January, 11 2013, 01:53pm EDT
40 Years After Women Won the Right to Choose, New Report Shows 2012 Another Record Year of Anti-Choice Attacks
NARAL Pro-Choice America and NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation today released the 22nd edition of Who Decides? The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States, the nation's most comprehensive report on choice-related legislation. This report shows a mix of progress and setbacks for women's reproductive freedom across the country.
WASHINGTON
NARAL Pro-Choice America and NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation today released the 22nd edition of Who Decides? The Status of Women's Reproductive Rights in the United States, the nation's most comprehensive report on choice-related legislation. This report shows a mix of progress and setbacks for women's reproductive freedom across the country.
Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America and NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, said that 2012 was a remarkable year for pro-choice Americans.
"In 2012, pro-choice voters and activists worked together to reject the extreme anti-choice tactics which are completely out of touch with our values and priorities," said Keenan. "Unfortunately, anti-choice politicians didn't get that memo. These politicians continue to put forth legislation to roll back a woman's constitutionally guaranteed right to choose. As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, anti-choice politicians remind us that we must fight to defend our rights every day, in every state. Met with this challenge, we will continue to stick together and work to protect our right to reproductive freedom and privacy."
NARAL Pro-Choice America is proud to also release its 2012 Congressional Record on Choice, which details the choice-related votes Congress took in the second session of the 112th Congress. In 2012 the House continued to attack women's reproductive rights by unsuccessfully bringing two anti-choice bills to the floor for votes - a bill that would criminalize a doctor for the reasons a woman seeks abortion care, and another that singles out the District of Columbia for an outright ban on abortion care after 20 weeks. In total, the 112th Congress (2011-2012) took 14 votes on choice: 10 in the House of Representatives and four in the Senate. Thankfully, the pro-choice-controlled Senate and President Barack Obama served as firewalls and blocked many anti-choice measures from advancing, most notably defeating Sen. Roy Blunt's (R-MO) attempt to undermine the nation's new contraceptive-coverage policy.
At the state level, states continue to impose record numbers of anti-choice laws on women's reproductive freedom. Among the 42 anti-choice measures newly enacted in 2012, the most prominent trends were: bans on abortion care after 20 weeks; laws prohibiting abortion coverage in state health-insurance exchanges; and laws that defund family-planning centers.
Since 1995, states have enacted more than 700 anti-choice measures cumulatively. Each of these measures interferes with a woman's right to make her own private, personal decisions about her reproductive health. And state governments continue to be dominated by anti-choice politicians, which likely means the trend of legislative attacks on reproductive freedom will continue in the year ahead.
Keenan said the report outlines a similar combination of progress and setbacks at the state level, including the following highlights:
- 25 states enacted 42 anti-choice measures in 2012. (Readers of the book will note that the numbers are slightly different. That's because in late 2012, two states enacted two additional measures.)
- Arizona enacted the most anti-choice legislation in 2012, with four measures. Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin each enacted three anti-choice measures.
- Since 1995, states have enacted 755 anti-choice measures.
- 24 states earned a "F" on the women's reproductive rights report card.
- 6 states enacted 8 pro-choice measures in 2012.
- Vermont enacted the most pro-choice legislation in 2012, with 3 measures.
- 2012 marks the eighth year in a row that Colorado has enacted a pro-choice measure.
Keenan also pointed out states like Arizona, Georgia, and Louisiana enacted bans on abortion care after 20 weeks that are clearly unconstitutional and designed as a challenge to Roe v. Wade. And states like Alabama, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wisconsin enacted abortion-coverage bans in the states' health-insurance exchanges.
"This is why elections matter," Keenan continued. "Women continue to face legislative hostility in states dominated by anti-choice politicians. We may have won some battles but anti-choice politicians attack this right relentlessly - if we allow them. It is incumbent upon us to educate the public on these anti-choice tactics and hold these extreme politicians accountable."
Keenan also noted that this edition of the Who Decides? is dedicated to women of the Obama administration, whose courage, political savvy, and tenacity helped to improve the status of women. Among these leaders are: Hillary Rodham Clinton, secretary of state; Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services; Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to the president; Melody Barnes and Cecilia Munoz, directors of the domestic policy council; Tina Tchen, chief of staff to the first lady; and Nancy-Ann DeParle, deputy chief of staff for policy.
Who Decides?, which includes a summary of federal and state laws as well as state rankings and states, may be found at: www.WhoDecides.org. The Congressional Record on Choice, which includes a record of choice-related votes taken in the 112th Congress, may be found at: www.ProChoiceAmerica.org/CongressionalRecord.
For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
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Former Officials Say US Arms Transfers to Israel Unlawful
Despite documented abuses, said one former State Department staffer, the weapons "are just continuing to flow."
May 10, 2024
Ahead of the release of a much-anticipated report on how U.S. weapons have been used by Israel in its ongoing military assault on Gaza, former State Department officials came forward early Friday to contend that sales to the Israeli regime have clearly violated "legal limits."
