32 Girls Have Died

32 Girls Have Died

11,916 adverse events already reported to the CDC… and counting.

Pain and swelling. Life-threatening muscle weakness. Blood clots in the heart and lungs.

And the deaths of 32 innocent girls and young women.

You might think I'm talking about a deadly new disease or a global epidemic…

I'm not.

Sadly, it's more sinister than that. The health threats listed above have all been linked with Gardasil, the so-called "cervical cancer vaccine." And thanks to Pharma giant Merck, desperate parents and naive young women believe this vaccine saves lives… they couldn't be more wrong.

That's why HSI's Jenny Thompson has released a new video in which she exposes the deception for what it is…and reveals some truly shocking information no one else is talking about.

And you are the very first to see it.

Please, if you have daughters, granddaughters or friends who might be considering this terrible vaccine, you must watch this video. And please forward it to anyone you think would benefit from the vital information it contains.

If you think you know the whole story on Gardasil, I think you'll be shocked by what you're about to see. Just click here to start watching the video. It's just a few minutes long…and those few minutes might just save a young girl's life.

Urgent: Call Your Senators to Save Funding for Development Programs!

Urgent: Your Action Needed to Save Funding for International Development Programs!

During his inauguration speech, President Barack Obama pledged to work alongside the "people of poor nations...to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds."

"We can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders," President Obama said, underscoring the fragility of the world economy. On March 11, he took an important step towards this goal by requesting $53.8 billion for the country's fiscal year 2010 International Affairs Budget, which includes funding for vital development programs for women and families living in poverty.

This funding, while only 1.4 percent of the national budget, could mean the difference between life and death for millions who are struggling to survive on less than a dollar a day, many of whom have been plunged into extreme poverty over the past few months. However, this week the Congressional Budget Committees cut the President's International Affairs Budget request by $5.3 billion in the House and $4.0 billion in the Senate.

Take Action! Tell the Senate to Restore Lifesaving Funding for the International Affairs Budget!

Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) will be offering an amendment this week to restore funding for the International Affairs Budget. As supporters of women's economic opportunity, we must do all we can to gain support for the Kerry-Lugar amendment so that this important support reaches the millions of women and families around the world who are living in extreme poverty. Please take action today by asking your Senators to co-sponsor the Kerry-Lugar Amendment and oppose any further cutting amendments.

Take Action: Call your Senators today and urge them to support the Kerry-Lugar Amendment to restore $4 billion to the International Affairs Budget and oppose any further cutting amendments!

How to Take Action:

1. Click here to look up your Senators' office phone numbers.

2. When an office staffer answers the phone say, "As a consituent of Senator ______, I am calling to urge the Senator to support the Kerry-Lugar Amendment to restore the $4 billion cut to the FY10 International Affairs Budget in the Senate Budget Resolution and oppose any further cutting amendments." Click here for more talking points.

Thank you for taking action on behalf of women and girls worldwide!

Don't Forget: RSVP for Wednesday's Tele-Conference on Pres. Obama & Women!

March 2009 | Women Thrive Worldwide | Photo Credits: Sara Heinrichs, Steve Evans, Sara Heinrichs

Join Us for Our New National Tele-Conference Series!

On International Women's Day, March 8th, Women Thrive Worldwide launched our new free tele-conference series on global women's issues. Join us quarterly to hear from our experts on some of the most important issues facing women in the developing world as well and what's going on in Washington, DC. Ask questions, stay informed, & get involved!

Join us this Wednesday, March 18th from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST for our first tele-conference: President Obama's Priorities for Women Worldwide & Honduras Field Report Hear Ritu Sharma, Women Thrive's President and Co-founder, and Catalina Rojas, Women Thrive's Director of Global Partnerships to discuss the Obama Administration's priorities for women in developing countries. RSVP Now!

Also learn about their recent trip to Honduras where they spent time with Women Thrive's partner COMUCAP. Learn how organizations like COMUCAP are fighting violence and poverty through women's economic opportunity and what the U.S. can do to help.

Click here to RSVP and receive call-in details!

First, North Dakota. Is your state next?

Anti-choice ideologues think you don't care about North Dakota.

But what happens in North Dakota affects women everywhere.

Tell the governor:
Veto any abortion-ban bill.

Anti-choice ideologues think you don't care about women in North Dakota.

That's why they're pushing a so-called "personhood" bill through the North Dakota legislature—a measure that would ban abortion and could lead to bans on birth control, stem-cell research, and in-vitro fertilization.

Stand up for the women of North Dakota and stop this "guerilla warfare" on reproductive choice now.

After losing the White House, critical seats in Congress, and three ballot measures last November, the anti-choice movement launched a new phase of their war on women's freedom and privacy. They vowed to return to their glory days of angry protests by waging "guerilla warfare" against a woman's right to choose.¹

The anti-choice movement is starting in North Dakota because they think no one will notice. And when they're done there, they'll move along to the next state.

In fact, they're working to advance "personhood" measures in 16 states. Personhood USA, one of the organizations leading the fight, hopes their strategy leads to the end of the right to choose: "Establishing personhood closes what we call the 'hole' in Roe v. Wade."

Sign the petition to the governor of North Dakota telling him to veto any abortion-ban bill that comes to his desk.

North Dakota does not have a single pro-choice law on the books that helps prevent unintended pregnancy. Women in North Dakota have no safeguard against pharmacies that refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control. And they have no assurance that they can access emergency contraception at the hospital in the case of sexual assault. This new "personhood" bill would block women in North Dakota from ever receiving those protections.

Thank you for standing with the women of North Dakota—and women everywhere—by taking action today.

