PeoriaStory

Family planning in Western Illinois: few choices

MACOMB, IL -- If you’re a woman with no money or medical insurance and a desperate need for birth control pills, your best bet is a federally qualified health clinic, such as Eagle View clinic here and elsewhere.

Or if you’re having regrets today over last night’s romantic encounter, try Walgreen’s for Plan B, the ‘morning after’ pill, which reportedly costs about $20 according to Debbie Connor of WIU’s Beu Health Center. No prescription is required, thanks to years of effort by women’s groups.

Connor and others spoke to a Macomb meeting on Oct. 10 about family planning services in Western Illinois. Their remarks reflected the chaotic system for health care in the US, and revealed how providers are referring patients to federally funded clinics to avoid bearing the costs of health care themselves.

At the Beu Health Center at Western Illinois University, students must pay $65 or more for the required exam before a doctor will write a prescription for birth control pills.

At the Eagle View clinic, an exam for the indigent is $15, plus there may be a small lab charge, said Melinda Whiteman, the clinic’s executive director. Some generics can be purchased for $9 a month, but others cost more.

Lynette Cale, director of the McDonough County Health Department, told how that agency recently ended its family planning services, which had been in place since 1994. Now they‘re referring indigent clients to Eagle View, which uses federal funds.

Connor of WIU’s Beu Health Center said a women’s health center is needed on campus. Student insurance does not pay for routine exams, required for a pills prescription, she said. There’s also a $200 deductible. The insurance also won’t pay for an abortion.

Medicaid clients are sent to Eagle View, she said.

The system, or lack of it, for family planning reflects the national chaos in health services. Cale said Medicaid’s requirement for electronic billing which would require a $7,000 software system, was a factor in her agency’s dropping family planning. Late state payments and threatened cuts in state funding also were factors, she said.

Illinois does not require county health departments to provide family planning.

Schuyler County‘s Health Department, where Rushville in the county seat, does not offer family planning services and refers patients to Fulton and Cass counties. Tiny Hancock County, where Carthage, with a new hospital is the county seat, has family planning services.

The Macomb situation leaves non-students with only two choices, the federal clinic or private doctors.

At Eagle View, half the patients have Illinois Medicaid, 20 percent are billed on a sliding scale, and the rest have private insurance or pay cash, Whiteman said.

McDonough County and its surrounding counties are considered low income communities.

According to the health department in Macomb, teenagers give birth to about 8 percent of the babies.

In the US, half of all pregnancies are considered unintended, costing taxpayers $7.8 million a year, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Funds spent on family planning saves big money in the health care system. Every $1 spent on family planning saves taxpayers $4 in Medicaid birth costs.

According to a Gallup poll, 3 percent of women have quit using birth control recently because they cannot afford to pay for it.

-- Elaine Hopkins

Women the key to international security, progress: Clinton

For those who supported Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, and continue to support her work as US Secretary of State, here's a terrific interview with her and the vital role she is playing on the world stage.

It's in the New York Times.

Even if Obama fails at reforming the nation's health care system, if Clinton succeeds in her mission of promoting the well being of women and girls everywhere, the planet, and the USA, will be much better off.

How ironic that perhaps Clinton is succeeding when Obama is not, and that her mission is even more important than his.

- Elaine Hopkins

Palin pick proves McCain is senile?

UPDATE, Sept. 6, 2008.  This New York Times column by Judith Warner says it all.

UPDATE, Sept. 1, 2008:  Palin's campaign now says that the 16 or 17-year-daughter is five months pregnant and will marry the guy soon. Here's a Huffington Post page on this incredible mess, now stranger than fiction. It's everywhere on the web. So Palin, who doesn't believe in birth control or abortion, wants only abstinence taught in schools and holds other wacky beliefs is hoist on her own sword.  Given the photo evidence, the girl still may be the mom of the infant!  McCain made a snap judgment on Palin whose lack of experience is the least of it. Palin likely will be off the ticket by Sept. 5. Romney, anyone?