Speaking to the Washington Post, Josh Paul, who worked on arm transfer policies before becoming the most senior U.S. official in the State Department to resign over the war in Gaza, explained that in addition to international laws that Israel may be breaking in Gaza, the U.S. has violated its own binding mechanisms for how weapons sold to other nations are deployed.
"Just from a legal perspective within U.S. domestic law," said Paul, "there's a much wider body of rules that is being ignored right now" by the Biden administration. "The arms are just continuing to flow."
Axiosreports that the anticipated report by the State Department—known as the NSM-20 (or National Security Memomardum 20)—may be made public as early as Friday, though the government has already been harshly criticized by human rights groups for delaying its release beyond a May 8 deadline.
"The Biden administration had months to put together a report on information they should already be collecting—whether grave human rights violations and other serious violations of international law are being committed using U.S.-provided weapons in seven conflicts around the world," said Amanda Klasing, national director for government relations at Amnesty International USA, after the deadline came and went on Wednesday.
Charles Blaha, who from 2016 to 2023 worked as Director of the State Department’s Office of Security and Human Rights, told the Post that documented evidence, as well as common sense, reveals that the massive amount of U.S. arms sold to the Israelis both before and during the last seven months of fighting in Gaza have been used in gross human rights violations.
"When you look at those collapsed buildings where people are trapped underneath, the odds are that that death and destruction is being caused by a United States-supplied weapon," explained Blaha, who co-authored an independent analysis last month exploring possible NSM-20 violations.
According to that April analysis:
The final report features sixteen clear, credible, and compelling incidents that should certainly be included in the administration’s upcoming reporting to Congress as well as an 18-page appendix of additional incidents worthy of examination. It also identifies multiple restrictions on humanitarian assistance, including strikes by the IDF, that trigger Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act (which bars military assistance to states impeding U.S. humanitarian aid) and should be reportable to Congress by the Departments of State and/or Defense under the terms of NSM-20.
Our findings were striking. Though Israel has attributed the 34,000 Palestinian casualties, 70 percent of whom are women and children, to alleged human shielding by Hamas, we found that in 11 out of the 16 incidents we analyzed, Israel did not even publicly identity a military target or attempt to justify the strike. Of the remaining five incidents, Israel publicly named targets with verification in two incidents, but no precautionary warning was given and we assess the anticipated civilian harm was known and excessive.
According to Axios' reporting, the NSM-20 report—which will be officially submitted to Congress for review by Secretary of State Antony Blinken upon its release—will be "highly critical report about Israel's conduct in Gaza" but stop short of "concluding it has violated the terms for its use of U.S. weapons."
Citing people with internal knowledge of the behind-the-scenes discussion at the State Department, Axios reports the existence of an internal "tug-of-war" in which "the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and USAID recommended Blinken conclude that Israel has violated the terms of the national security memorandum, but other parts of the department pressed Blinken to certify that it didn't."
In response to the reporting, Alexander Langlois, a contributing fellow at Defense Priorities, said the Biden administration hopes to have it both ways.
"As expected, the Biden admin is going to attempt (and likely fail) at threading a needle on the NSM-20 report, reported to be released today," said Langlois. "Anyone with eyes can see what is happening here. This is a political decision and not one based on facts."
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UNRWA's East Jerusalem HQ Closed After Arson by Mob of Israeli Extremists
"This is an outrageous development," said the head of the Palestinian refugee agency. "Once again, the lives of U.N. staff were at serious risk."
May 10, 2024
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said Thursday that it was forced to shutter its headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem after a mob of Israeli extremists set fire to the perimeter of the facility, causing significant damage and endangering staffers inside the building.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said late Thursday that the fire was the latest escalation by Israeli extremists who have been protesting outside the UNRWA compound for months, ginned up by the Israeli government's unsubstantiated claims about the agency staffers' ties to terrorist groups.
An independent probe released last month concluded that Israel "has yet to provide supporting evidence" that "a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations."
In his statement Thursday, Lazzarini said U.N. staffers have "regularly been subjected to harassment and intimidation" and that the East Jerusalem compound "has been seriously vandalized and damaged."
"This is an outrageous development. Once again, the lives of U.N. staff were at serious risk," said Lazzarini. "In light of this second appalling incident in less than a week, I have taken the decision to close down our compound until proper security is restored."
This evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.
This took place while UNRWA and other UN Agencies’ staff were on the compound.
While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage… pic.twitter.com/ZqHFDNkiWC
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) May 9, 2024
Attacks on the agency's East Jerusalem headquarters began in February after Arieh King, the far-right deputy mayor of Jerusalem, called on the Netanyahu government to kick the UNRWA "out of Israel and specifically from Jerusalem."
Lazzarini said that demonstrations "became violent" this week when Israeli protesters "threw stones at U.N. staff and at the buildings of the compound."
"On several occasions, Israeli extremists threatened our staff with guns," said Lazzarini. "It is the responsibility of the state of Israel as an occupying power to ensure that United Nations personnel and facilities are protected at all times."
