10 Worst States To Be a Woman

 

There really needs to be a more comprehensive study of the worst places to be a woman that includes domestic violence, custody laws and reproductive choice. Anything that affects a woman's autonomy should be considered harmful.

http://www.alternet.org/news/150878/10_worst_states_to_be_a_woman/

10 Worst States To Be a Woman

By Amanda Marcotte, AlterNet
Posted on May 9, 2011, Printed on May 11, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150878/10_worst_states_to_be_a_woman

In a time of war and record unemployment, the GOP is sending a message: fertile women are the country’s number one enemy, and their freedoms must be quashed at all costs. State Republican (and some Democratic) legislators have introduced nearly 1,000 laws restricting women’s reproductive health access on the state level, and this is on top of decades of reproductive health policies that have made women second-class citizens in many states.

Here are 10 of the worst states to be a woman between puberty and menopause:

1. Mississippi. Mississippi has been such a bad state for women for so long it rarely even gets noticed in the news anymore. Legal and cultural harassment has reduced the number of abortion providers in the state to two, making the abortion rate in the state four times lower than the rest of the country. This doesn’t mean that women in Mississippi don’t need abortions; just that they go out of the state to get the services, making the actual abortion rate much closer to the national average. The demand is surely higher and not being met, as Mississippi is far from the place to go for decent sex education and birth control. Mississippi has the third highest teen birth rate in the country, the fifth highest maternal mortality rate, and fifth highest rate in STD transmissions. Because women can’t say no to childbearing easily, one in three Mississippi children live in poverty.

2. Texas. Thirty-five percent of women in their childbearing years are uninsured in Texas, making the need for subsidized family planning services especially strong in the state. Republican lawmakers responded to this need by slashing family planning funding, while leaving untouched the money the state spends on crisis pregnancy centers, even though these centers offer no real services women need. But even this isn’t enough for the Texas GOP. Republicans are currently concocting a scheme that would dismantle the entire state program dedicated to reproductive health care for low-income women. Just in case there was any doubt left in women’s minds that Texas Republicans hate them, Rick Perry will be signing an ultrasound requirement to get an abortion.

3. South Dakota. Anti-choicers in South Dakota tried to ban abortion in 2006, but the non-misogynist population turned up at the polls and beat the ban back. But searing hatred for ovulating women will not be thwarted so easily! The state then passed a law requiring women to wait 72 hours and subject themselves to a hectoring lecture at a crisis pregnancy center before they can get an abortion. Surprise! It turns out that no crisis pregnancy centers have applied to be official counseling centers. It makes sense, since by agreeing to do so, they’re allowing women to fulfill their paperwork requirements to get an abortion. Letting crisis pregnancy centers become an impassable obstacle to abortion has given misogynist legislators a way to deprive women of any ability to get an abortion while leaving abortion technically legal.

4. Indiana. Not to be outdone by South Dakota, Indiana has gone a step further and moved toward attacking both contraception and abortion access. Gov. Mitch Daniels recently signed a law banning abortions after 20 weeks, and cutting off all federal funding for family planning. Lawmakers claimed they only wanted to attack clinics that also provide abortions, but because of federal non-discrimination policy, the law basically means an end to all federal funding of contraception, as well as STD testing and treatment. Now women in Indiana who rely on Medicaid and Title X subsidies to afford contraception will have to come up with hundreds of dollars they don’t have for contraception, or go without and run the high risk of unwanted pregnancy. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that without these clinics, teen pregnancy would be 21 percent higher and there would be about 3,500 more abortions in the state a year.

5. Oklahoma. Oklahoma legislators looked at how Indiana Republicans are using the specter of abortion to cut off contraception and thinking of ways they can expand on that for brand-new ways to punish women for having working uteruses. Why stop at attacking women not giving birth, when you have women who have babies to punish, as well? With this in mind, the Oklahoma House passed a bill that would eliminate independent contractors from administering Women, Infants and Children (WIC), a federal program that distributes nutrition vouchers to low-income women with children. As usual, Planned Parenthood was cited as the reason, with the GOP claiming the organization is so evil that it’s better to starve babies than allow Planned Parenthood to receive government funding. In practice, the result is one more punishment inflicted on women, this time for having the nerve to have babies who need to eat.

6. Kansas. Kansas went from being a pretty bad place to be a woman to a hellhole rapidly, between the murder of Dr. George Tiller in 2009 and the recent election of devout misogynist Sam Brownback as governor. The murder emboldened the radical anti-choice movement, as it resulted in the closure of Tiller’s clinic and proved to them that terrorism does work. Because of this, anti-choicers in the area moved to terrorizing Dr. Mila Means, a Kansas family doctor who was discovered receiving training to provide abortion. So far, Dr. Means has been unable to find relief from the harassment campaign at her office and her home, and a federal judge refused to issue a restraining order against Angel Dilliard, an anti-choice fanatic who has been threatening Dr. Means’ life.

