Thanks and Spanks - 2011 Year-End Edition


Thanks to Sherrod Brown
for a year of support!

Sherrod BrownA war on women began in 2011 and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown was on the front lines to defend against these attacks!  He is undeniably one of the  greatest advocates for Ohio women and access to comprehensive health care.  For his work in 2011, we give Senator Sherrod Brown our Thanks of the Year.

In the spring, Senator Brown was a key voice against a push to shut-down the federal government over family planning funding.  Of course the real target wasn’t family planning funding, it was Planned Parenthood.  Anti-choice legislators were willing to risk millions of women losing access to critical health care services in order to further their anti-Planned Parenthood agenda.  If not for a few key Senators, women would have lost critical funding for services such as cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, birth control, and well-woman exams.  Sherrod Brown said, "No!" and stood up for women and families.

In the summer, Senator Brown held a special Telephone Town Hall for Planned Parenthood supporters in Ohio.  He thanked us for our efforts to protect women’s access to health care and urged everyone to tell their story about why Planned Parenthood is important to you.  You can tell your story here.

This fall, he has been at the front of the effort to protect birth control access for all women.  The inclusion of prescription birth control as a form of preventive health care with no co-pay was a major victory for women during health care reform.  Senator Brown has been a leader on this issue, directly engaging key staff in the Obama administration to ensure that birth control without co-pay is a right for everyone, regardless of your employer. 

For all your work this year and in the years to come: Thank you Senator Brown!
Spanks to Speaker Bill Batchelder
and Senate President Tom Niehaus
for violating the Constitution
to harm women.

This year, Ohioans were hurting.  Over half a million of us are still unemployed, and instead of focusing on job creation, our legislative leaders at the Ohio Statehouse set forth on a crusade to ban abortion.  For that reason the Spanks of the Year goes to Speaker of the House William Batchelder and Senate President Tom Niehaus. 

This year, ten – yes ten! – bills aimed at restricting a woman’s right to choose were introduced in the Ohio legislature.  While all the bills are certainly extreme, at least three of them are unconstitutional as well!  Despite the oaths that Speaker Batchelder and President Niehaus took to uphold the constitution in their service as elected officials, they willingly advanced these pieces of legislation.  You might even say that some of the bills were fast-tracked through the legislature.  It has been a bad year for reproductive justice in Ohio, and largely at the expense of valuable time that should have been spent creating jobs and finding ways to improve our economy. 

Speaker Batchelder and President Niehaus put extremist special interests ahead of women and the people of Ohio.

For their messed up priorities and disregard for women: Shame on you Speaker Batchelder and President Niehaus!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 | Labels: , , , , , |

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