My best,

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

¹ "Pro-Lifers In Obamaland," Newsweek.com, January 27, 2009, http://www.newsweek.com/id/181786

Other International Women's Day Events

Women in Afghanistan: Solutions for a Stable Future

On Tuesday March 10, Women Thrive will host it's first International Women's Day Breakfast on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

President Obama has noted that Afghanistan is currently one of our nation's greatest foreign policy challenges. Afghanistan has taken center stage as a security concern for the United States with a focus on the threat of growing instability, the dangers of terrorism, the potential rise of the Taliban, and other undemocratic forces. Women in Afghanistan: Solutions for a Stable Future will feature the voices of women who have traveled from Afghanistan to share their insights about the critical role women are playing in building peace and security, establishing rule of law, increasing political participation, and educating the next generation to improve Afghanistan's future and global security. Learn More.

Paola Gianturco's Celebrating Women Exhibit: Paris, France

Celebrate International Women's Day at an inspiring March 10-25, 2009 photography exhibit in Paris, France. Photojournalist Paola Gianturco's Celebrating Women exhibit - photographs of festivals that honor women in six countries - will open at a private reception on March 9, 2009 at UNESCO international headquarters in Paris, France. Based on Ms. Gianturco's book Celebrating Women (powerHouse Books, 2004), which featured seventeen festivals in fifteen countries, these traditions honor women for reasons as diverse as kind-heartedness; ferocity; courageousness in the face of social injustice; or simply for being young and fancy-free. Learn More.

Watch A Powerful Noise Live!

CARE invites you to attend its premier event celebrating International Women's Day, featuring the acclaimed documentary, A Powerful Noise Thursday March 5th, 2009.

This one-night event by Executive Producer Sheila Johnson will feature the acclaimed documentary A Powerful Noise, followed by a town hall discussion broadcast live from New York City featuring: former Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright, CARE Advocate Christy Turlington Burns, CARE President and CEO Dr. Helene Gayle, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof and actress and activist Natalie Portman. Learn More.

Poll: Large Majority in All Countries Favor Equal Rights for Women

According to a WorldPublicOpinion.org poll, publics around the world express a widespread consensus that it is important for "women to have full equality of rights" and most say it is very important. This is true in Muslim nations as well as Western nations.

In nearly all of the 22 nations surveyed most people perceive that in their lifetime women have gained greater equality. Nonetheless, large majorities would like their government and the United Nations to take an active role in preventing discrimination. Learn More.

International Women's Day: Join Our New Tele-Conference Series!

Announcing Our National Tele-Conference Series!

In honor of International Women's Day, March 8, Women Thrive Worldwide is proud to announce our new national tele-conference series on global women's issues. Join us quarterly to hear from our experts on some of the most important issues facing women in the developing world as well and what's going on in Washington, DC. Ask questions, stay informed, & get involved!

Save the Date: President Obama's Priorities for Women Worldwide & Honduras Field Report Our first tele-conference will be held on Wednesday March 18 from 3:00 - 4:00 pm EST. Join Ritu Sharma, Women Thrive's President and Co-founder, and Catalina Rojas, Women Thrive's Director of Global Partnerships to discuss the Obama Administration's priorities for women in developing countries. Also hear about their recent trip to Honduras where they spent time with Women Thrive's partner COMUCAP. Learn how organizations like COMUCAP are fighting violence and poverty through women's economic opportunity and what the U.S. can do to help. Click here to RSVP!

More abstinence-only insanity: You can't rape a slut

by Amplify Your Voice

Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 10:42:42 AM PST

(crossposted at Amplify)

I recently attended a book reading by some of the contributors of Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. The book (which is wonderful and you should go buy) deals with many subjects around "rape culture", particularly the common practice of blaming the victim of rape if she has a "loose" or "slutty" reputation. Our society far too often holds up a pure and virginal ideal for women, and once this "seal" is broken or they display "unnaceptable" behaviors, they become "dirty" and "get what is coming to them".

• Amplify Your Voice's diary :: ::
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A few days after the reading, I came across an abstinence-only until marriage program in Ohio (yes, the same Ohio with Derek the Abstinence Clown) that pretty much reinforced every crazy aspect of a rape culture that blames the victims of rape if they do not pass the "purity" test. It’s bad enough that abstinence-only programs like these withhold and distort vital information that young people need to protect their own sexual health, but adding this acceptance of rape culture is the icing on the Shit Cake.

The Ohio program is Abstinence ‘Till Marriage, which started receiving annual CBAE grants of $600,000 in 2006 (set to run until 2011). On their "Miss the Mess" website, you can enter the "Party Room", where you learn the story of Rochelle, Jason, Monica and Tanner. Each person tells their perspective about what happens during and after a party one night.

Rochelle tells how she drove her drunken friend Jason home after the party, and then is raped by him. Jason denies that the rape happened, saying their sex was consensual. Monica and Tanner observe that Jason was being a drunken idiot the entire night, with Monica (Jason’s ex) adding her opinion that Rochelle has a reputation for "putting out" and being a "slut".

The site then asks the question: "Based on all accounts, whose story sounds the least credible?"

Guess who is the "correct" answer? Rochelle.

Why, you ask? Because she "made several questionable decisions", "she had a motive to lie" and, lest we forget, "she’s been pinned reputation (sic) for being ‘loose’"

It’s hard not to overemphasize the sickness in this "correct" answer. Rochelle is not be believed. After all, she drove in a car with a boy. And she’s actually had sex before, or at least people say that she has, which is apparently the same thing and equally worthy of disbelief after you’ve been raped.

The site then asks if we know that a rape occurred. The "correct" answer says that we don’t know, emphasizing again that Rochelle has a "motive to lie", and that:

"Unfortunately, we are left judging (Rochelle’s) honesty by her character and her actions"... "Monica implied Rochelle had a promiscuous reputation and the whole school seemed to know it."

