Throughout this past year, we fought against roll-backs to child labor laws, chemical reform protections, reproductive freedom, same-day voter registration, and the Maine Human Rights Act.

We sent you action alerts, and you sent thousands of messages to law-makers. Click on the title to read the original alert.

And the winner is (now, I know that most people start with number five, and count down to number one … and there’s a bunch of fan-fare and hoopla and suspense … but, I’m not going to do it that way).

ahem.

And the winner is…

1. beards?

February 23, 2011 – This alert was about this (now famous) quote by Governor LePage, “The only thing that I’ve heard is if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. So the worst case is some women may have little beards.”

The Governor’s quote referred to a proposal to roll-back the chemical policy reform that Maine has been leading the nation with. Well, you said “not so fast, Governor.” You sent over 900 messages.

You helped to stop the roll-back.

2. Governor LePage Just signed the bill…

During the session, we fought hard to protect voting rights.  You sent almost 400 messages to legislators. The bill passed, and on June 21, 2011, Governor LePage signed a bill that would eliminate same-day voting rights in Maine. A group of Maine voters immediately gathered at the offices of the Maine Women’s Lobby to file an application to veto the bill. Throughout the summer, we all fought hard to protect voting rights in Maine.  And, on election day 2011, you stood proud with the rest of the Protect Maine Voting Rights Coalition to celebrate the successful people’s veto. The law that allows voters to register and vote on Election Day stands in Maine. Burn.

3. bathroom politics

The Maine Women’s Lobby has fought for civil rights for more than three decades. The victories – and critical protections – were hard won. During this past session, legislation was proposed that would undermine the Maine Human Rights Act and invalidate critical protections for transgender, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. You sent almost 350 messages to the legislature asking them to defeat a proposal that would scale back the Maine Human Rights Act. The proposal was defeated. Oh Yeah.

4. don’t script me

We saw four bad anti-choice bills this past session. I mean big bad scary bills – the kind they pass in Texas (sorry about that to all my Texan friends). This particular piece was in response to a bill that would have required a woman to listen to a (biased) script before she could make choices about her own body. You sent over 320 messages to law-makers asking them to protect a woman’s choice of whether – and when – to have children. All four bills were defeated. We do things a little differently up here in Maine than they do in Texas (again, apologies).

5. What’s Next – Running with Scissors?

Now this one. wow. This was about the proposed roll-back to child labor laws. I know, huh?

The 1800′s called and they want their regulations back.

YOU sent 920 messages. You protected Maine laws that had existed for over one-hundred years. Mainers believe that for our youth, school is their job.

For more in the Child Labor law realm, you can read: the boss ate my homework, Is exploitation the new business friendly?, Jobz v. skool, and lots of others by visiting our online archive.

All said and done, this year alone YOU’VE sent over 3,000 messages to law-makers. GOOD JOB – and thank you. Subscribe right now.

Please contribute right now to help us continue this important work.

Please share this post, using the tools to the left. And, help us build our influence by suggesting that your friends subscribe.

Happy New Year,

Charlotte Warren
Associate Director

This week, Maine lawmakers stood firm against efforts to roll back access to reproductive health care and civil rights protections for transgendered Mainers.

The bills were defeated by wide margins—and for good reason.

In upholding Maine law, legislators put the health of Maine women and teens first and did not erect  unecessary barriers to comprehensive health care services.

In defending the Maine Human Rights Act, they refused to put the rights and safety of transgendered Mainers at risk. Click here to thank the Maine lawmakers who voted to protect the equality of all Mainers.

They took a stand for putting focus where it’s needed—jobs and the economy—rather than policing the personal, private decisions between women and their doctors.

Click here to find out how your legislators voted on these bills (the bill text is at the top of each page): L.D. 116, L.D. 924, L.D. 1457, and L.D. 1046.

The Bad (really, really bad).

Also this week, a majority of Maine lawmakers voted to eliminate Maine’s 38-year-old, same-day voter registration.

