Experts Available: The Politics of Health Care Reform & Reproductive Rights

 

Jehmu Greene (New York, NY) is President of the Women’s Media Center and as former president of Rock the Vote has skillfully worked with the media to build powerful social justice movements. Jehmu also served as a longtime political consultant as well as an advisor to and national surrogate for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

• QUOTE: “It is impossible to imagine what would have happened had health care reform been formulated at the expense of the Voting Rights Act or the Civil Rights Act. Impossible to imagine because it never could have happened – Democrats do not fear women like they fear trial lawyers, union members, and minority groups.”
• BIO: http://www.shesource.org/shesource/expert.php?source_id=727

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Gloria Feldt (New York, NY) is a leading expert on women, politics, and health, former president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and author of “War On Choice.” Gloria made Planned Parenthood a political powerhouse, successfully obtaining insurance coverage for contraception, wider access to emergency contraception, and spearheading The Prevention First Act and the updated Freedom of Choice Act.

• QUOTE: “Any valid health reform plan should respect women enough to provide the full range of reproductive care, including abortion, without shame or blame. Opponents of health reform will keep throwing abortion up as cynical roadblock—but the real issue is ensuring that every American has access to quality, affordable healthcare, including reproductive healthcare that’s fair to women. Job one: pass health reform in the Senate without the Stupak amendment. Job two: replace Stupak with a pro-choice representative.”
• Recent Article: “The Abortion Smokescreen”
• BIO: http://www.shesource.org/shesource/expert.php?source_id=209

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Kate Michelman (Washington, DC) is the former President of Naral Pro-Choice America. As President, Michelman catapulted the organization to prominence as the nation’s premier reproductive rights group. Her most recent piece on the Stupak Amendment, "Trading Women’s Rights for Political Power," was published in the New York Times on November 12.

• QUOTE: "The Democratic majority has abandoned its platform and subordinated women’s health to short-term political success. In doing so, these so-called friends of women’s rights have arguably done more to undermine reproductive rights than some of abortion’s staunchest foes. In the meantime, the victims of their folly will be the millions of women who once could count on the Democratic Party to protect them from those who would sacrifice their rights for political gains.”
• Recent Articles: "Trading Women’s Rights for Political Power" and "A System From Hell"

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Angela Bonavoglia (New York, NY) is an award-winning journalist and author who covers women's, health, religious and social issues and an expert on Catholicism and women.

• QUOTE: "Once again, the all-male, theoretically celibate Catholic hierarchy has been allowed to exert its outsize influence on proposed American law, further depriving women of basic health care and pushing us one step closer to becoming a Christian theocracy. One is hard pressed to identify another institutionreligious or secularthat is so callously and self-righteously anti-woman and still retains such a degree of moral authority.”
• Recent Article: “Media Blind to GOP Hypocrisy in Health Care Debate”
• BIO: http://www.shesource.org/shesource/expert.php?source_id=356

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Mildred Antenor (South Orange, NJ) is an experienced communicator, writer, journalist, and expert on abortion rights for women.

• QUOTE: "History is repeating itself with yet another group of out-of-touch and very controlling white men who want to tell women what to do with their bodies. This same group of white men will of course not offer any type of assistance whether it be financial, emotional or spiritual support when those women cannot afford to care for their children. This is yet another draw back that will set the women's movement back another 100 years."
• BIO: http://www.shesource.org/shesource/expert.php?source_id=448

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Barbara Glickstein (New York, NY) is a public health nurse executive, health policy expert and broadcast journalist.

• QUOTE: "Health care reform must extend all women's access to reproductive services, including termination of unwanted pregnancies, a legal right for all women in the United States. The Stupak amendment limits access to services that are legal and threatens the health and safety of all women and girls."
• BIO: http://www.shesource.org/shesource/expert.php?source_id=728

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Mana Kasongo (Albany, GA), an attending physician at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, she contributed as a freelance reporter for many news venues including InStyle Magazine and Institutional Investor.

• QUOTE: “The Stupak amendment is a disturbing commentary on how politicians view women with little regard. This is supposed to be a healthcare bill, not e referendum on abortion. Abortion, while controversial, is a decided issue. The Hyde amendment already bans federal dollars from being used to fund abortions. Once again, the Administration\Congress didn't do a good job of pushing back and explaining this. We need to be concerned that the Stupak amendment was not only crafted to put up road blocks to reform, but to slowly infringe upon other medical issues that concern women.”
• BIO: http://www.shesource.org/shesource/expert.php?source_id=683

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