Ah, yes. Her "character". They once again remind us that "sluts" aren’t to be trusted. Why should we listen or care about them, right?

The site then goes a step further, adding a degree of sympathy for the actions of the rapist:

"Also, alcohol makes people less inhibitive. Jason was extremely vulnerable to his circumstances".

Vulnerable? Less inhibitive? What exactly are they saying here, that rape is a "less inhibitive" behavior? That alcohol made poor Jason "vulnerable" to being a sick rapist asshole? Seriously, I’d like to know what the hell their point is on this one.

Perhaps the sickest aspect of this organization and their website is the fact that our tax dollars are funding it. To date, they have received $1.8 million dollars, and are set to receive another $1.8 million in the next three years. Yes, we are subsidizing rape culture. And this is just one example of the many ridiculous abstinence-only until marriage sex education programs that we have wasted $1.5 billion in federal money on in the last decade.

But we now have a great chance to end funding for abstinence-only until marriage initiatives. President Obama is currently drafting his budget for the 2010 fiscal year, and it is vital that he ZERO OUT ab-only funding in this budget. If he doesn’t’ zero it out, it will be extremely difficult to get Congress to pull the money out. Likewise, if Obama does zero out the funding, it will be a more difficult process for Congress to sneak the funding back in through appropriations.

So please, with all due haste, send Obama this message today: ZERO OUT ABSTINENCE-ONLY SEX EDUCATION FUNDING.

Send out the abstinence clowns, and strike one small blow against rape culture.

Fighting Violence Against Women, One Coffee Bean at a Time

February 2009 | Women Thrive Worldwide | Photo Credits: Sara Heinrichs, Steve Evans, Sara Heinrichs

Fighting Violence Against Women, One Coffee Bean at a Time

In honor of Valentine's Day we are devoting this month's newsletter to the fight to end violence against women and girls worldwide, an issue so many of you have take action on over the past few years. To honor your efforts, and those of women around the world, we couldn't think of a better story than that of COMUCAP, our partner in Honduras that has overcome all odds to improve the lives of the women they serve:

Photo Credit: COMUCAP	When Dulce Marlene Contreras started her organization with seven of her friends, there was one thing on her mind: how to help the women of Honduras protect themselves from domestic violence. A daughter of farmers in the rural region of La Paz, Honduras, Marlene was tired of watching the women of her community endure widespread alcoholism and household abuse. She wanted to fight back.
So, in 1993, Marlene founded the Coordinadora de Mujeres Campesinas de La Paz, or COMUCAP, to educate women about their rights. But as time went by Marlene noticed that something was missing. While awareness-building was critical, in order to reduce violence for the long-term, COMUCAP had to attack the problem at its root: poverty. "We realized that until women are economically empowered, they will not be empowered to escape abuse for good," says Marlene. Seeing this link between economic independence and reducing violence revolutionized the way COMUCAP approached its work. In addition to rights awareness workshops, it started training women to grow and sell organic coffee and aloe vera, helping them earn an income for their families. Soon Marlene and her friends started seeing results - the more money women made, the more power they were able to assert in the household.	Marlene (right) shows off a bag of coffee with COMUCAP members. Photo Credit: COMUCAP
As the community started to view the women of COMUCAP as economic contributors to its families, rather than threats to the status quo, more and more women made decisions jointly with their husbands and stood up for themselves and their children in the face of abuse. Today COMUCAP provides employment and income to over 256 women. Household violence, Marlene is proud to report, is now nearly non-existent within the families of COMUCAP. Read more about our partner, COMUCAP, here.

How You Can Fight Violence Against Women

As the leading organization advocating for policies that economically empower women like those in COMUCAP, Women Thrive fights to get organizations around the world like COMUCAP the assistance they need to attack violence and improve lives. Right now, for example, we are working on getting the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA), a bill that would reduce violence against women worldwide by investing in local groups like COMUCAP, re-introduced and passed by Congress.

If passed, IVAWA, which was developed by lead Senate sponsors with the help of Women Thrive, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, Amnesty International USA, and over 150 groups around the world, would make ending violence against women a diplomatic priority for the first time in U.S. history. It would for the first time comprehensively incorporate proven solutions for reducing violence into all U.S. foreign assistance programs - solutions such as promoting women's economic opportunity, addressing violence against girls in school, and working to change public attitudes, potentially affecting millions of women worldwide. We need your help to get IVAWA through Congress and passed so that it can become a reality for women worldwide! This Valentines Day, help us make this happen: Click here to donate to our life-saving anti-violence advocacy! Click here to sign the petition calling on Congress to pass IVAWA! On Facebook? Join our End Violence Against Women & Girls group to stay connected to other activists!

Choice under attack in the Senate

Even though we're just a week into President Obama's administration, we can already see what a world of difference pro-choice leadership makes: one of his very first acts was to repeal the global gag rule! We sent more than 25,000 thank-you messages to the White House within days—thank you!

Unfortunately, we're not out of the woods. As we expected, our opponents in Congress are using women's freedom and privacy as a political football, and are attacking choice on several fronts right now.

We won't stand by while anti-choice leaders at the national and local levels block women's access to abortion and even birth control. Help us fight these attacks today.

My best,
Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

Anti-choice members of Congress on the attackYou may have heard the news: anti-choice House Minority Leader John Boehner derailed a family-planning proposal in the economic-rescue package that would have saved taxpayer dollars and helped make birth control more affordable for women hurt by the economic crisis.

The attacks don't end there. This week our opponents in the Senate are using a bill that would fund children's health insurance as an opportunity to launch no fewer than three separate attacks on reproductive freedom!

Urge your senators to oppose these anti-choice amendments!