L.D. 1376 creates unnecessary barriers for prospective voters, and turns back the clock on our democracy.

Click here to see how your legislators voted on this bill.

The tabled.

The legislature is almost finished for the session, though there are critical decisions yet to make. But some bills were tabled and we’ll see them back on the table in January – including the attacks on collective bargaining.

One thing you can count on for sure – we’ll be right there fighting for you.

That’s why I’m writing to you today.

Believe it or not, we have A LOT to celebrate. Thanks to you, and your calls, emails, and visits to the State House we have – together – successfully defeated (and in some cases diminished) a myriad of dangerous roll-back proposals.

Here’s the skinny:

Child Labor: L.D. 1346, a bill to implement a sub-minimum wage for teen workers and eliminate hour-caps on teen labor during the school week, was killed in committee. L.D. 516, a bill to increase the number of hours a week a teen can work, is currently awaiting action in the House, but with much less drastic language. We still must work hard to defeat this bill but this amendment points us in the right direction.

Safe Chemicals: Attempts to roll back Maine’s Kid-Safe Products act were defeated, as lawmakers reached an agreeable compromise. And, the ban on the toxic chemical BPA was passed with near-unanimous support from the legislature and without the Governor’s signature!

Human Rights: The Judiciary Committee voted Friday “ought not to pass” on a bill to roll back human rights protections for transgendered Mainers – leaving Maine’s Human Rights Act intact! We still need to work hard to hold the line on the floor vote.

Reproductive Freedom: On Friday, the Judiciary Committee also voted “ought not to pass” on four anti-choice bills: a bill requiring parental consent for contraception, one requiring parental consent for abortion, one requiring a 24-hour waiting period, and one that would require doctors to read a biased and coercive script to a patient 24 hours before she could obtain an abortion. This vote was a victory for Maine’s longstanding, bipartisan tradition of reproductive privacy.

So, we have a lot to celebrate, AND a lot of work left to do.

Despite the good news for reproductive freedom reported out of the Judiciary Committee on Friday, we expect a contentious floor debate on all four of these anti-choice bills. Believe me, our lobbyist is working hard, but she needs your help!

Please email your legislator now and tell them to vote NO on all four of these anti-choice bills.

Your calls and emails have gotten us this far, so keep them coming.

The time to protect Maine’s women’s reproductive freedom and privacy is now. ]]> http://www.mainewomen.org/blogs/2011/05/heres-the-skinny/feed/ 0 http://www.mainewomen.org/blogs/2011/04/bill-would-endanger-health-of-maine-teens/ http://www.mainewomen.org/blogs/2011/04/bill-would-endanger-health-of-maine-teens/#comments Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:40:38 +0000 asheldon http://www.mainewomen.org/blogs/?p=2540 We can all agree that open parent-to-child communication around health decisions is ideal. Unfortunately, for many families this is not the reality. There is no law we could pass, no policy we could implement that would create good communication between kids and their parents where it does not already exist. A teen may feel uncomfortable asking their parents for help with obtaining prescriptions for mental illness, substance abuse, or contraceptives. Unfortunately, for many teens, obtaining parental consent for necessary prescriptions is out of the question because of physical or sexual abuse, parental distance or differences of belief.

A bill before the legislature, LD 31, “An Act To Protect the Safety of Maine Children by Requiring the Express Consent of a Legal Guardian To Dispense Prescription Medication to a Minor” puts Maine teens at risk by eliminating their access to confidential health care.

What is most important here is making sure that teens can access the health services that they need. With research indicating that teens are more likely to access health care with a guarantee of confidentiality, it is clear that LD 31 would put the health of young Mainers in danger.

A teen’s support system is not always their parents. Many young people solicit advice from alternative “trusted adults,” an example could be a school nurse, an aunt or uncle, a teacher, a coach or a religious counselor – just because a teen may be uncomfortable reaching out to their parents doesn’t mean that are making medical decisions all by themselves.

