HOUSE PASSES PRO-LIFE BILL WITH ALL DEMOCRATS VOTING IN FAVOR

The House of Representatives voted yesterday to pass legislation protecting unborn life after the bill was brought up for a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).  No Democrat voted against it while the Republican were divided between supporters and opponents of the unborn.

Joe Biden has announced his support for the legislation while Trump has not. 

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would require bosses to provide reasonable accommodations at work to pregnant women and their unborn children. The act is modeled on the 30-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires employers to work with disabled employees to find reasonable fixes at work so they can continue to do their jobs. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) sponsored the bill, along with Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee.

Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) took to the floor to oppose the bill.  She said the bill didn’t protect employers’ religious rights, though didn’t explain exactly how.  Perhaps employers have the religious right to consider their employee's unborn child to be nothing of value. 

Pregnant women have been told by their bosses, sometimes directly and other times clear but indirectly, that if they want to keep their job, they should get an abortion.  None the less, scores of Republicans who claim to be anti-abortion voted against the bill.  Thoughtful Catholics have every right to question their anti-abortion sincerity.  

The accommodations pregnant women require at work are fairly simple: a stool for a cashier to sit on while working the register, light-lifting duty for warehouse workers, a water bottle for a retail worker on the shop floor or a different-sized uniform for a pregnant police officer. Sometimes pregnant women just need a few more bathroom breaks or time to go to the doctor.  Other times, they need to be kept away from exposure to workplace chemicals that could cause an involuntary abortion.  However, without such accommodations, unborn babies are at risk of harm or death.  

The Democrats showed that women get fired or sent on unpaid leave for being with child. That means they’re left without income just when they really need a paycheck. The consequences can be devastating: Democrats mentioned a woman who wound up homeless when she was in her third trimester and others forced to apply for food stamps.

“When companies refuse to accommodate for pregnancy-related needs it doesn’t just hurt the person being discriminated against it hurts the entire family,” said Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on the House floor Thursday.

Many women have little choice to keep working, putting their lives and their pregnancies at risk. A few years ago at a warehouse in Memphis, several women had miscarriages after they were denied lighter lifting duties.  

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden applauded the bill’s passage and urged the Senate to take it up. “While President Trump called pregnancy ‘an inconvenience’ for businesses, Vice President Biden believes that pregnant workers shouldn’t have to choose between their health and their work,” said Mariel Sáez, the women’s media director for the Biden campaign. “He strongly supports the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and included it in his agenda to build America back better for women. The bill’s protections for pregnant workers are commonsense and vital — especially in the face of this pandemic.”

The bill passed Thursday would also prohibit employers from firing women simply for asking for accommodations or not hiring a woman because she’s pregnant and might need some temporary fixes to work.

FORCED STERILIZATION OF WOMEN UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Immigrant women in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Georgia are being subjected to horrific conditions and treatment, including “jarring medical neglect” and a high rate of hysterectomies among women, according to a whistleblower complaint filed by several legal advocacy groups on behalf of Dawn Wooten, a nurse who works there.

Immigrants who spoke out against these conditions were regularly pushed into solitary confinement, the complaint said. Wooten says she was demoted and reprimanded when she spoke out about these practices.

Wooten’s account was bolstered by interviews with another current member of Irwin’s medical staff – who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation – and four people currently or recently detained there. 

According to the new complaint, Wooten reported an alarmingly high rate of hysterectomies – a surgery in which part or all of the uterus is removed – being performed on Spanish-speaking immigrants, many of whom did not appear to understand why they had undergone the procedure.

She said an off-site doctor supposedly performed the surgeries on women who complained of heavy menstrual cycles, but that many women seemed to not understand what had happened. In many cases nurses obtained consent from patients by “simply googling Spanish”, the complaint alleges.

“Everybody he sees has a hysterectomy – just about everybody,” Wooten said. “That’s his specialty, he’s the uterus collector. Everybody’s uterus cannot be that bad.”

The complaint also alleges health and safety violations related to the procedures. One woman said she was not properly anesthetized during a procedure and overheard the doctor say he had mistakenly removed the wrong ovary, rendering her unable to have children. Another went in to have a cyst drained and ultimately got a hysterectomy instead, the complaint said.

Catholic Hospital and Health Care Stand with WHO over Trump

CATHOLIC HEALTH ASSOCATION DEMANDS Trump Reconsider Decision to Withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO)

Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, President and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States has blasted Donald Trump for his threat to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization.  She says that withdrawing from the organization during COVID-19 is counterproductive and only ensures that the U.S. will have little influence in efforts to address this worldwide pandemic.

In her letter to the White House and released to the press, Sister Mary noted that throughout the history of this country, Catholic health providers have been at the forefront responding to global pandemics. In response to COVID-19, Catholic health care has cared for some of the first patients impacted by the virus.

She further stated that:  "Thanks in part to global cooperation through the WHO, our nation and the world have been able to combat Ebola, smallpox, polio, rubella, measles, bird flu, HIV/AIDS and wide variety of communicable and noncommunicable diseases. The success of these efforts has not only saved lives around the world, but also saved millions of lives here in the United States." 

Joe Biden's Vision for the Catholic Community - Part 3: Health Care for All

Ensure that affordable, quality health care is a right for all Americans: 



Joe knows there’s no peace of mind if you cannot afford to care for a sick child or family member because of a pre-existing condition, because you’ve reached a cap on your health insurance coverage, or because you have to make a decision between putting food on the table or going to the doctor. He will expand coverage and lower health care costs by protecting and building upon Obamacare. This includes giving Americans a public health insurance option, increasing the value of tax credits to lower premiums, and expanding coverage to low-income Americans. He will also put a stop to runaway drug prices and the profiteering of the drug industry.