Anti-choice movement's "guerilla warfare" While anti-choice House Minority Leader John Boehner and his allies in Congress are attacking choice on the federal level, we expect our opponents to take the fight to local clinics, pharmacies, and school boards.

Jill Stanek, a prominent anti-choice blogger, said this to Newsweek.com: "[President Obama]'s got the House, he's got the Senate, so I think we may go more guerilla warfare, or go back to working harder on your own turf, protesting at your abortion clinic in your town."

We won't stand by while Stanek and others block access to abortion and even birth control. Help us fight these attacks today.

HALL OF FAME AND HALL OF SHAME

FAME: President Barack Obama Just days into his presidency, pro-choice President Barack Obama took swift and decisive action to end one of George Bush's worst policies: the global gag rule. Better yet, the U.S. Senate stood behind Obama yesterday by rejecting by a vote of 60-37 an amendment to restore the global gag rule. By repealing this policy, health clinics in developing countries will once again be able to offer the world's poorest women access to the reproductive-health services that every woman deserves. Learn more >> SHAME: Gov. Sarah PalinA new report shows Alaska had the nation's biggest increase in the teen birth rate from 2005 to 2006. Gov. Sarah Palin's response? She's declared her support for anti-choice parental-consent legislation that would do nothing to prevent teen pregnancy in her state, but instead could actually endanger the lives of young women. She's ignoring a public-health crisis and playing politics with Alaskan teens' health. Learn more >>

CHOICE IN THE NEWS

Ashley Judd helps celebrate 36 years of Roe v. Wade and the overturn of the global gag rule Another troubling study on "abstinence-only" programs and decreased contraceptive use Nancy Keenan in Politico: As politics change, so does debate The introduction of the Prevention First Act in Congress More News >>

House passes fair pay bill

The U.S. House of Representatives just passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay act by a vote of 250-177. The vote was almost along party lines, with only a few Democrats voting against it and a few Republicans crossing the line and voting for it.

The Republicans also lost a motion to commit vote, which would have sent the bill back to committee, the grave yard of good and bad bills alike.

The Senate passed the bill last week and it will go to President Obama for his signature.

What does Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Bill do? It allows employees to take action against employers for pay discrimination within 180 days of the last paycheck.

This is significant because the SCOTUS recently handed down a ruling that destroyed workers' rights.

From the National Women's Law Center:

"The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would reverse the damaging Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and help to ensure that individuals subjected to unlawful pay discrimination are able to effectively assert their rights under the federal anti-discrimination laws.

In Ledbetter, the Supreme Court held that employees cannot challenge ongoing compensation discrimination if the employer's original discriminatory decision occurred more than 180 days before, even when the employee continues to receive paychecks that have been discriminatorily reduced."

It is unfair to flame the court on this. The court was following the letter of the law. Congress adjusted the various laws to set the 180 day (that's half a year) time frame.

Anyone who has worked in a non-union job knows how tough it is to even find out if pay discrimination occurred. Discussions about pay rates are generally verboten at work and not considered a topic for polite conversation any where. (Collective bargaining agreements are a bit different since pay rates are negotiated by the union.)

Incidentally, Ms. Ledbetter worked for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for 19 years before she discovered the pay discrimination. She has also been lobbying for the act for a long time. On a side note, this both confirms that wage discrimination is not always readily apparent and not all lobbyists are bad people.

This is a great day for workers. Women's groups have been at the forefront of this debate, but it seems Lilly Ledbetter protects any worker who has been the victim of wage discrimination for any reason.

Naturally, the Republicans have been whining about how this will "hurt the economy." Pay them no heed. That is the standard line on any bill that would protect employees from arbitrary discrimination by greedy employers.

This is truly a victory for the Democrats that we helped to elect to the 111th Congress.

Say goodbye to the global gag rule

Week 1: Repeal the global gag rule.

Check.

Thank President Obama for his swift action.

Thirty-six years after Roe v. Wade became the law of the land, President Barack Obama took swift and decisive action today to end one of George Bush's worst policies: the global gag rule.

Let's respond just as quickly with our thanks and support.

Under the global gag rule, millions of women and their families have suffered.

The global gag rule canceled funding for many overseas health clinics, forcing them to cut their staff, limit services, and sometimes close their doors entirely. In many cases, these health clinics were the only local sources of birth control for women!

This outrageous policy severely limits women's access to family-planning services, which can lead to tragic results—higher rates of unintended and high-risk pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and maternal death.

President Obama's decision to reverse the policy and release the funds for family planning overseas will enable women worldwide to have access to the comprehensive health care they deserve and need, including birth control.

Please join me now in thanking President Obama for giving these women a new hope for the future.

Unfortunately, anti-choice groups are bombarding the White House with messages and running vicious ads on TV and online that distort the truth about a woman's right to choose. That's why after you've thanked our new president, we need your help to spread the word to your friends and family.

We look forward to working with President Obama over the years as our ally on women's freedom and privacy, and he deserves to know that the full strength of America's pro-choice majority stands with him.

Thank you for all that you do!

My best,

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

P.S. Our opponents plan to spend millions attacking President Obama's pro-choice position. We're fighting back with everything we've got, but we need your support. Please make a generous contribution today.

Help Make More History Today

In his first days in office, President-elect Obama can begin to restore reproductive freedom for women by repealing the global gag rule. It’s time to end this destructive policy that has caused so much suffering among the world’s poorest women. And you can help!

With your support, we can urge President-elect Obama to reverse the Bush global gag rule and work with the new Congress to help protect a woman’s right to choose.

The global gag rule canceled funding for many overseas health clinics, forcing them to cut their staff, limit services, and sometimes close their doors entirely. In many cases, these health clinics were the only local source of birth control and prenatal care for women!

This outrageous policy severely limits women's access to family-planning services, which can lead to tragic results -- higher rates of unintended and high-risk pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and maternal deaths.