Despite the atmosphere of fear and violence, Gov. Brownback is giving the terrorists what they want by signing more abortion restrictions into law, and pushing to strip family planning funding from women who depend on it.

7. Minnesota. So much for “Minnesota nice.” The much-ballyooed unwillingness to be confrontational was shoved aside by Minnesota legislators who are all too willing to simply ignore court rulings that restrain misogynist legislation. Legislators sent a big F-you last week both to the supreme courts of the nation and their own state by passing two laws that have already been deemed illegal by the courts. One, a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, violates the Supreme Court’s ruling that abortions can only be banned after viability. The other, a law banning public funding of abortion, violates the Minnesota supreme court ruling that found that such a ban violates women’s right to equal treatment under the law. Minnesota Republicans may not confront you on most things, but they’re willing to take it to the mat to deprive women of basic equality.

8. Georgia. Last year, reproductive justice advocates beat back a bill that would require doctors to “screen” women of color having abortions for some kind of pressure to abort because of race. By inventing a non-existent problem (women of color aborting because of racism) legislators would have put doctors in a position where providing abortion to any woman of color could result in jail time, which could make the service only available to white women. The bill didn’t pass, but it did end up kicking off a nationwide frenzy of anti-choicers attacking the reproductive rights of women of color specifically while pretending to be concerned about racism.

In reality, Georgia is a terrible place for women of childbearing age, especially women of color. The state has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, and maternal mortality disproportionately affects women of color. Real concern for the well-being of women of color would start with doing something about the maternal mortality rate, not feigning concern about their reasons for abortion.

9. Arizona. Race-based abortion restrictions may have failed in Georgia, but unfortunately, such a law recently passed in Arizona, a state that can’t even pretend that it’s not run by a bunch of wild-eyed racists. The “concern” for women of color aborting because of racism is laughable in a state where the legislature basically accused President Obama of not being a real citizen on no real evidence besides his appearance and in which it’s now the law for the police to harass Hispanic citizens for their papers. Of course, Arizona ignores the real problems facing women of its state -- 23 percent of women of child-bearing age are going without insurance coverage; the state has the third highest teenage pregnancy rate in the country; and 23 percent of Arizona children live in poverty. In light of all this, the safe assumption is race-based abortion laws are about making it that much harder for women of color to get abortions, which makes these laws not anti-racist, but just plain racist.

10. Louisiana. Louisiana has a ban on abortion on the books in case Roe v. Wade is overturned, as well as a host of other restrictions on abortion that have reduced the number of providers to seven in the state. Despite this, a Louisiana legislator has introduced a bill to ban abortion, apparently on the theory that if you pass the same illegal law over and over, it might just take. In addition, Gov. Jindal has indicated support for laws that would put additional restrictions in place for women of color seeking abortion, modeled on the abortion law in Arizona. As in Georgia, the concern for women of color is a centimeter deep; the state ranks 46th in maternal mortality and there’s no evidence that Republican legislators are lifting a finger to save the lives of women who do have their babies.

Amanda Marcotte co-writes the blog Pandagon. She is the author of It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments.

© 2011 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/150878/

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Maui Mothers Day Rally a Success!!

Courtesy AngelGroup

Maui Rally a Success

To bring attention to the fact that fit mother's are having ALL contact with their children removed, Hawaii supporters got together on Mother's Day on Maui to get the message out.

What did these mother's do wrong?  They fled relationships of Domestic and Family Violence.

Maui's Family Court Judge Keith E. Tanaka is a notorious renegade judge who disregards statutory law in favor of abusers, placing children in harm's way.

Please come out and support the next rally...for the children.

Much Thanks to Maui's Kmart for supporting Domestic Violence Awareness.

Please Sign the Care2 Petition, calling for an investigation and audit into the abuses in Family Court in Hawaii.

CALA NY Participates in Million Mom March Mother’s Day 2011 in Washington DC

CALA NY Thank you!! And GREAT JOB!!! UNITY in full force!! ONE Cause, ONE voice - UNITED!!!

Now that’s what we are talking about!!

 

EXCELLENT POST AND UPDATE from CALA NY (Coalition Against Legal Abuse, NY)

SEE VIDEO HERE:

Sunday, May 8, Mothers Day 2011, the Million Mom March has gathered participants and supporters for mothers who lost custody of their children in Family Courts across America.  Mothers of Lost Children included Linda Marie Sacks representing the American Mothers Political Party.

