assurance after a scare that the OWH would have its budget cut to 2.8 million only a few short weeks ago.

NLIRH applauds the efforts made to secure funding for the OWH because of the important role it has in informing the public on women’s reproductive health:

The Office of Women’s Health Office within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides Read more »

Just before its end, the Bush Administration put in place a set of regulations that would allow any employee of a health care provider to refuse to treat any individual receiving any services that would violate the employee’s moral beliefs, dramatically and unnecessarily expanding conscientious refusal protections and undermining the importance of reproductive health.

Now is the time to make your voice heard. Let Charles E. Johnson, Acting Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services know that we will not stand for scientifically inaccurate policies meant to undermine reproductive justice!

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In February Texas Governor Rick Perry issued an executive order mandating that all girls entering the sixth grade in 2008 get an HPV vaccine. In April, the state House voted 135-2, and the Senate voted 30-1 to pass HB 1098, a bill that would prevent mandatory HPV vaccines to be administered to sixth grade girls in Texas until 2011. On May 8, 2007 Gov. Perry announced that he would not veto that bill, therefore, the bill will become law.

Gov. Schwarzenegger proposes extending medical insurance to all Californians, including undocumented immigrants. The Californian Governor wants to transform the health care market by spreading the $12 billion cost of universal coverage among employers, individuals, insurers, government and health care providers.

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Immigration as a Matter of Reproductive Justice

Because NLIRH recognizes that the reproductive health of immigrant women is profoundly affected by immigration policy, we understand that it is imperative to monitor legislation that may affect the legal status and eligibility for benefits for immigrant women and their families.

Recently several bills have been introduced in the U.S. Congress that could have both a positive and/or negative affect on the reproductive health of Latinas if passed.

NLIRH gives a Yea to:

* S9: Calls for comprehensive reform Read more »

Last week President Bush named Eric Keroack as the new chief of the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Population Affairs (OPA), or rather, the office for family planning services.

The office provides funds for birth control, pregnancy tests, breast-cancer screening and other health services for millions low-income people annually. So Keroack, who has a record of opposing birth control and abortion, is not the best candidate for a position that will affect many Latinas in the U.S.

Lawmakers Making Waves Read more »

Are they serious?

Evidently yes. Some Missouri Congresspersons have declared that abortion is to blame for illegal immigration and have signed a committee report to that effect. They argue that the number of women getting abortions since its legalization has decreased the labor supply, and therefore undocumented persons are encouraged to cross borders illegally to fill the demand for labor in the U.S. market.

Anti-Choice, Anti-Immigration: The Link Read more »

1. Hope for the Future

NLIRH would like to thank all of you for getting out there and voting!!! The Democratic Party is now in the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate after almost 12 years of Republicans claiming the majority. More importantly than which Party is in power, we now have more pro-women, pro-health and pro-choice members. This is an important win for reproductive health advocates.

What does this mean for the next two years? Read more »