July, 22 2015, 03:15pm EDT
Seventy-One Human Rights Organizations Call on President Obama to End Unnecessary Reproductive Health Restrictions That Harm Women
As President Obama makes official visits to Kenya and Ethiopia this week, a broad-based coalition of leading domestic and global organizations are calling on him to put an end to the incorrect implementation of the Helms Amendment in order to save women's lives and protect their health.
WASHINGTON
As President Obama makes official visits to Kenya and Ethiopia this week, a broad-based coalition of leading domestic and global organizations are calling on him to put an end to the incorrect implementation of the Helms Amendment in order to save women's lives and protect their health.
In an open letter, the coalition asks President Obama to meet with the U.S. government's partners implementing health and gender-based violence programs in Kenya and Ethiopia, local community organizations, and the women they serve, in order to see why it's imperative that the Obama Administration address its flawed implementation of the Helms Amendment.
The Helms Amendment prohibits the use of U.S. foreign assistance funds "to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning." Although abortion in Kenya is allowed in cases of rape, incest and when the health or life of a pregnant woman is in danger, women are still unable to access legal abortion services. Unsafe abortion is a leading cause of maternal mortality, and Kenya and Ethiopia are among the 24 USAID priority countries in which 70 percent of maternal deaths worldwide occur.
"While nearly 300,000 women in developing countries continue to die needlessly from unsafe abortion every year, the United States' flawed interpretation of the Helms Amendment denies critical funding to local organizations that could help women get the safe care they need, " said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
"In Kenya, maternal deaths and injuries can and must be prevented," added Evelyne Opondo, regional director for Africa at the Center. "President Obama has been a champion for women's health in the United States, so we now call on him to take a stand for women worldwide and fix the Helms Amendment."
The letter provides further background on the groups' concerns, stating that women in Kenya, Ethiopia and around the world face high rates of gender-based violence, limited access to trained health care providers, and financial and geographic barriers to access comprehensive reproductive health care, including safe and legal abortion. Every year, an estimated 287,000 women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth - 13% of those deaths are the result of unsafe abortion. Close to half of those who die from unsafe abortion are younger than the age of 25. While no single policy can address the broad challenges that affect women in developing countries each day, the administration can take an important step by correcting its implementation of the Helms Amendment.
Kenya's 2010 constitution eased the country's severe restrictions on abortion, legalizing safe abortion services when the life or health of a woman is in danger and in cases of emergency--a measure aimed at decreasing the country's high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity resulting from unsafe abortion. However, Kenyan women continue to be deprived of essential reproductive health services--including quality maternal health care and safe and legal abortion services. This is due to a variety of factors, including the misapplication of the Helms Amendment and the arbitrary withdrawal of the government's guidelines for reducing morbidity and mortality from unsafe abortion and a ban on safe abortion trainings for health care professionals, which has led to great confusion as to when legal abortions can be provided.
The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a petition last month against Kenya's Ministry of Health for undermining women's constitutional rights and contributing to cases of maternal death by denying countless women, including rape survivors, access to safe, legal abortion.
The Center has worked for more than a decade across the continent of Africa to advance women's access to reproductive health care through law and policy reform. In 2010, the Center published the report In Harm's Way, which documented the devastating effects of the criminalization of abortion in Kenya before the law was reformed, and demonstrated how the weaknesses in Kenya's health care system are further exacerbated when it comes to a reproductive health that is perceived as illegal and highly stigmatized.
The Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization of lawyers and advocates who ensure reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights for the dignity, equality, health, and well-being of every person.
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Hawaii ACLU Demands End to US Complicity in 'Israeli Government's Genocide in Gaza'
"Residents of Hawaii are witness to the historical consequences of land dispossession, colonization, and cultural erasure, and have not turned a blind eye to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people on their land."
Sep 26, 2024
The ACLU of Hawaii's board of directors on Wednesday announced the passage of what's believed to be a first-of-its-kind resolution for the civil liberties group decrying U.S. complicity in "the Israeli government's genocide in Gaza, as well as Israel's crimes of apartheid and occupation in the West Bank" and demanding an immediate cease-fire.
"Residents of Hawaii are witness to the historical consequences of land dispossession, colonization, and cultural erasure, and have not turned a blind eye to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people on their land," the ACLU of Hawaii said in a statement. "Activists in Hawaii have been steadfast in their advocacy against the United States' complicity in Israeli actions, and for this reason and many more, the Hawaii State Legislature was the first in the United States to call for a permanent and immediate cease-fire."
The ACLU of Hawaii board's resolution, which was passed earlier this month, compares the assault on Gaza—for which Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice—and the illegal occupation of Palestine with past human rights crimes like South African apartheid and the Vietnam War.
The document also notes that "college students and professors on campus are being silenced and police have committed violence against such peaceful protesters," and that "federal legislation... provides the Israeli government with military aid while it is committing egregious human rights violations against Palestinian civilians, as well as American citizens residing in Palestine."
