Women's rights a priority for Obama panel - (NOW): "We clearly have a friend in the White House."

Women's rights a priority for Obama panel
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

A new White House Council on Women and Girls is assessing every government agency to see if its programs do enough to benefit women. The first senior adviser on domestic violence and the first ambassador for women's issues around the globe are developing programs to prevent violence again women at home and abroad. First lady Michelle Obama is highlighting women's achievements, helping families and pushing girls to succeed.

The prospect of a woman in the Oval Office ended more than a year ago when Hillary Rodham Clinton conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama. But the women's groups who backed Clinton for president now say the man who vanquished her is running an administration more focused on women's issues and equality than any before it.

"This has been the most open White House to women's issues and groups," says Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal, a women's rights activist for four decades. "In the first six months, we have been brought in more than ever before. … It's very impressive."

Says Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW): "We clearly have a friend in the White House."

more...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-09-13-obama-women_N.htm?csp=34

The Council includes people like Larry "girls can't do math" Summers.

Cause if Gay folks are talking in past tense already in reference to this new President,
after accepting what Pres. Clinton achieved for them (gave them what they now want to overturn)
than it is a shame that this time around, it only took just a few months in office
for them to feel this way.

That was Skittle speaking for "all", and stating what everyone who is gay thinks.....not me.


Skittles (1000+ posts) Sun Sep-13-09 07:20 PM
Response to Original message
1. beware; that's what gay folk thought

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/4741

That would leave women scrambling for services in many cases. It might also affect other groups.

"The more sinister potential of the original bill could have expanded far beyond reproductive services, Esman said. “If you were anti-gay, you didn’t have to treat gay people. If you were a white supremacist and worked at a doctor’s office you could refuse to make appointments for people who are non-white.” It was by raising concerns of broader threats of the legislation that the ACLU was able to build a diverse coalition to work on the bill.

.....Still, conscience clauses are becoming an increasingly popular mode of anti-choice legislation, and not all states will result in the kind of compromise reached in Louisiana. Arizona’s bill combines a conscience clause, allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception, with a 24-hour waiting period for abortions. The bill also increases penalties (from one year of prison to two years) for physicians that perform the already-illegal late abortion procedures erroneously and misleadingly termed "partial-birth abortions."