This is a reality that Maine parents recognize. Just the other week I spoke with a mom of a sixteen-year-old about this bill. This woman is fortunate to have a daughter that confides in her about her medical questions. None-the-less, her eyes still welled up with tears when thinking about all of her daughter’s friends who would likely go without needed prescriptions over reaching out to their parents for consent. The strong feelings of this mom are mirrored by parents across the state. Hundreds of parents have taken action by signing a petition to secure confidential medical care for teens; while it is certainly a hope of parents to be the trusted adult in their teenager’s life; these parents acknowledge that this is not always the reality and are speaking out against harmful barriers between a minor and confidential medical care.

this is a re-post from Anne’s piece on Mainepolitics.net

“LD 1129 is an anti-scientific, chemical industry wish list,” observed Mike Belliveau, Executive Director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center. “Industry lobbyists talk about this as a pruning of the Kid-Safe Products Act but what they’ve proposed is nothing short of a clearcut.”

Opponents identified 28 individual rollbacks in LD 1129 that would amount to a complete disabling of the law.  The most egregious of these impacts include the elimination of protection for the fetus and for teenagers, limiting action to only those products marketed specifically for young children, favoring industry-funded science over independent science, ignoring many chemicals already proven harmful to children, creating new and costly burdens for state experts, taking away the rights of Maine people to petition the government to take action, and surrendering Maine’s right to act independently from the federal government.

Opponents of LD 1129 included parents, scientists, physicians, nurses, business owners, and public health advocates.

Jim Wellehan, President of Lamey-Wellehan, stated, “As a Maine business, I can tell you that there is nothing more important than making sure our merchandise is safe for our customers.  The Kid-Safe Products Act supports us on two fronts: it helps us get good information about what’s in the products on our store shelves, and it helps drive down health care costs for all of us.  Let’s never forget that healthy families are the key to a healthy economy.  Weakening this important law doesn’t do a thing to help Maine businesses, or bring new business to Maine, but it would certainly take Maine’s economic recovery in the wrong direction.”

The Kid-Safe Products Act (KSPA) has been extremely popular among lawmakers and the public right from the beginning.  The law passed by a margin of 129-9 in the House and 35-0 in the Senate.  Of those who voted for the law in 2008, 74 are still in office (1 Independent, 32 Republicans and 41 Democrats).  In addition, a February 2011 poll showed 91% of Maine voters support the law.  Representative James Hamper, a Republican from Oxford was one of the nine who voted against KSPA in 2008 and is the sole sponsor of LD 1129.

Megan Rice, a mother of two from the town of China stated, “Friday’s vote on BPA shows that the Kid-Safe law is working exactly as you intended it.  The process was careful, methodical, and based on the best peer-reviewed science available today.  Why would you undermine Maine parents and take away the opportunities you’ve given us to protect our children from toxic chemicals?  I am appalled at LD 1129.  It simply makes no sense to put our kids at greater risk.”

Bettie Kettell, a nurse from Durham, spoke on behalf of the American Nurses Association and told the committee, “Exposure to toxic chemicals can lead to expensive chronic disease, including reproductive problems, developmental and learning disabilities, and cancer.  Exposure in the womb, during infancy, or in childhood can set the stage for a lifetime of health problems.  University of Maine research shows that just four childhood illnesses linked to chemical exposure result in at least $380 million in health-related costs.  This is a burden shared by every family and business in Maine.”

Efforts to dismantle the Kid-Safe Products Act started earlier in the year with LD 1, the Governor’s bill to eliminate many of Maine’s environmental regulations.  Because no Maine business testified against the Kid-Safe Products Act in 2008, the attacks were seen by many as the new administration’s attempt to carry out a wish list from the out-of-state chemical industry.