"Therefore, this action is in line with ACLU of Hawaii's mandate to protect civil liberties and civil rights," the publication adds. "Israel's war in Gaza cannot be divorced from civil rights in America."
The resolution states:
- We condemn the U.S. government's complicity in Israeli action.
- We resolve that critiquing the war on Gaza should not be an exception to constitutional protections.
- We oppose federal legislation that provides the Israeli government with military aid while it continues hostilities against the Palestinians.
- We support calling for a permanent cease-fire and the release of all hostages.
The vote on the resolution was unanimous.
"Why? Because we're the ACLU," board member Kenneth Lawson said in a video about the resolution. "We have to stand for something. And what is that? Justice. And we are opposed to violations of human rights."
Board member Monihsa Das Gupta said that "here in Hawaii, there is a long history of fighting occupation and militarization, so we have very strong allies and allyship with Kānaka Maoli," a reference to Indigenous Hawaiians.
Das Gupta highlighted the pilina, or connection, "between Palestinians who are struggling for their self-determination and the Kānaka Maoli and their allies here... raising our voices for deoccupation."
Lawson said: "What we're asking for is a cease-fire. This isn't about one side versus the other, this is about justice for human beings. Period."
"So, free the hostages, an immediate cease-fire right now to stop any military aid from the United States from going to Israel so we're not co-conspirators in this atrocity, so we're not co-conspirators in this genocide, and to stop any legislation that continues to support us being involved in the devastation of one group of people over another," he added.
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Exclusive: Khanna Proposes End to 'Unconscionable' Taxpayer Subsidies for Big Oil
"The fossil fuel industry receives over $20.5 billion in taxpayer dollars every year while fleecing American consumers and driving a global climate crisis," said the California Democrat.
Sep 26, 2024
As fossil fuel giants continue to rake in billions of dollars in profits, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna on Thursday is reintroducing legislation to end giving billions in taxpayer dollars to companies that inject captured carbon dioxide into wells to extract more climate-wrecking oil.
"The fossil fuel industry receives over $20.5 billion in taxpayer dollars every year while fleecing American consumers and driving a global climate crisis," Khanna (D-Calif.) told Common Dreams. "The End Polluter Welfare for Enhanced Oil Recovery Act will eliminate the subsidy for captured carbon used for enhanced oil recovery, which only leads to more fossil fuel extraction and does nothing to mitigate climate change."
While advocates of carbon capture utilization and storage claim that it's necessary to address the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, most CO2 captured in the United States is used to extract more planet-heating oil and gas, leading many scientists and green groups to argue that it is a "false climate solution."
"Oil drilling is the real story behind the fossil fuel industry's carbon capture obsession," said Jim Walsh, policy director at Food & Water Watch, which has endorsed Khanna's bill. "These corporate polluters are raiding public coffers from what could easily be hundreds of billions of dollars while greenwashing the further degradation of our climate."
Walsh also highlighted the impact on people who live near fossil fuel infrastructure, telling Common Dreams that "communities across the country are facing the potential for thousands of harmful industrial projects and tens of thousands of miles of dangerous pipelines that will do little more than put money in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry."
Despite such warnings, Congress has actually boosted Section 45Q tax giveaways for companies using captured CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) since Khanna first introduced the legislation in December 2021. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 was heralded as a "landmark" climate package for its investments in cleaner energy, but a little-noticed provision in the law increased the relevant credit for CO2 injection from $35 to $60 per metric ton.
"Taxpayers shouldn't be left footing the bill to help Big Oil boost its profits at the expense of our health and economy."
This year, 15 other House members are backing Khanna's bill, as are over a dozen organizations. Among them is Evergreen Action, which has spent years calling for reforms, including a June memo denouncing 45Q subsidies that encourage more fossil fuel production.
"It's unconscionable that American taxpayers are still subsidizing oil and gas companies to extract even more fossil fuels through so-called 'enhanced oil recovery,'" said Evergreen Action senior energy transition policy lead Mattea Mrkusic. "By eliminating these wasteful tax giveaways, Rep. Ro Khanna's bill takes a crucial step toward ending one of many federal fossil fuel handouts that drive climate pollution."
"Climate change is no longer a distant threat—it's happening right now, fueling more frequent and severe weather events, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities, and costing the American people billions every year," Mrkusic told Common Dreams. "Taxpayers shouldn't be left footing the bill to help Big Oil boost its profits at the expense of our health and economy. It's a perfect time to fully invest in our clean energy future instead."
Khanna's reintroduction of the End Polluter Welfare for EOR Act follows the hottest year in human history—a record that 2024 is expected to beat, with historic summer heat that led global scientists to demand urgent action to shift away from fossil fuels.
It also comes less than six weeks away from the U.S. general election, in which Americans are set to determine the makeup of Congress and the next occupant of the Oval Office. While Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris has the support of nearly every major climate group, former Republican President Donald Trump, who has pledged to swiftly gut federal climate policies if Big Oil puts $1 billion toward his campaign, has been dubbed an existential threat to progress on the climate crisis.