Representative, and other valuable organizers have been present in this historic march, including NOW Foundation Family Law Ad Hoc Committee, Leadership Council, Justice For Children, Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment & Appeals Project, Stop Family Violence, Battered Mothers Custody Conference, Randi James, Protective Parents for Children’s Rights, California Protective Parent Association, Center for Judicial Excellence,Family Court in America, Talia Carner, and The Coalition Against Legal Abuse.

Tourists and visitors on Capital Hill read the banners with great interest, and displayed absolute shock at the horrors that they were exposed to. People still cannot believe that courts will rip babies away from their mothers, and court order them to live with their abusive or pedophile fathers.

One mother had a poster exclaiming, “792 since I have seen my son”, while other posters had political messages to the President and First Lady, Michelle Obama.

This year saw the participation of Linda Marie Sacks, a mother who has filed a landmark case in the US Supreme Court on the eve of mother’s day. Our prayers are directed to Linda Marie in her pursuit of a favorable decision. This case will pave the road for mothers across America who have the strength and resolve to fight. “Mommy, please do not ever stop fighting for us”. We won’t. We love you too much!

 

CALA NY Thank you!!and GREAT JOB!!! UNITY in full force!! ONE Cause ONE voice UNITED!!!

 

CA: 2 kids, 2 adults die in LA murder-suicide

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hy7ixNKwKjozN8LgOPlF-1fcLAdw?docId=16070cbd833f4a2ba168cd1ed2498d74

2 kids, 2 adults die in LA murder-suicide

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Stunned residents filled the sidewalk of a modest East Los Angeles neighborhood with candles, flowers and other tributes at the site where a man parked the SUV in which he had killed his girlfriend, their 5-year-old twins and then himself.

The deadly outburst began late Saturday when Salvador Acevedo and his girlfriend, Iris Oseguera, got into an argument as they rode in the car with their fraternal twins and three other children. The three, described only as adolescents, were spared.

Police say Acevedo, 45, was driving when he and his 33-year-old girlfriend got into an argument and he pulled out a handgun and began shooting.

After the killings he drove the three surviving children to a relative's home and dropped them off. After he drove away, police said, the children told an adult what had happened and authorities were called.

Sheriff's Sgt. Michael Thomas said deputies found Acevedo's vehicle parked nearby.

He and Oseguera were pronounced dead at the scene. The boy and girl were rushed to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead.

A handgun was recovered at the scene, and Thomas said it appeared Acevedo shot himself after the others were killed.

Acevedo and Oseguera were the parents of the twins, but their relationship to the other three children was not immediately known.

Real Good Guy Kills Girlfriend & Children

 

Disgusting that they say this crap how he's a good guy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-murder-suicide-20110509,0,4455324.story

East L.A. man kills girlfriend and their children, then himself

Sheriffs say Salvador Acevedo Deleon was driving with his girlfriend, their 5-year-old twins and three adolescents when the couple got in an argument and he began shooting. The adolescents were not hurt.

A 45-year-old man fatally shot his girlfriend and their 5-year-old twins in front of three other children in East Los Angeles before turning the gun on himself, authorities said Sunday.

Salvador Acevedo Deleon was driving a Toyota sport utility vehicle with his girlfriend, Iris Oseguera, 33, their twins and three adolescents about 9 p.m. Saturday when the couple got into an argument, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and a coroner's official.

Acevedo Deleon pulled out a handgun and shot Oseguera and the twins, striking each in the upper torso. He then drove the three unharmed children to a relative's home in the area. The adolescents, who are believed to be from one of the adults' previous relationships, told the relative about the shooting and authorities were notified.

Sheriff's deputies located Acevedo Deleon's vehicle in the 1100 block of South Hicks Avenue. He had a gunshot wound that appeared to be self-inflicted and was pronounced dead at the scene, along with Oseguera.

The twins, a boy and a girl, were taken to a hospital, where they died. A handgun was recovered at the scene.

Acevedo Deleon, who was known as "Chava," owned two used-car dealerships, one of which was around the corner from where his body was found, said his co-worker Luis Castro. Castro said he lived in the neighborhood while Oseguera and the twins resided in La Puente.

On Sunday, friends and family members lay flowers and candles at the site where blood stains and shattered glass remained. Spray-painted on a piece of plywood were the words "RIP Chava & familia."

Neighbors described Acevedo Deleon as a friendly man who looked out for those in need, including a homeless man he paid to do odd jobs.

"He was a real good guy," said Fabian Aguillar, "he helped out a lot of immigrants, giving them jobs."

One man who asked not to be named added, "He always had a joy on his face. This is a sick tragedy."

corina.knoll@latimes.com

allen.schaben@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Man rams car into wife's in Mother's Day domestic incident

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2011/may/08/man-rams-car-wifes-mothers-day-domestic-incident/

 

BELTON — Mother's Day turned dangerous for one Anderson woman as she fled her home at the height of a domestic dispute about 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

The woman tried to drive away from her Belton mobile home at 349 Mize Road, but her husband's van slammed into the passenger side of her black Dodge Durango.