Maine is one of 18 states that have passed laws to protect children’s health from toxic chemicals in consumer products. After 3 years, progress under the Kid-Safe Products Act has been modest.  Just two priority chemicals have been named under the Kid-Safe Products Act in its first three years.  Only one specific use of a chemical has been proposed for phase out in favor of safer alternatives – the use of BPA in sippy cups and other reusable containers.

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Concerned about the attacks on the chemical industry on the Kid-Safe Product Act? Join us for the Alliance and a Clean and Healthy Maine Day at the State House! Thursday April 14th, 8:30 am – 1 pm, at the Augusta State House

RSVP here

We all have our morning routines. My daily regimen includes an assortment of personal care products, including shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, lotion, a little bit of makeup; about a dozen products a day, which is exactly the national average for women in the U.S. In the process, women like me are exposed to more than 160 chemicals (men about half that), most of which would be considered unnecessary but “safe,” however, many others are well known toxins, carcinogens and pollutants.

Typical ingredients include things like bacteria-killing nanosilvers; 1,4 Dioxane (known cancer causing substance found in 22 percent of personal care and children’s products); Mercury and cow placenta (icky for sure, and chock-filled with hormones that can spark premature breast development in toddler girls) — the kind of substances that would earn you serious prison time if you dumped them into a local stream.

Read the whole article here

Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives adopted an extreme amendment that would eliminate all federal funding for family planning and ban Planned Parenthood Federation of America from receiving any federal funds. More than 28,000 Maine women, men and teens get reproductive health care annually at 45 family planning sites across the state.  Eliminating this funding would eliminate their access to this basic health care.

This threat to reproductive services is very real. A woman’s access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare and her right to choose are under attack. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  While Congress has already begun its assault on women, the state legislature is poised to consider at least six anti-choice bills in the coming months.

Today it was inspiring to stand in a room overflowing with individuals deeply concerned about this threat.  It instills hope for our work ahead to see so many pro-family planning, pro-choice Mainers band together and defend women’s constitutional right to reproductive privacy.

Watch Sarah’s excellent remarks to the crowd below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you want to be more involved in our grassroots organizing, click here.

Join us at the University of Southern Maine Glickman Family Library on Wednesday, January 26^th for a showing of the documentary film, The Abortion Diaries. The film will be shown at 7pm in the University Events Room on the library’s 7^th floor. Following the film screening, USM Women and Gender Studies’ professor, Nancy Gish, will facilitate a discussion about the movie and the influence of Roe through the generations.

RSVP HERE

The film screening and discussion event is free and open to the public. Plus there will be delicious snacks donated by Portland’s finest establishments.

The event is sponsored by the Maine Women’s Policy Center, the Family Planning Association of Maine, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, USM Women and Gender Studies and the USM Women’s Resource Center.

We hope you will join us to celebrate this Supreme Court decision that has done so much to improve the health and lives of women and families in Maine and the nation. RSVP HERE

Watch a trailer of the movie here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

RSVP here

“Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) has named bisphenol-A (BPA) and nonylphenols (NPs) as Maine’s first Priority Chemicals under the 2008 Kid-Safe Products Law.  In addition, they provisionally adopted a phase out of BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups, which will be reviewed by the Maine Legislature before finalization.

Dr. Jeff Peterson, a pediatrician from Yarmouth, was pleased with the Board’s action and stated, “No parent would willingly expose their child to dangerous chemicals – chemicals that could affect their ability to grow, learn, be healthy, and bear children.  The Board’s decision reflects the reality that the scientific evidence against BPA and nonylphenols is overwhelming. These chemicals are powerful hormone disruptors with links to cancer, learning disabilities, reproductive problems, and obesity.  The health costs are staggering and the risks are greater than any parent would ever want to take.  Designating them as Priority Chemicals and collecting more information on which products they are used in is just common sense.”

Today’s ruling caps a six-month public process in which the BEP heard testimony in support of the proposals from over 400 parents, scientists, doctors, nurses, business owners, public health professionals, and environmental health advocates from across the state and the region.  Testimony included vast scientific data and detailed how the proposed ban could improve the health of Maine children, how it could reduce the health and economic costs that result from exposure to toxic chemicals, and how Maine’s many small businesses could benefit by having better information about the products they sell or use.

