President Barack Obama, accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, announces the revamp of his contraception policy requiring religious institutions to fully pay for birth control.

Many people seem to think birth control is affordable, but high costs are one of the primary barriers to contraceptive access. It is for this reason that the Obama administration recently followed the recommendation of the Institute of Medicine to ensure that birth control will be covered as a preventive service with no cost-sharing beginning August 1, 2012.

Although three-quarters of American women of childbearing age have private insurance, they still have had to pay a significant portion of contraceptive costs on their own.

Get more facts on the cost of birth control

Insurance commissioners in California, New York and Washington State will require that companies disclose how they intend to respond to the risks their businesses and customers face from increasingly severe storms and wildfires, rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change, California’s commissioner said Wednesday.

Up until this point, those states required about a third of larger insurers to turn over the information in a survey; for all others it was voluntary.

“Our experience and other states’ experience as regulators is you get a far better response rate if you require response to be provided than if you just allow companies to decide when and how they will respond,” said Dave Jones, the California commissioner. “Our goal is to have the most complete, best and accurate information possible for investors, the insurance industry, regulators and the broader public.” More >

New York Times Article

By FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: February 1, 2012

Policy and funding changes needed to support efficiency, reliability and environmental upgrades for U.S. freshwater systems

January 26, 2012

RACINE, WI – Innovative financing and pricing flexibility are key to preparing the nation’s aging freshwater systems to handle growing demand and environmental challenges, according to a Charting New Waters report released today by The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread, American Rivers and Ceres.

The Financing Sustainable Water Infrastructure report, is the product of a meeting convened by The Johnson Foundation, in collaboration with American Rivers and Ceres, which brought together a group of experts to discuss ways to drive funding toward the infrastructure needed for the 21st century.

Largely built on systems developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, U.S. water infrastructure faces profound problems of aging components, outdated technology and inflexible governance systems ill-equipped to handle current consumption, environmental and economic problems.

Presently, about 6 billion gallons of expensive, treated water is being lost in the U.S. each day due to leaky and aging pipes — some 14 percent of the nation’s daily water use. This pervasive water waste is underscored by the fact the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the nation’s water systems a D-, the lowest grade of any infrastructure including roads and bridges. More>

Contacts: David Marks – dmarks@outreachstrategies.com,

On behalf of the Groundswell Fund’s board and staff, it is my pleasure to share our new publication:   Growing a Movement with the Power to Win: Stories from the Frontlines of Reproductive Justice.

Told through snapshots of grantee victories at the local, state and federal level, this report explores why the reproductive justice movement is able to win policy change and bring a gender lens to nearly every major social justice movement in the US. It also looks at the power of community organizing and cross-issue alliance building as winning strategies.

At this moment in US history, when human rights are under increasing attack, these victories are especially important. They are proof that progressive values can transcend the politics of fear and repression.

Please feel free to share this publication with your colleagues, and of course, please share your feedback and ideas with us.

Warmly,

Vanessa Daniel
Executive Director

Hooray! During the MLK holiday weekend, more than 65,000 Rebuild the Dream members signed a petition to help save a community church in Dr. King’s old neighborhood from an unfair foreclosure and eviction by BB&T bank. And we did it!

3,772 pages of petition signatures were delivered to BB&T bank this morning at a successful, 3-hour negotiation between the church and the bank.

After an intense, 3-hour negotiation today between the church and the bank, BB&T backed down and agreed to a fair deal. This victory was a complete turnaround at the eleventh hour, led heroically by Occupy Atlanta and Rainbow PUSH Coalition. The sudden groundswell of media coverage, local community action, and Rebuild the Dream’s national petition forced BB&T’s hand.

This outcome shows: when we act together, we can stop big banks in their tracks and get them to treat people with dignity. The more banks have public re-negotiations like this, the bigger the momentum for millions of other struggling homeowners who are in the same boat. More>

The Reproductive Health Technologies Project and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health are pleased to share a new survey showing that among Latino voters:
67% would support a close friend or family member who had an abortion;

74% agree a woman has a right to make her own personal, private decisions about abortion without politicians interfering;
68% are willing to disagree with church leaders on the legality abortion; and more.

The Poll, conducted by Lake Research Partners, goes beyond Latino/a attitudes on legality to gauge feelings related to judgment and support for a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy.

Today (June 20, 2012), the White House announced that the final rule implementing the women’s preventive health services benefit will not expand the religious exemption for contraception. In August 2011, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued an interim final rule requiring that commercial insurance plans cover a number of women’s preventive health services, including contraception, without patient co-pays. The interim final rule included an exemption for religious organizations that primarily employ persons who share the religious tenets of the organization.

NFPRHA is pleased with the Obama administration’s decision to stand up for women and against the extreme pressure levied by some religious organizations to expand the exemption. The final rule, which will be released at a later date, will keep the original definition of a religious organization rather than expand the exemption, but will give religious employers that do not currently cover contraception in their insurance plans an additional year to comply with the contraceptive coverage requirement.

Last month, NFPRHA activated its members to make calls to their congressional representatives and the White House, asking them to stand with millions of women who need access to women’s preventive health services and against unnecessary restrictions on birth control. Your hard work paid off and, as a result, millions of women will gain coverage of all family planning services – including contraception – they need to maintain good health.

A statement by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is available on the HHS website.

Shared by Judy DeSarno, Buffett Fdn.

A rewriting of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, A DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE is a global-participatory film from the team behind CONNECTED. With music by Moby and directed by Tiffany Shlain, it is an exhilarating montage of user-generated videos and graphics, a global mash-up demonstrating the vast potential of creative collaboration in the 21st century. A DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE is the first film of a new short film series called Let it Ripple: Mobile Films for Global Change.

| Find out how to customize the film for your organization’s campaign or call to action here.|
| Participate in the 100 Language Challenge here.|

Washington, DC – On December 7th,  Secretary Sebelius invoked her control through the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act to deny approval of Plan B® One-Step, a safe and effective emergency contraceptive product, overruling the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and Commissioner Hamburg’s recommendation to approve the application.

“We are outraged that this Administration has let politics trump science. There is no rationale for this move. This is unprecedented as evidenced by the Commissioner’s own letter.  Unbelievable,” says Kirsten Moore, President and CEO of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project.

Plan B One-Step is a single dose levonorgestrel emergency contraceptive product that women can take up to 72 hours after unprotected sex.  Emergency contraception is sometimes confused with the abortion pill. Plan B One-Step works to prevent pregnancy; it will not work if a woman is already pregnant. For more information on emergency contraception:http://www.rhtp.org/contraception/emergency/MediaPresskitPBOS.asp.

Contact: Lydia Stuckey, Senior Associate, Programs and Policy,

Reproductive Health Technologies Project

In an open letter to President Obama published on today’s New York Times op-ed page, Catholics for Choice called on President Obama to stand up for what women and men want and ensure that family planning is included on the list of essential preventive services under the Affordable Care Act. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been lobbying hard, calling for the president to include an expansive refusal clause that will ensure that millions of women and men are denied no-cost family planning coverage. Read more.