Her husband, Christopher Ray Alewine, 32, of Anderson was charged with three counts of attempted murder Sunday, said Anderson County Sheriff's Office spokesman Chad McBride.

 

The woman, her 12-year-old son and 2-year-old child went to AnMed Health Medical Center.

"None of them sustained any serious injuries," McBride said.

 

Alewine drove away from the crash, and deputies caught him at the corner of U.S. 29 North and Allie Campbell Road, about four miles from the mobile home.

He shouted "Happy Mother's Day," to news media filming deputies putting him into the police car.

There were two calls about the dispute, McBride said. The first one came in at 3:03 p.m., and the second one followed the wreck at 3:30 p.m.

The impact from the collision caused many bricks to fall from the front of the mobile home's foundation.

Alewine was moved to the Anderson County Detention Center Sunday evening. He awaits a Monday bond hearing.

Christopher Ray Alewine

Blair Hill, a forensics investigator for the Anderson County Sheriff Office looks at evidence from a domestic dispute in front of 349 Mize Road in Belton Sunday afternoon. Two children and their mother were taken to AnMed Health after a man driving a van rammed the black vehicle into the side of the home.

Sgt. Greg Williamson of the Anderson County Sheriff Office walks around a vehicle in front of 349 Mize Road in Belton Sunday afternoon. Two children and their mother were taken to AnMed Health after a man driving a van rammed the black vehicle into the side of the home, which Sgt. Williamson said was a domestic matter at the time.

Trial Court Modifies Child Custody Because of Custodial Parent’s Undocumented Status, and Is Reversed by Highest State Court on Appeal

 

http://www.fladivorcelawblog.com/2011/05/08/trial-court-modifies-child-custody-because-of-custodial-parents-undocumented-status-and-is-reversed-by-highest-state-court-on-appeal/

Palm Beach County divorce lawyer and domestic violence attorney Janet Langjahr

May 8, 2011

Trial Court Modifies Child Custody Because of Custodial Parent’s Undocumented Status, and Is Reversed by Highest State Court on Appeal

Posted by Janet Langjahr. Filed under Child Custody or Parental Responsibility, Immigrants, Miscellaneous.

Mother and Father both enter the US illegally and remain in Arkansas.

Mother remains undocumented for years. Father secures legal status on a temporary but renewing basis.

The government pursues increased child support from Father for their Daughter.

And then Father looks to get custody of Daughter.

To modify custody, Arkansas requires a material change of circumstances since entry of the previous child custody order.

At trial, the family court modifies child custody and awards custody of Daughter to Father. It appears that the trial judge bases his ruling upon his personal political and policy views, rather than Arkansas child custody law.

On appeal, Arkansas’ highest court reverses and restores custody of Daughter to Mother.

It turns out that the circumstances Father complains of, Mother’s undocumented status and lack of a valid driver’s license, are exactly the same as they were at the time of Mother’s and Father’s divorce. They were apparently acceptable to Father then, and the marital settlement agreement was approved by the family court and adopted in its final judgment.

Further, the evidence at trial showed that Father had had little or no contact with Daughter for about two years.

Read more in this Arkansas Times piece: Illegal Immigrant.

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2011/04/14/court-overturns-jennings-osborne-award?

* ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT: The Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Karen Baker, reversed Circuit Judge Philip Shirron's decision to take child custody away from a Grant County mother because she was an undocumented immigrant.

The father, who had temporary status to be in the country, sought custody of the child, now 9, after a request was made for an increase in child support. He contended circumstances had changed since the couple's divorce, particularly dangers he alleged from the mother's immigration status (driving without a driver's license, possible deportation.)

Shirron found for the father, lashing out at illegal immigrants in general in the process.

Neither of these are showing the concern and dedication to comply with this Country’s laws, this Country’s policies and procedure. It’s a great place to live, but you have no obligation to it. I believe that public opinion lashes out at these type conditions, and I believe it’s not appropriate for a Court to condone them. When at least there’s at hand a legally qualified custodial parent, or a person that could be a custodial parent.

In reversing, the court noted the mother's status hadn't changed since the father agreed to the custody arrangement and the father knew the mother's status at that time. The court dismissed other arguments, such as the father's claim of better economic circumstances and the mother's having additional children by different fathers. Custody decisions aren't made to punish or reward parents and the mere fact of greater income is not sufficient to change custody, the court said. I believe, by quoting Shirron's incendiary commentary, the court sent a signal about the tenor of his remarks.