Women & Families

Outlook 2006: Reproductive Rights, Trafficking and Public Education at Top of This Year's Agenda

Once again reproductive rights for women and men will remain high on the agenda in Congress. There is disagreement about who is responsible for this: Is it the pro-life forces who desire to overturn or whittle away at the 1973 Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision, or is it the pro-choice forces who are anxious about the continuation of Roe v Wade in light of changes in the Supreme Court? Either way, reproductive choice bills will be brought forward. U.S. funding for International Family Planning services will again be hotly debated, as the previous annual allocation of $34 million comes up for consideration. Under the current Administration, these funds have previously been withheld. [Read more]

For programmatic information on these issues, go to:

• Child Advocacy (part of Social Justice)
• Women's Ministries

Quarterly Bulletins

• Kinship Care and Subsidized Guardianship
  (2nd quarter, 2006)
• Human Rights Violation: Prisons Often Shackle Pregnant Inmates in Labor
  (1st quarter, 2006)
• Reauthorizing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2005 - HR 972
  (3rd quarter, 2005)
• Family Medical Leave Act — Family Friendly Workplaces
  (2nd quarter, 2005)
• Covering Crimes Based on Gender, Sexual Orientation, Disability
  (3rd quarter, 2004)
• Assault Weapons Ban Set to Expire on September 13
  (July/August Washington Report)
• Putting Prevention First: Reduce Abortion
  (2nd quarter, 2004)
• Rep. Fattah Introduces HR 236 to End Inequity in Public Education Funding
  (1st quarter, 2004)
• Privatization of Prisons
  (January-February Washington Report)
• 2003 Wrap-Up
  (November-December Washington Report)
• Controversial School Voucher Plan Debated
  (4th quarter, 2003)
• Urge Congress to Renew Assault Weapons Ban
  (3rd quarter, 2003)
• Refugee Women and Children Need Protection
  (2nd quarter, 2003)
• Support Child Nutrition Programs
  (March/April 2003 Washington Report)
• States Hurting for Education Aid
  (January/February 2003 Washington Report)
• Title IX Under Fire
  (1st quarter, 2003)

Bulletin Archive

Actions

• Call Your Rep This Week: Last Chance to Stop Budget Cuts
  (Action Alert – January 24, 2006)
• Budget Passes Senate, but Will Go Back to the House for Final Approval in January
  (Action Alert – December 21, 2005)
• Last Chance to Save Vital Services
  (Action Alert – December 19, 2005)
• Don’t Let Congress Adjourn without Reauthorizing VAWA
  (Action Alert – November 17, 2005)
• Tell Congress: No Budget Cuts in Human Needs Program
  (Action Alert – November 11, 2005)
• Your Voice Must Be Heard
  (Action Alert - October 21, 2005)
• Tell Congress: Stop Federal Budget Cuts to the Hungry and Uninsured
  (Action Alert - August 30, 2005)
• Reauthorize VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act
  (Action Alert — February 15, 2005, reissued June 7, 2005)
• Thank You for Helping to Reduce the Size of Budget Cuts
  (Action Alert - April 29, 2005)
• Stop the Cuts in Domestic Programs. Call-In Day Tues April 12
  (Action Alert - April 9, 2005)
• Renew the Violence Against Women Act
  (Action Alert - February 14, 2005)
  
• Use Appropriations Bill to Protect Women and Children in Crisis
  (Action Alert - February 4, 2005)
  
• Ask Congress to Renew the Ban on Assault Weapons
  (Action Alert - July 30, 2004)
  
• Support Family Planning: Ask President Bush to Release Funding to UNFPA
  (Action Alert — February 5, 2004)
• Immunity for Gun Industry Passes House, Gains Strength in the Senate
  (Action Alert — July 21, 2003)
• Support Reauthorization of CCDBG: Child Care and Temporary Aid for Low-Income Families Are More Important than Ever
  (Action Alert — September 23, 2002)
• Pass 2002 Food Stamp and Welfare Provisions
  (Action Alert — May 10, 2002)
• Save Women's Lives
  (Action Alert — March 14, 2002)
• Support Passage of Food Stamp, Child Care, and Welfare Provisions
  (Action Alert — November 26, 2001)
• Support the Access for Afghan Women Act, HR-3342
  (Action Alert — December 13, 2001)
• Urgent Action Alert on Violence Against Women Act
  (Action Alert — October. 9, 2000)
• Child Care Advocacy
  (Action Alert — May 13, 1999)
• Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act
  (Action Alert — July 15, 1999)
• House Passes WIC Reauthorization Bill
  (Action Alert — July 22, 1998)

Letters to Legislators

• Increase Funding to Voluntary Family Planning Programs
  (Sign-on letter – December 21, 2005)
• Support Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
  (Sign-on letter - December 20, 2005)
• Approve Emergency Contraceptive Plan B
  (Sign-on letter - October 25, 2005)
• Provide Funding for Women and Children in Humanitarian Emergencies
  (Sign-on letter - October 14, 2005)
• Don’t Cut Women’s Reproductive Health Care
  (Sign-on letter - October 14, 2005)
• End Domestic and Sexual Violence – Support VAWA 2005
  (Sign-on letter – September 14, 2005)
• Please Review the HHS Website 4parents.gov
  (Sign-on letter – August 23, 2005)
• Concern about Federal Funding for Abstinence Only Programs
  (Sign-on letter – July 11, 2005)
• Stop Expansion of Mandatory Deportation
  (Sign-on letter – July 8, 2005)
• Oppose Boehner Amendment to Strip Civil Rights Protections from Head Start
  (Sign-on letter – June 28, 2005)
• Concern about Federal Funding for Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs
  (Sign-on letter – June 7, 2005)
• Vote to Repeal the Federal Refusal Clause
  (Sign-on letter — April 20, 2005)
• Oppose Punitive Youth Transfer Provisions in HR 1279
  (Sign-on letter – April 8, 2005)
• Make Corrections in the No Child Left Behind Act
  (Sign-on letter — February 3, 2005)
• Support the Second Chance Act
  (Sign-on letter — February 1, 2005)
• Maintain Current Law Protections for Children with Disabilities
  (Sign-on Letter — October 26, 2004)
• Support HR 2387, The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act
  (Sign-on letter — August 20, 2004)
• Restore Funding for State Juvenile Justice Programs
  (Sign-on letter — May 20, 2004)
• Oppose Language that Allows More Youths to be Prosecuted as Adults
  (Sign-on letter — April 21, 2004)
• Close the Gun Show Loophole
  (Sign-on letter — February 23, 2004)
• Hold Hearings on Protecting Women and Children
  (Sign-on letter — January 22, 2004)
• Ask the President to Fund the U.N. Population Fund
  (Sign-on letter — January 20, 2004)
• Close the Gun Show Loophole
  (Sign-on letter — November 30, 2003)
• Support Immigrant Children's Health in Senate Medicare Bill
  (Sign-on letter — October 24, 2003)
• Restore Funding for State Juvenile Justice
  (Sign-on letter — May 9, 2003)
• Do Not Expand Gag Rule to AIDS Funding
  (Sign-on letter — February 26,2003)
• Increase Investment in Youth
  (Sign -on letter — December 20, 2002)
• Support Ratification of CEDAW
  (Sign-on letter — July 29, 2002)