WoMN Focus

Although I haven’t spoken much lately on this site about the policies that effect women, I have been writing about reproductive health issues in other places. Most people think of reproductive rights issues as being solely about the right to terminate unwanted pregnancies. That only scratches the surface. It’s about having the right to make healthy choices for your body.

As I learned too well lately, reproductive health isn’t just about life, it’s also about loss. And, thanks to the recently passed Stupak Amendment, insurers may get to have a say in how loss will be handled as well.

This weekend, a group of male pro-life Democrats gambled with women’s health, and women lost. By broadly writing in that insurers can chose whether or not to cover “abortion services,” pro-life amendments don’t just affect their intended victims — women seeking a way out of an unwanted or medically harmful pregnancy. They also affect another group of victims — women whose pregnancies have already ended but have not yet miscarried.

I’m one of those women, and this past Halloween I had what the hospital officially termed an “abortion.”

Please, read my entire story here.

Although the MN Legislator is in a battle over taxes today, it has been a very active week on the floor.

This week the house passed a public safety finance bill which, along with the senate version will be worked on in committee soon. The house also passed a funding package for jobs and housing that “includes funding for jobs, economic development and housing programs through several state agencies. The bill would temporarily increase the workforce development fee paid by employers and use the money for several new and existing employment programs, including a wage subsidy similar to the Minnesota Emergency Employment Development program of the early 1980s”.

Finally, the Early childhood finance omnibus bill also passed the house.

The omnibus early childhood finance bill was passed 84-47 by the House after a debate that featured 11 amendments offered by Republicans, just one of which was adopted. (Watch)

The bill’s short life ends here, however, as its provisions are expected to be divided in conference committee between the K-12 education finance and health and human services omnibus bills. Some early childhood programs are funded through each channel.

Its sponsor, Rep. Nora Slawik (DFL-Maplewood), said HF2088 addresses “three overarching goals” the division has maintained through the session: getting an early start on closing the achievement gap, increasing child care quality and readying children for kindergarten.

While most Republicans believe in those broad goals, they have different priorities about how best to target programs and funds to the most at-risk children, and prefer to direct funds to strengthen children within the context of their families over state-run programs.

Check the above link to see who voted for and against the bill.

St. Paul, Minn. — For the chair of the House Tax Committee, the state’s projected $4.6 billion deficit provides a rare opportunity for reform in government.

Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, says the House tax bill would make the tax code fairer and deliver the most significant reform in 20 years.

“This bill shrinks government by removing permanently a number of tax preferences in the tax code,” she said. “It also attempts to ensure those that we think are worthy are means-tested, and returned to folks who need it most. We’re in a tough time and we just plain old can’t afford to continue to provide some of these tax preferences.”

Read the whole piece from Minnesota Public Radio here.

Rep. Ann Lenczewski (DFL-Bloomington) tells Politics in Minnesota about her tax overhaul proposal and how it will affect Minnesotans, including how the current tax system doesn’t work. “…[I]n the tax expenditure part of the Minnesota tax code, we have all this hidden spending that people aren’t aware of. It doesn’t happen in appropriations or in the finance process, which people can see. It happens before all the revenues are collected for the chairs to spend money on.

And so it’s not transparent. It’s people getting benefits ahead of the crowd. The insidious part is that it’s disproportionately going to the wealthiest Minnesotans. So I’m trying to dissemble that and say that the answer to the deficit isn’t just about raising taxes, It’s about shrinking government. These are cuts; it’s getting rid of a bunch of tax benefit programs that we have that allow people to get other people’s hard-earned tax dollars based on the fact they’ve got high incomes. Instead of cutting the poorest folks, or middle-income people, which is basically what all the fiscal chairs do when they cut–those people are sharing hugely in dealing with this deficit. They’re getting hammered with the cuts that are going to happen.”

Read the whole interview here.

(via Session Daily)

The House Early Childhood Education Finance and Policy Division liked a proposal to create an inventory of early childhood services.

The division approved HF2028, sponsored by Rep. Nora Slawik (DFL-Maplewood), as amended and sent it to the House floor. Sen. Patricia Torres Ray (DFL-Mpls) sponsors a companion, SF1797, which awaits action by the full Senate.

The State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care would gather comprehensive information about health care, education and human service programs serving children age 5 and younger. It would suggest budget allocations toward outcome areas to help the Legislature and executive branch plan coordinated services.

Slawik intends the proposal as an adjunct to HF641, sponsored by Rep. Sandra Peterson (DFL-New Hope), to create an Office of Early Learning that would coordinate a high quality early childhood system. Sen. Tarryl Clark (DFL-St. Cloud) sponsors its companion, SF487, which awaits action by the Senate E-12 Budget and Policy Division.