Regardless of who wins in November, there's also a looming Capitol Hill battle over taxation, given that policies Trump signed into law in 2017 are set to expire at the end of next year. As Common Dreamsreported in June, the climate movement sees that debate as an opportunity to end tax giveaways for the fossil fuel industry.
"Fossil fuel companies have raked in astronomical profits at the expense of communities while Big Oil and Gas lobbyists actively work to keep us hooked on their polluting products that perpetuate the climate crisis," said Mahyar Sorour, Sierra Club's director of beyond fossil fuels policy. "It is absurd that taxpayers should then also provide a blank check through subsidies, corporate giveaways, and sweetheart deals."
Sierra Club is supporting Khanna's bill, as are 350.org, Alliance for Affordable Energy, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for International Environmental Law, Climate Justice Alliance, Environment America, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace USA, Oil Change International, Our Revolution, Oxfam America, Progressive Democrats of America, U.S. PIRG, and Zero Hour.
"We must end the billions of dollars in wasteful taxpayer subsidies to the fossil fuel industry," Sorour stressed. "Congress continues to say they are concerned about the country's deficit. Ending handouts to billion-dollar corporations that price gouge consumers and pollute our environment is a great way to reduce spending."
"We are grateful to Rep. Khanna for leading this legislation and look forward to supporting this and other types of similar legislation that hold Big Oil and Gas companies accountable," Sorour told Common Dreams.
Earlier this year, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) reintroduced the broader End Polluter Welfare Act, of which Khanna is a co-lead. Its sponsors say that by closing tax loopholes and ending corporate handouts to the fossil fuel industry, that bill "would save American taxpayers up to $170 billion over the next 10 years."
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'New Yorkers Deserve Better’: Mayor Adams Urged to Resign as Feds Unseal Indictment
"Mayor Eric Adams can no longer govern. He has lost the trust of the everyday New Yorkers he was elected to serve," said the New York Working Families Party.
Sep 26, 2024
Update:
Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed a 57-page indictment charging New York City Mayor Eric Adams with wire fraud, bribery, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations.
The indictment states that Adams "sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him."
"As Adams' prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021, it became clear that Adams would become New York City's mayor," the document continues. "Adams agreed, providing favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received."
Speaking at a press conference after the indictment was unsealed, Adams called it an "unfortunate" and "painful" day for him but rejected calls to resign and said, "I look forward to defending myself."
"From here my attorneys will take care of the case, so I can take care of the city," Adams said. "My day-to-day will not change. I will continue to do the job for 8.3 million New Yorkers that I was elected to do."
Earlier:
Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams faced mounting calls to resign as federal agents raided his official residence in Manhattan early Thursday morning following news that he was indicted in a corruption probe.
Adams, who was
under federal investigation for allegedly conspiring with the Turkish government in 2021 to receive unlawful campaign donations, said he would fight the indictment, which remained sealed Thursday morning. Adams is now the first sitting New York City mayor to be charged with a federal crime.
News of the federal grand jury indictment sparked a new flurry of calls for Adams' resignation from New York lawmakers and advocacy groups.
"Mayor Eric Adams can no longer govern," the New York Working Families Party said in a statement. "He has lost the trust of the everyday New Yorkers he was elected to serve. Our city deserves a leader we can trust and who is not engulfed in endless scandals."
In an appearance on Democracy Now! Thursday morning, New York City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán said that "New Yorkers deserve better."
"We need somebody who can take this job seriously," Cabán added, "and [Adams] can no longer do that."
Should Adams ultimately resign or be forced out of office, the city's public advocate, Jumaane Williams, would become mayor.
Tiffany Cabán was the first New York City councilmember to call on Mayor Eric Adams to resign as he faces several federal investigations.
"New Yorkers deserve better,” says @tiffany_caban. “We need somebody who can take this job seriously … and he can no longer do that." pic.twitter.com/da9ctlaoxX
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) September 26, 2024
Chi Ossé, also a member of the New York City Council, called Adams—a former police officer—a "corrupt cop" who "needs to resign."
"This started as a corruption probe into his campaign and now half of the leadership is out of commission," Ossé added. "I'm not going to lie, they look guilty."
News of the Adams indictment came three weeks after the FBI raided the homes and seized the phones of top Adams aides.
The New York Timesreported Thursday that "federal prosecutors investigating whether Mayor Eric Adams conspired with the Turkish government to funnel illegal foreign donations into his campaign have recently sought information about interactions with five other countries."
"The demand for information related to the other countries—Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea, and Uzbekistan—was made in expansive grand jury subpoenas issued in July to City Hall, the mayor, and his campaign," the Times noted, citing unnamed people with knowledge of the matter.
Adams attorney Alex Spiro on Thursday accused federal agents of staging a "spectacle" by raiding the mayor's residence.
"He has not been arrested and looks forward to his day in court," said Spiro. "They send a dozen agents to pick up a phone when we would have happily turned it in."
Shortly before news of the indictment broke, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote that she doesn't "see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City."
"The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening gov[ernment] function," she added. "Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration. For the good of the city, he should resign."
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