President-elect Obama can reverse this policy and release the funds for family planning overseas to enable women worldwide to have access to the comprehensive health care they deserve, including birth control.

In addition to asking the incoming administration to reverse the global gag rule, we can also work to increase our investment in family-planning here at home though the Title X program and to reverse the Bush administration’s last minute Federal Refusal Rule, which could deny women access to birth control and abortion care. But it will take your advocacy and your financial support for our work to succeed.

The incoming president and new Congress have many pressing issues to attend to; with your help, we will be sure that women’s access to affordable reproductive-health care is among these issues.

In these challenging financial times for our country and across the globe, it is all the more important to protect women’s health by ensuring they have access to one of the most basic services they need: family planning.

Will you help NARAL Pro-Choice America take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to repeal Bush’s destructive policies and restore our reproductive rights at every level?

Please donate now to help us protect choice for generations to come!

Women are counting on us, and we are counting on you. Please donate today.

My Best,

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

PS: Even as we welcome our new pro-choice president to the White House, you can count on our most ardent anti-choice opponents not folding up their tents and leaving quietly. They will fight with all they have to cling to the gains they have made in the last eight years. Donate online today to help us jump-start our plans to encourage President-elect Obama to reverse Bush’s anti-choice legacy.

Thanks for All You Do

As this year comes to an end, I can't help but be in awe, and so proud of all we accomplished for reproductive freedom. With your support we made 2008 one of the most successful years for choice in a generation.

Thanks to the ongoing commitment of pro-choice Americans like you, we were able to elect fully pro-choice Sen. Barack Obama to the White House ... gain 20 new pro-choice seats in the House of Representatives ... and move seven Senate seats from the anti-choice column.

The National Journal ranked NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC second among the nation's 21 top political organizations for posting one of the best win-lose records among House and Senate candidates in the 2008 elections. It also credited NARAL Pro-Choice America as a leader among progressive groups that "not only honed their techniques individually but also worked harder to coordinate their efforts." ["Winning the Ground Game," National Journal, 11/8/08.] NARAL Pro-Choice America is the political leader of the pro-choice movement!

None of these accomplishments would have happened without you, so please accept my deepest thanks.

There are still many challenges ahead in 2009. Just look at the new regulation announced by Bush two weeks ago -- this measure allows anyone in the health-care industry, even receptionists making appointments, to deny women access to abortion services or referrals. I believe that with your ongoing commitment we will be able to begin to undo the damage from the last eight years and have a successful year for choice in this country.

Thanks for all you do to protect women's reproductive freedom and privacy, and best wishes for a happy and healthy new year.

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

Modern Face of Slavery

by: Andrew Buncombe, The Independent UK

Domestic workers face abuse and harsh conditions in India. (Photo: savethechildren.org.uk)

They are lured by the promise of money and training, but end up as domestic workers who endure abuse and beatings at the hands of their masters.

She came to Delhi dreaming of a new start, of escape from a life of poverty and hardship. Yet when she arrived, Sushma Kumari quickly realised she had been tricked.

Far from being trained in the skills of acupuncture, for two years she was forced to work as an unpaid domestic help in the home of the "doctor" supposed to be teaching her. She toiled from 5am to midnight, seven days a week. She was abused and mistreated. Almost certainly she was brought to Delhi by a professional trafficker; what is beyond doubt is that once she got here she lived the life of a slave.

For a woman who has the right to burn with anger, Sushma talks in little more than a whisper. "I really wanted to go home but I was not allowed to talk to my father," she says. "I felt desperate, cheated."

The story of Sushma is a journey to the dark side of the New India, away from the tales of soaring economic growth and gleaming fashion malls, of Western-style coffee shops filled with a newly wealthy class. The two are surely connected; chief among the reasons for the growing demand for young, poor women from places like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and other desperately poor states to come to toil in India's growing metropolitan centres, is that a new generation of professional women entering the workforce no longer have the time or inclination for household chores. Human traffickers fill the gap.

And in a way, Sushma had been drawn by the promises of the New India. After she was forced to leave school early because the family were so poor, her father learnt, through an acquaintance, of an acupuncturist in Delhi looking for a trainee. A middle-man arranged that Sushma could be that person.

"When we left the village, we were taken to another village for a month and then brought to Delhi. In the first weeks there was some informal training but it became obvious we were there to work as domestic servants," she recalls. "After that, we just had to work. When my father called I was told to say everything was fine and that I was doing well."

The reality was quite different. Beaten and abused, accused of stealing and worked to the bone, Sushma wanted to escape but did not know how. She suffered for two years before learning, through another domestic worker, of an organisation that could help. Then she ran away.

The treatment of India's domestic workers is a topic the establishment rarely addresses. Relied upon to cook, clean, shop, wash and iron clothes and even nanny children, they become indispensable for many families. Yet while some employers treat them well, many are remarkably cruel. Stories of abuse abound. Last month, a badly beaten 13-year-old girl was rescued from the home of a professional couple in Gurgaon, Delhi's hi-tech satellite city. The couple told police they beat the child to get rid of their stress.

The charity Sushma ran to for help is called Nirmana. Established 12 years ago, the group uses trained overseas volunteers from a partner organisation, Voluntary Services Overseas, one of the charities being supported in this year's Independent Christmas Appeal. One of the volunteers working with Nirmana is 25-year-old Serena O'Sullivan.

Serena worked for a FTSE 100 company for a year after leaving university but decided she wanted to do something more fulfilling. After working for several charities, she became convinced that governments in poor countries needed to be pressed to include the poorest people in their programmes. "It led me to accept a VSO placement in India with Nirmana. I am able to share my skills in communications and advocacy, but also spend time with rescued workers and help to get their voices heard at a national and international level.

