Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt

Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made turning back the clock on women’s reproductive rights central to its new mission.

A draft of its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan states unequivocally that the goals of HHS are contingent upon “serving and protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception.” This alarming and unproven definition of when life begins directly undermines the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v Wade that affirms the constitutional right to safe and legal abortion.

As a Member of Congress, recently departed HHS Secretary Tom Price sponsored the “Right to Life Act,” a bill that defined life as beginning at conception and would give zygotes (or a “preborn human person”) full legal rights with no exception for rape, incest, or threat to a woman’s life.

Now, the strategic review process begun by Tom Price continues under the leadership of religious conservatives like Teresa Manning, deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, an anti-abortion activist who once claimed that the “efficacy” of birth control is “very low” and that “family planning is something that occurs between a husband and a wife and God.”

HHS has opened the door for a barrage of actions against women, particularly low-income women and those who are most vulnerable. Their recent move to shred the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers cover birth control is just the first example.

The draft of the HHS strategic plan is open for comments through October 27. The National Organization for Women encourages every citizen to go on record objecting to this medically unsound, politically extreme, and morally indefensible mission statement.

A woman’s reproductive choices should be between herself and licensed physician, not Congress, not the President of the United States, and not the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.

Contact

M.E. Ficarra, press@now.org, 951-547-1241

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

The Motion Picture Academy did the right thing by revoking Harvey Weinstein’s membership. The National Organization for Women was one of the first to call for the Academy to remove Harvey Weinstein from their membership roster, and we are gratified they faced their responsibility today. But Hollywood still has a pervasive problem with the systematic abuse of women by powerful men who believe their power and privilege will always protect them.

Every studio, every talent agency, every entertainment lawyer and every business that participates in the “star-making machinery” has an obligation to women—and to humanity—to end the silence that surrounds sexual abuse. It shouldn’t take a Harvey Weinstein to change the way Hollywood deals with abusers. This sort of harassment and criminal assault takes place every day. When people in Hollywood see something, they should say something. It shouldn’t take a newspaper or magazine expose to hold people like Harvey Weinstein accountable.

The Motion Picture Academy made a good start today. But the hard work of changing the culture and holding abusers accountable for their crimes is just beginning.

Contact
M.E. Ficarra, press@now.org, 951-547-1241

“You Will Not Silence Us,” says NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is making support for the monthly vigil at the NRA Headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia on Saturday, October 14 part of NOW’s board meeting, which is taking place this weekend in Virginia.

The vigil is held on the 14th of every month in remembrance of the Sandy Hook massacre that occurred in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14, 2012 that took the lives of 26 innocents, mostly children.

“This month’s vigil is particularly heartbreaking,” says NOW President Toni Van Pelt. “In the wake of the Las Vegas attack that is the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, we have a solemn obligation to speak our truth to the terrible power that is the modern NRA.

“The NRA wants to keep our truth out of sight, out of mind, and out of earshot, but our message to the NRA is simple: despite the millions of dollars that you spend to silence members of Congress, you will not silence us. We will not stand for women being killed by abusers, families and workers being gunned down with assault weapons, school children massacred and happy crowds being slaughtered without remorse or accountability by the gun industry and the Congress who refuses to regulate gun ownership.

“We know that people with a history of committing domestic violence are five times more likely to subsequently murder an intimate partner when a firearm is in the house. And over the past 25 years, more intimate partner homicides in the U.S. have been committed with guns than with all other weapons combined.”

More than half of women murdered with guns in the U.S. in 2011 — at least 53 percent — were killed by intimate partners or family members. And research by Everytown for Gun Safety establishes that this is also true for mass shootings: in 57 percent of the mass shootings between January 2009 and June 2014, the perpetrator killed an intimate partner or family member.

NOW supports the Democratic candidates who are running for statewide office in Virginia and appearing at Saturday’s vigil, Lt. Gov Ralph Northam, candidate for Governor, Justin Fairfax, candidate for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General Mark Herring, who is running for re-election. In addition, NOW calls on Congress to close the loopholes in the federal gun prohibitions to ensure that stalkers and dating partners are barred from gun ownerships just like other dangerous abusers. Congress must also require comprehensive background checks and ensure that prohibited domestic abusers cannot easily evade background checks by purchasing guns from unlicensed sellers.

“Domestic violence is inextricably linked to gun violence,” says Toni Van Pelt. “It’s long past time to stop playing politics with women’s lives. We will shame the NRA, confront the NRA and defy the NRA at every turn.”

Contact
M.E. Ficarra, press@now.org, 951-547-1241