Women And Poverty Commentaries
"As a result, thousands of pregnant women are pushed out of jobs that they are perfectly capable of performing -- either put on unpaid leave or simply fired -- when they request an accommodation to help maintain a healthy pregnancy. Many are single mothers or a family's primary breadwinner. They are disproportionately low-income women, often in physically demanding jobs with little flexibility."
"A program that excludes pregnant women's coverage between 175 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) means these women will not get needed prenatal care, increasing the risk of children being born with preventable health problems. This sets bad public health precedent and will increase the overall cost of Denali KidCare."
"[I]f you ask why America is more class-bound in practice than the rest of the Western world, a large part of the reason is that our government falls down on the job of creating equal opportunity."
"In this latest attempt to inject themselves into what should be a doctor-patient decision, some lawmakers tried to prevent low-income women from obtaining abortions when the fetuses had serious abnormalities."
"Today 53 percent of family practice residents, 63 percent of pediatric residents and nearly 80 percent of obstetrics and gynecology residents are female. In the low-income areas that lack primary and prenatal care, there are more emergency room visits..."
"Six in ten women who get care from Title X consider it their usual source of health care, and for many it is their only source. Patients under the federal poverty level receive services at no cost to them..."
"Every woman regardless of age, ethnicity, race or marital status should ask themselves one question this Mother’s Day: Why is the Republican plan to solve the nation’s debt and deficit crisis going to push me closer to poverty in my older years?"
"But the story of Jane Mecom is a reminder that, especially for women, escaping poverty has always depended on the opportunity for an education and the ability to control the size of their families. The latest budget reduces financing for Planned Parenthood, for public education..."
"As Congress debates the budget, it must remember that the Great Recession wreaked havoc on the American middle class. But it must also focus on the plight of those who were poor even before the recession – and rendered nearly invisible by the economic crisis."
"We must close this chronic gap that shortchanges America's women. When women earn more, families are stronger and children have better access to quality health care and education. In fact, if we closed the wage gap, poverty would be cut in half for single moms and by more than 60 percent for married working women."
"I spent five years as an organizer, and hundreds of hours in the living rooms, at the kitchen tables and on the porches of countless low-wage nursing assistants, hospital food workers and clinical lab scientists, trying to talk them into our union."
"To be sure, there remain gross disparities between men and women at Wal-Mart. The company's own data show there are still far more women than men among the ranks of the company's low-wage hourly workers, and far more men than women running Wal-Mart."
"And yet, though abortion is, as the Planned Parenthood website says, 'A safe and legal way to end pregnancy,' the organization is at risk of being able to provide basic medical care to the poorest men and women because it offers [abortions]..."
"At the same time, though, women continue to be more likely to wind up in poverty. In 2009 roughly 11 percent of women age 65 or over were poor, compared with 7 percent of men.
Even though we're more likely to be impoverished, we also volunteer more and live longer."
"During Bill Clinton's presidency, Democrats and Republicans stopped fighting over whether poverty is caused by irresponsible behavior or social and economic injustice. They agreed that both were implicated in the explosion of out-of-wedlock births and single-parent families, and they tried to do something about it."
"Another respondent reported that one of the largest homeless shelters in Orlando turned her away -- when she was eight months pregnant -- because the staff thought she was associated with drugs."
"In 1970, during the Nixon administration, Congress approved Title X funding to help low-income women and teenagers get affordable healthcare and reproductive information. This is no leftover “Great Society” program from the LBJ days."
"That ban might not hold up in the courts, but the resolution goes further, eliminating all funding for Title X - a Nixon-era program that provides a range of health services for low-income women nationwide."
"The sharper, and still accurate version, would be that Republicans voted to let more women die from breast cancer, cervical cancer and AIDS. How's that? The family planning programs also provide cancer screening and HIV counseling to millions of low-income and uninsured people."
"Gov. Chris Christie, under the guise of fiscal responsibility, has vetoed the Legislature's recent proposal to extend more funding for family planning services to our poorest women and their families."
"Even so, evidence is overwhelming that children of single mothers -- particularly teen mothers -- suffer disproportionately high poverty rates, impaired development and low school performance."
"For many teens in the District, pregnancy means an unstable life in the underclass. The DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy describes teen pregnancy as 'a one-way ticket to persistent poverty.'"
Posted October 13, 2010
"President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935. Since then, it has unquestionably kept millions of people - most importantly, the elderly and disabled - from the depths of poverty.
Posted May 10, 2010
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