"It is very hard to reconcile your own life and those of the people here. You hear the worst stories you can imagine. You wonder how one person can treat another person like that," she says. "It is as if some people here think that others are not deserving of the same rights."

The scale of the problem Nirmana is trying to deal with is vast. A full 40 per cent of the people involved in domestic work are below the age of 14. And the number of people being trafficked is growing. The agencies which place them are unregulated and unsupervised.

But slowly the country is being forced for the first time to consider the problem. The work of Nirmana and VSO is one factor. Another has been the publication of Aravind Adiga's novel White Tiger, which won this year's Booker Prize with its account of the abuse and mistreatment of servants. Some abused servants are summoning the courage to speak out.

One such is 17-year-old Meena Tirki. Meena says she is 17 but she could be younger. Though Meena tries to smile as she tells her story, her face is impossibly sad. And with good reason. The eldest of four girls from a village near Siliguri in West Bengal, Meena's family could never afford to send her to school. Earlier this year, an agent came to her village looking for girls who wanted to work in Delhi.

Under pressure from her step-mother, Meena agreed. Placed with a family in East Delhi, Meena found herself sleeping on the roof during the blistering summer, rising at 5am to begin a day of exhausting labour. The family said they would not pay her and the abuse began almost immediately. "The husband would hit me. He would accuse me of not working," she says. But Meena heard about Nirmana and she also ran.

With the help of Nirmana, Meena and Sushma have since been placed with other families in Delhi where they are working as domestic help. It would be a lie to say their stories have a saccharine-sweet ending. While they are now being paid, they receive only a pittance - less than £30 a month - and they still work gruelling hours.

But there is the vaguest flicker of hope. Sushma has been attending an open school in Delhi and hopes to complete her exams in April. She says: "Then I will decide whether to go home or not." She has begun to take control of her life.

Does John McCain Understand Women Could Die?

John McCain on NBC’s, Meet the Press, 1/30/00:
Mr. Russert: “A Constitutional Amendment to ban all abortions?”
McCain: “Yes Sir.”
Mr. Russert: “But, Senator, women across the country would say, prior to Roe v. Wade, hundreds of thousands of women a year went to back alleys to have abortions.”
McCain: “I understand that.”
Mr. Russert: “Many died.”
McCain: “I understand that.”

The video speaks for itself.

In only a matter of hours we’ll find out if McCain is going to come clean to the American public about his anti-choice record on birth control, Roe v. Wade, and a woman’s right to choose. But I’m not holding my breath, and would advise you not to either.

McCain won’t talk about his hypocritical opposition to birth control. He won’t talk about wanting to outlaw abortion or overturning Roe v. Wade. But he’s said it. And we have the video to prove it.

Donate now to stop McCain-Palin from winning the White House and endangering women’s lives.

As you read this, NARAL Pro-Choice America is in key battleground states -- including Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia -- getting the truth out about the McCain-Palin ticket.

Election Day is just 20 days away, and I have no doubt that we can make a difference, but only with your continued vigilance and ongoing support.

We cannot give up now.

Help NARAL Pro-Choice America stop McCain-Palin, elect pro-choice Barack Obama, and support our work at every level to protect a woman’s right to choose.

Sincerely,

Nancy Keenan

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

P.S. Three steps you can take to stop McCain-Palin: Watch this shocking video. Make an urgent online contribution to protect a woman’s right to choose. Forward this message to all your friends.

Is the Economic Recession Getting You Down?

Discover the Secret to Weathering a Recession and Walking Away with Your Bank Account, Your Retirement Fund, Your Investments and Your Pride!

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Never Before Revealed Information!

When you’re unprepared for the impact of recession on your life and your business, the consequences can take you completely by surprise.

The economic recession brought on by over eager lenders, under-prepared borrowers, and overzealous government and an economy that cares more about its bottom line than its citizens has been pummeling Americans from coast to coast, and it doesn’t show any signs of going away any time soon.

Are you sick and tired of counting your pennies? Looking for a way to be free of the constant fear that one day you’re going to walk into your office and find a pink slip sitting there waiting for you? Would you like, just once to be the once sitting back and making a profit instead of the one worrying about whether this will be the week your business is going to have to close its doors?

Let Me Show You How...

Did you know that economic recessions aren’t anything new? The lifecycle of the business world very closely resembles the lifecycle of the average insect-it circles around, and around, and around, and…well, you get the picture. There are many stages inside that circle that keep business flowing smoothly and the wheels of progress turning the way they’re meant to.

An economic recession is only one of these stages.

Economic recessions are a vital part of the well being and health of our economy, and a study into our history will show that they actually happen on a fairly regular basis-and they usually don’t leave much damage behind. Why, then, do we panic so badly at the thought that this time might be our turn to weather an economic recession?

Because we don’t know what to do about it!

Business magnates understand that economic recession, a time when consumer spending is going to decrease for one reason or another and have a negative impact on the life and health of their company, is a necessary stage of life. From the moment they step into their corner office they’re carefully grooming and preparing the company for the moment when recession is going to rear its unattractive head and take a bite out of their profits.

Those of us who haven’t finished our MBA usually aren’t that well informed.

Without being aware of the necessity and the inevitability of an economic recession, most of us don’t realize that sooner or later recession is going to happen, and it’s going to impact all of our lives. We’ve been lulled into complacency by the constant boom and growth of the American economy, and we’re so focused on finding instant gratification for our desires that we don’t see when recession starts to creep up until it is far too late.

• Strings of layoffs
• Dramatic dips in the profits of your company
• An increase in outsourced labor
• The disappearance of expendable cash
• A crashing housing market
• Rapidly falling stock prices
• Decreasing values of 401Ks and other retirement accounts
• Companies going bankrupt

Everyone knows about the negative impacts of an Economic Recession. But what about the positive ones?