Steve Taylor, Coordinator of the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine, remarked, “Maine’s Kid-Safe Products Law was passed nearly unanimously by the Maine Legislature in 2008 because protecting kids’ health, reducing health costs, and giving retail businesses more information is good for everyone.  Today’s ruling is another step along the careful path our lawmakers created. Maine scientists have identified two of the worst toxic chemicals and put them on the road to being replaced with safer alternatives. Maine families and small businesses are really the winners today.”

As Priority Chemicals, information on the use of BPA and NPs in everyday products, as well as possible safer alternatives, will be compiled.  For BPA, information will be collected on infant formula containers, baby food jars, toys, tableware, and child care articles.  For NPs, information will be collected on household and commercial cleaners, cosmetics and personal care items, and home maintenance products.  This information will give Maine businesses and families an opportunity to learn significantly more about the products they sell and use every day.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is one of the most pervasive chemicals in modern life.  It was synthesized as an estrogen replacement therapy in the 1930’s and is now a chemical building block for polycarbonate plastic.  It has been widely used in baby bottles, food storage containers, and in the epoxy resins that coat the lining of metal food cans, including some infant formula cans.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 93% of Americans have detectable levels of BPA in their bodies. BPA exposure has been linked to a significant number of health problems, including learning disabilities, behavior problems, breast and prostate cancer, reproductive damage, diabetes, and obesity.

Safer alternatives to Priority Chemicals can be required when research shows convincing evidence of harm and the availability of safer and affordable chemicals.  Because the scientific evidence against BPA is considered by most to be overwhelming, and safer alternatives are readily available, the BEP has also decided that BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups be replaced.  The phase of out of BPA in these containers will be reviewed by the Maine Legislature before finalization.

Amy Graham, a mother of two from Farmington, was feeling optimistic about the ruling, especially about the prospect of replacing BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups.  She stated, “Maine moms sounded the alarm on toxic chemicals many years ago, making today’s decision very gratifying.  It’s outrageous that these chemicals are still in the products we use every day while information for consumers and retailers has been virtually non-existent.  Now there is hope we can at least see the end of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups.  We’re counting on the Legislature to help parents protect our kids from these dangerous chemicals by confirming the phase out.”

Nonylphenols are used in detergents, personal care products, paints, and pesticides.  Because they are endocrine (hormone) disruptors, exposure to nonylphenols can result in serious health effects, including reproductive damage. Because the dangers are widely recognized and safer alternatives are readily available, many manufacturers, retailers, and cleaning professionals have voluntarily stopped making or using products that contain NP or NPE.  But because all efforts to date have been voluntary, NP and NPE can still be found in school, commercial, and industrial settings.

Despite the public outcry, the mounting scientific evidence of harm, and the actions of more and more states, the chemical industry continues to resist efforts to replace BPA with safer alternatives.  Steve Taylor added, “Of the 80,000 chemicals in use today, Maine scientists have identified over 1700 as already proven harmful to children.  Yet the chemical industry opposes doing anything about just two of the very worst.  This flies in the face of common sense and suggests they just don’t get it. Parents, consumers, and retail businesses are all demanding safe products. The chemical industry needs to wake up and spend their energy developing safer chemicals instead of defending toxic ones.

As awareness of the dangers of BPA has grown, along with the easy availability of safer alternatives, more and more states and countries are taking action against BPA.  If the Maine Legislature affirms the Board’s decision to phase out the use of BPA in baby bottle and sippy cups, Maine will become the 9^th state to do so, following the action of Massachusetts just this week.”

Something we haven’t heard a lot about nationally - Women’s E-news reports today that anti-choice female candidates for governor are poised for big wins. What will this mean for state protections for reproductive rights and access to health care?