"I call on all those who have influence to put an end to these attacks and hold all those responsible accountable," he continued. "The perpetrators of these attacks must be investigated and those responsible must be held accountable. Anything less will set a new dangerous standard."
Espen Barth Eide, Norway's foreign affairs minister, said Friday that he was "shocked" by the attacks on UNRWA's East Jerusalem headquarters and echoed Lazzarini's call for an investigation.
"As host country, Israel has a duty to protect U.N. personnel and premises at any time. The incidents must be investigated, those responsible must be held accountable. UNRWA is the lifeline for millions of Palestine refugees."
"Forced displacement and military operations in Rafah are worsening an already catastrophic situation. We need a cease-fire now."
Norway was among the nations that did not suspend funding for UNRWA as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and other Western countries cut off donations to the agency earlier this year following Israel's baseless allegations against the body's employees. UNRWA's chief has accused the Netanyahu government of launching a "concerted campaign" to destroy the agency.
The U.S., historically UNRWA's largest donor, has yet to resume funding for the agency, which is the primary relief organization operating in the Gaza Strip. Legislation that President Joe Biden signed into law last month prohibits U.S. government funding for UNRWA until at least March 2025.
The latest attack on UNRWA's East Jerusalem headquarters came as the agency worked to aid displaced Palestinians in Rafah, the overcrowded city in southern Gaza that Israeli ground forces invaded earlier this week, worsening an already grave humanitarian disaster.
UNRWA wrote in a social media post Friday that it has been forced to close 10 of its 34 medical points in Rafah amid the Israeli military's attack on the city.
"Forced displacement and military operations in Rafah are worsening an already catastrophic situation," the agency said. "We need a cease-fire now."
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'Barbaric': Whistleblowers Further Expose Israel's Torture of Detained Palestinians
"What we know about Gaza is only tip of atrocity iceberg."
May 10, 2024
Three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the notorious Sde Teiman prison camp in the Negev desert offered horrifying accounts of the treatment of Palestinians held there, tellingCNN that the facility's doctors have amputated limbs due to handcuffing injuries, allowed detainees' wounds to rot, and carried out vicious beatings.
A medic who worked at Sde Teiman's field hospital said that Palestinian detainees there are stripped "of anything that resembles human beings" and that the harassment and torture are done not to "gather intelligence" but "out of revenge" for the October 7 attacks.
Israel has detained thousands of Gaza residents since October, with many of them held under a recently amended law that empowers Israeli authorities to imprison people indefinitely without charge or due process. Human rights organizations have documented Israeli forces' brutal and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees, including women and children.
At the field hospital, CNN reported, "wounded detainees are strapped to their beds, wearing diapers and fed through straws."
One Israeli whistleblower took a photograph of a room at the facility, which the person said was filled with a "putrid stench" and the sound of "men's murmurs" as they were "forbidden from speaking to each other."
"We were told they were not allowed to move," the whistleblower said. "They should sit upright. They're not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold."
CNN finally sheds light on Israel's shocking and barbaric torture chambers: thousands of people, detained for months:
Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention centerhttps://t.co/XuOL4IaFQS
— Nimer Sultany (@NimerSultany) May 10, 2024
The whistleblower accounts, according to CNN, "paint a picture of a facility where doctors sometimes amputated prisoners' limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; of medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified medics earning it a reputation for being 'a paradise for interns'; and where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot."
The testimony provided to CNN is consistent with details that a doctor at the camp's field hospital included in a recent letter to top Israeli officials. The doctor described unlawful and inhumane conditions; in a single week, the person said, "two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event."
A report published last month by Al Mezan, a Palestinian human rights organization, also documented "harrowing accounts of torture and inhumane treatment" of people detained by the Israeli military.
"A 19-year-old detainee told an Al Mezan lawyer that he was tortured from the moment he was arrested," the group said. "He described how three of his fingernails were removed with pliers during interrogation. He also stated that investigators unleashed a dog on him and subjected him to shabeh—a form of torture which involves detainees being handcuffed and bound in stress positions for long periods—three times over three days of interrogation. He was then placed in a cell for 70 days, where he experienced starvation and extreme fatigue."
Mohammed Al-Ran, a Palestinian doctor who was arrested by Israeli forces in December, told CNN that he was "stripped down to his underwear, blindfolded and his wrists tied, then dumped in the back of a truck where... the near-naked detainees were piled on top of one another as they were shuttled to a detention camp in the middle of the desert."
Al-Ran was held by Israeli forces for 44 days. Just before his release, he told CNN, "a fellow prisoner had called out to him, his voice barely rising above a whisper."
According to CNN: "He asked the doctor to find his wife and kids in Gaza. 'He asked me to tell them that it is better for them to be martyrs,' said al-Ran. 'It is better for them to die than to be captured and held here.'"
Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director of Human Rights Watch, said in response to the new reporting that "what we know about Gaza is only tip of the atrocity iceberg."
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