When you’ve walked into an unemployment office and seen hundreds of people filling out paperwork in the hope that somehow, someway, someone in that office will be able to help them find a job, it can be hard to believe that there are actually benefits to an economic recession. They are there, however, and if you’re a savvy business person you’ll be able to figure out how to take advantage of them. How do you think so many companies manage to stay in business when recessions happen at least once a decade?

Major corporations around the globe has learned how to weather an economic recession and keep making a profit, and now you can do it too! Regardless of whether you’re an entry level janitor or the CEO of a major corporation, the recession is going to have an impact on your life personally. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to let the recession bowl you over and leave you struggling for a way to keep your job and pay your bills? Or are you going to look at it as an opportunity to expand your horizons, stretch your wings and show the world what you can really do?

That was a choice I had to make for myself not too long ago

Two years ago I was sitting pretty. I had a good government job working as a contractor for the military, a good retirement plan, a salary that more than met our needs and an insurance program that kept my kids in antibiotics and vaccines.

All in all, life was looking pretty good. Then the recession hit.

I don’t know if any of you out there were unfortunate enough to be a part of this, but over the last two years military contractors have been steadily laying off hundreds of employees in an attempt to trim the fat from their bottom line and help them stay afloat as government contracts began to be canceled left, right and sideways. Because I had just accepted a new position within the company I was considered to be the new kid on the block, even though I had been working for them for years, and my job was among the first to go.

I was devastated.

Suddenly there I was, with a family to support and no income other than what I had coming in from our investments. I’m not ashamed to say I panicked at first. I couldn’t see how, at my age, I could possibly pick up and start all over again in another job. I’d invested too much time and effort to get where I had been, and the thought of having to climb that ladder all over again was enough to make me want to lock my door and hide for a year or two.

My general fondness for eating on a semi-regular basis got me out the door soon enough, however, and it wasn’t long before I was roaming the streets looking for another job. I was fortunate. I had remained in touch with many of my old college buddies, and one of them happened to work for a firm that had just lost one of its key employees and was looking for someone qualified who would be able to fill his place-quickly.

My friend’s recommendation and my own experience had me inside a new job within a month, but over the course of that month I saw hundreds of other contractors I had worked with who weren’t as lucky. They were out of work for months, many of them taking jobs that were far below their skills, their education and their experience just to have a paycheck.

And then there were a few of them that decided to start their own companies and offer their services to the private sector. A few of them started new careers in real estate. When I first heard what they were planning I thought they were out of their minds, but it wasn’t long before they started turning a profit-a big one.

I was astonished. If the U.S. government was losing money hand over fist and having to shut down its operations, how on earth were these little start-up companies managing to not only survive, but to thrive?

They were able to do it because they figured out how to take advantage of the recession!

I would never have believed that there would have been anything about an economic recession that would allow a company or a private entrepreneur to thrive, but as I talked with my old friends I realized that there was a side of the recession that we never saw-and that side could make the difference between surviving and thriving in the middle of an economic recession.

This is the ultimate guide to showing you how to thrive when everything else seems to be falling apart!

It’s really not fair that only a small percentage of the population has the knowledge they need to hang on to their jobs, increase their net worth and help their company thrive-especially when all they really need to do is change their mindset!! That’s why I decided to write Recession Suvival - How To Proft From An Economic Recession. I figured it was high time the rest of the world had the chance to learn what the major players already knew-the secrets for surviving an economic recession without going into debt!

But don’t take my word for it…

I don’t expect you to take my word for it. Hey, a recession can be scary stuff! That’s why I’m offering Recession Suvival - How To Proft From An Economic Recession complete with a 90 day money back guarantee. Buy the book. Read it. Put the strategies I’m going to show you into play in your own life!

• Give investing a try
• Grow your stock portfolio exponentially
• Make yourself so indispensable your boss will never fire you!
• Give your company the momentum it needs to get through the recession and go into the future with a bang

The secrets I’m going to show you in this book are the same business tricks and strategies that major corporations like Macy’s and J.C. Penney have been using to survive economic recessions for decades. Don’t you wonder sometimes why these companies have been in business for years? Wouldn’t you love to know what secrets are keeping their managers in the driver’s seats when hundreds of other companies are closing their doors? Let me show you!

There’s nothing in this book that requires you to throw thousands of dollars into some strange investment opportunity that’s “guaranteed to secure your future”.

Just plain, simple, easy to use tricks and strategies to help you ride out the recession and come out on top on the other side.

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Redundant Women: The Effects of Economic Recession on Women

Economic recession is defined to be a period of time (two consecutive quarters) where there is dismal or negative growth in an economy of a specific region or country. Economic recession has different effects on each sector of a nation. A particular sector could experience an impact that could distinctive only in his or her sector.

Women comprises half of the world’s population. During recessions, there is a relative downturn on women’s employment that ever before. Before the United States’ recession in 2001, women were not greatly affected by the economic recession. However, after the 2001 recession in the United States, omen started losing a lot of jobs.

Women also experience low employment rates. Families rely on women’s employment to boost the family income during a recession. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics:

1. When women lose jobs, families lose a substantial share of the income. Women salaries are said to be one third of the whole family budget.

2. Over the past 30 years, families who have a working wife have seen real increases in family income.

3. During the 2001 recession, women were hit harder by unemployment than men.

4. After the recession of 2001, women were able to get back to their jobs but where unable to gain or experience any increase in their employment rates.

5. Women are said to be harder hit by the 2008 recession since women are disproportionately represented in state and local government services.

