Dear John,
Congress may have averted a government shutdown, with the signing of the last-minute continuing resolution last week—but we’re not in the clear yet. As fights over the budget continue, we’re focusing on what’s at stake for women in these negotiations—from childcare funding, to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
Speaking at an event celebrating 50 years of Ms. at the Capitol last week, Rep. Rosa DeLauro called out Republican cuts to programs that impact women first and foremost—like the Department of Labor’s women’s bureau, maternal and child health, Title X funding for family planning, WIC and more—noting that the cuts would be “leaving millions of women and children behind.” “We need to continue to fight,” she said. “Now is the moment to do that.”
Frankly it’s a no-brainer: investments in women and families are good for the economy and good for the country.
Congress also has the opportunity right now to make a big difference in the lives of many Afghan women, by passing the Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA). Currently, Afghan people who come to the U.S. are stymied by a complex process that poses many barriers to obtaining permanent citizenship. The AAA would help these refugees—allowing them to apply for green cards.
“Afghan parolees are facing the same challenges as other refugees, such as finding adequate housing and employment, but they are also struggling to find attorneys so that they can apply for a legal status that will allow them to remain,” Homayra Yusufi, acting director of the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, told Ms. “There are not enough lawyers to take on complex asylum cases, and those who do find an attorney still must wait for many months to get an answer, given the major application backlogs facing the government.”
Meanwhile, in a move directly responding to Texas’ SB 8 and other states’ abortion bans, California enacted a law that protects healthcare practitioners located in California who provide telehealth services and dispense medication for abortion, contraception and gender-affirming care to out-of-state patients. California now joins five other states that have passed similar laws.
Now, people in states that have criminalized abortion or gender-affirming care will be able to obtain healthcare from a California clinician via telehealth or videoconferencing and have medication shipped to them from a California pharmacy.
“[H]ealthcare providers physically located in California will be able to offer a lifeline to people in states that have cut off access to essential care, and be shielded from the draconian laws of those states,” said State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), who introduced the bill.
Just this week, Iranian human and women’s rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi has received the Nobel Peace Prize “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” Shortly after Mohammadi authored this Ms. article in 2021 calling for the end of “white torture”—a form of solitary confinement used in Iranian prisons—she was arrested. She currently remains in prison.
As we mark one year since Mahsa Amini’s death while in custody of the Iranian Guidance Patrol, we are thinking of her, as well as Nasrin Sotoudeh—an Iranian human rights lawyer, who is also currently imprisoned—and all the women of Iran, who continue to tirelessly fight for their rights and dignity at great risk to their lives.
Onward,
