I write and speak on women and politics, women’s reproductive rights and the intersection of race and gender in American life. Publication date for my book: Every Day Is Election Day: A Woman's Guide to Winning Any Office, from the PTA to the White House, is August, 2013 (coinciding with celebrations of women's suffrage). My writing has been picked-up by media outlets as diverse as the Washington Post, Real Clear Politics, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Daily Kos, Firedoglake, USA Today and NPR. Listed in Feminists Who Changed America: 1963-1975,I have won numerous awards for my work, including distinguished achievement awards from my alma maters, the University of Illinois and Carleton College. I was the chair of NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation's Board of Directors in its formative years; a founder of Emily's List in Illinois; and have advised numerous organizations, candidates, and donors regarding their reproductive rights work. See: www.rebeccasive.com. I may be found on Twitter at: @RebeccaSive.
President Obama has had the amazing good fortune to get two Supreme Court picks and in both cases, he picked a girl from New York. But was it a requirement that the nominee be a nice girl?
Please Mr. President, no “unobjectionable” appointment. Take a man or woman — lesbian, gay, or otherwise — who stands for something as our next Supreme Court Justice.
In the end, passing the healthcare bill was about nothing but abortion and abortion-related deals that will make life all that much harder for women of modest resources facing the (constitutionally-protected) decision to terminate a pregnancy.
To coin a cliche on International Women’s Day, I have to ask: Where’s the beef? American women are being told that our most fundamental right–to control our reproductive destiny–should be of no consequence in health reform.
How many women leaders were invited to the health care summit? Girls, hold your breath. Grand total: four. That’s right, four, one of whom is Nancy Pelosi. So, actually, three, count ‘em, three other women members of Congress (total membership: 535 people), including, count her, one, female U.S. Senator.
The President’s version of a health reform bill is based on a flawed Senate bill that contains totally onerous and untenable conditions on American women. It needs to be fixed, now.
The Democrats want Martha Coakley elected in Massachusetts today to get the 60th vote for a health care bill that presently renders American women unequal to the men around them. I can no longer support this.
Boxer supported a Senate bill that endorses a return to pre-Roe days when women had to shop around the states in order to obtain a legal abortion. Is this bill her Missouri compromise?
What women legislators should have said: It’s time to start over with this so-called health care bill. We’re not buying your Hobson’s Choice and neither are the women of America. We know who we represent, and we’re here to fight for them.
Young women of America: Today’s fight is a defining battle for American women. Fail to understand this at your peril.