Women are also greatly affected by job losses during economic recession. Women are said to be the last person to be hired, but the last person to be fired. Unlike women, men shows stable numbers since United States had experienced the economic recession

Between March 2001 and August 2004, women lost jobs in a number of key industries. Women lost 347,000 jobs in information alone. In retail industries, women lost 367,000 jobs. The biggest lost will be in the manufacturing industry which cost women over a million jobs. These numbers are just in the United States alone.

Unemployment rate among adult women workers rise faster compared to men workers. From 3.8 percent in March 2007 it went up to 4.6 percent in March 2008. There is also a significant effect on the wage of women compared to men. Women’s wages are more unstable than men’s wages.

Women have the tendency or risk of seeing large drops in income than men do. It has been culturally imbedded (based on gender analysis of events) that women’s income just fill in the disparity of men’s wage in terms of providing for the family. Thus women’s wage not being a major source of funds is more at risk of deduction.

In developing countries, women are facing poverty brought about by economic recession blowing out of proportions. With lack of work opportunities and immense poverty, women are forced to enter into prostitution and white slavery.

When economic recession hit in Asia in mid- 1997, women was the hardest hit by the crisis. Many women who have entered these industries come from rural areas because they could no longer sustain themselves and their families. Because of the recession, a lot of employees were released from their work. Women, carrying the burden of providing for their families were provided no other options.

Southeast Asian countries were deeply affected by the financial crisis and were left with social scars. Whenever economic recession or crisis similar to this happens, women and children bear the scars.

Surviving Divorce To Learn To Live Again

Living happily again after divorce can be really a challenge, because separation is one of the most hurting experiences that many families experience. Divorce is not only the end of a wedding, but also the death of some of your hopes and dreams. A divorce can destroy years of shared love with each other in a fraction of a second. Many people find it difficult living again after divorce, therefore here are some tips for surviving divorce to learn to live again.

Learn to Live Tips

* Most often people face difficulties after a divorce, because they never think about life after divorce. One of the best ways to overcome this difficulty is to engage in varied activities. If you try to learn some new activities like music, gardening or drawing, it will definitely help you live happy and contended life after divorce.
* Many people feel awkward to start a new life after divorce and some of them get mad due to this awkwardness. If you feel something like this, do not be afraid, because your friends and family is there with you. They will always support you to overcome this problem and head towards a new life.
* People who are optimistic after the divorce will rarely face many emotional problems. Therefore, optimism after separation is a nice solution for surviving divorce to learn to live again. If you have children, the divorce can cause more disturbing effects in your life. Both of you will have to think about their future life, education and career. You will have to make financial agreements for their future. Some parents have succeeded in providing the necessary facilities to their children in tough economic conditions after the divorce. You can discuss with them about how they managed it.
* While thinking of starting a new life after divorce, you should recognize your loss due to the divorce. The most important thing about recovery is being honest with yourself and you will have to face the actuality of your unsuccessful wedding. You should never run away from this reality and accept it as a natural pain. Sometimes pain too can prove to be a motivator and help you deal with life better.
* People, who suffer from divorce pain, should take care that this pain does not dominate their life and understand the fact that one day this pain will subside. Most often people think that life is over after divorce and they cannot love again. However, if you try to commit yourself to overcome through it, the pain will go away in few days and you will be able to start new life with fresh feelings. You will be able to trust and love again. According to many counselors, divorced people should never waste their time and efficiency in pain. They can invest it in work that can help them in their recovery.

By having a positive attitude and realizing that your entire future lies ahead of you, you can think about surviving divorce to learn to live again. You will have to be much more careful about starting a new life after divorce. So it is better if you think about your new life in advance.

Surviving Divorce Proceedings

Marriage is a serious relationship and therefore a divorce affects the lives of both people. Divorce may give rise to issues related to children, property, etc. Moreover, for many it is a mental set back as well. However, once you have decided for sure that you want to be divorced, you need take care of all important related issues, as doing so will help you in surviving divorce proceedings.

To help with any important issues you may have to face, here are some pointers:

* Whatever the outcome of the divorce may have been concerning children, property, etc, the most important thing is to accept it. The ruling of court that the children should live with your partner instead of you is very heavy decision. However, you should accept it. Feelings of distress over this for a long time will make surviving divorce proceedings difficult.
* Then secondly you have to consider the practical issues because the divorce is about to change your life practically as well. If you were living in your partner’s house then you will need to find a house for yourself. Getting a suitable housing may be a difficult task and you will need to research a bit for this. In the same way, the issues with banks and other kinds of accounts should be resolved as early as possible.
* For surviving divorce proceedings, you should shake yourself free from any guilt of regret. Many people later keep on thinking about the reasons why the divorce occurred. Some of them hold either themselves or their partners responsible for it. They think that they could have avoided the divorce and it was an unnecessary decision. You should not let your thoughts flow in this direction.
* Do not hold yourself or your partner responsible for the divorce. Never develop or keep any frustration in your mind for your partner. Such emotions will only cause unnecessary trouble. Convince yourself that this was the right decision for you as well your partner.
* Convince yourself that whatever has happened was perfectly right and the divorce was a well thought decision. For this, you can reevaluate the conditions and the reasons, which lead to the divorce. Persuade your mind that divorce was the best option for both of you and the situations you were facing.
* Now you should learn to live life without your partner. For this, you need to gain some self-confidence in yourself. You should believe in your capabilities and believe that you can live without your partner both emotionally as well as practically. For surviving divorce proceedings, you can even look at the positive side and the advantages that you will get from the divorce.

For surviving divorce proceedings, you need to continue living your life happily. Getting yourself involved in some kind of activity is a very good idea to get your mind away from what has happened. Friends and family both can play a very important role in such a situation. Therefore, you can spend some time with them. They are always there to help you.

All these things will help you in surviving divorce proceedings. Some people take long time to come out of this event while some are able to adjust quickly to the new surroundings.