UPDATE --  Here's a post, with photos, that claims the baby is not Palin's but is the offspring of her 16-year-old (unmarried) daughter!  If so, Palin has lied to the public.  And what does this say about McCain's fitness to be president?  UPDATE Sept. 6, 2008:  Try this link instead. The one above has been taken down. (Suppressed?)

PEORIA -- Have the Republicans lost their minds? 

Or could it be that GOP wise men are meeting in their private clubs over the weekend to plan a convention derailment of the nomination of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as Sen. John McCain's vice presidential pick?

Not only is Palin a rabid anti-choice activist (wanting the government out of our lives but not out of our wombs and bedrooms), and not only is she virulently anti-environment -- killing endangered polar bears is OK with her -- she's also involved in a nasty corruption scandal.

Here are the details on that scandal.

And more details here, including the juicy fact that she wants creationism taught in public schools.

Just when the Republicans appeared to be moving a bit toward the sane center, McCain selects a clearly unqualified person to be a heartbeat -- or tumor -- away from the presidency. 

Cong. Ray LaHood (R-18th) is more qualified than Palin to be vice president. As for women, so are Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, former US EPA administrator Christi Whitman , Sen. Elizabeth Dole and a host of others. 

Hasn't anyone told McCain that it's an insult to women to select an unqualified woman for a job that's way over her head? That's because when she fails, it hurts the cause of all women.

Romney and the rest who ran for the presidency, spending their precious time and money to make their cases to the public after they spent years in public office gaining precious experience, must be seething!

The official reaction of the Republican establishment has been muted, so far. Like good boys, they support whatever the boss wants. For now.

Her selection will prove interesting in one respect.  Will the mainstream media pundits engage in savage  sexist putdowns of Palin, as they did with Sen. Hillary Clinton?   Guess we'll find out whether the unwarranted sexist attacks on Clinton were because she's a woman or because she's a Democrat.

Rush Limbaugh has already made a preemptive strike, calling Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five,  "a babe."

We'll see what follows on the sexist language front. If Palin survives the Republican convention, that is.

She can always beat a hasty retreat back to Alaska, claiming pressing family duties to her children, including an infant with Down syndrome.

In fact, how can she really campaign with all those kids in tow?  Exploit the older ones to care for the baby?  Hire a couple of nannies? So much for mothering her children.

As someone suggested to me, McCain must be senile to have picked her. We'll be watching.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Sexism and campaign coverage

PEORIA -- Deeply rooted sexism in the US as seen in the campaign coverage of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton “hurts us all,” Bradley University professor emeritus Barbara Pendleton told the Peoria chapter of the National Organization for Women at a March 8 meeting to commemorate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.

Pendleton, an award winning professor, offered a hard hitting analysis of the sexism in the campaign coverage of Clinton. Her talk was called “Sexism and Politics in the Media.”

“The press has been brutal to Sen. Clinton. Consciously or not, many reporters, commentators and pundits appear to be unable to criticize her without dusting off their favorite sexist clichés, stereotypes and insults. Together they create an environment of hostility toward all women, not just Sen. Clinton,” she said.

Pendleton noted four common themes in the media coverage:

Gender bias: discussion of how Clinton looks, laughs, wears, talks, behaves, “even how she claps.”

“A man demonstrates roughness and strength. A woman who behaves similarly is called icy and rigid.

“His behavior shows compassion and warmth, her behavior shows emotions and weakness. He knows how to work the system, she is manipulative” and “calculating.”

Discussion of ambition, motivation and drive: “Frequently Sen. Clinton has been charged with being willing to do or say anything to win. When she campaigns hard she is often described as strategizing, calculating or fake. But when men campaign hard it is refusing to cede an inch.”

Discounting of qualifications and accomplishments: “Since her first run for the Senate she has been presumed to be where she is today because of her husband. They discredited her achievements and implied that she never could have made it on her own. There were no such implications that George W. Bush got a leg up because he was the son of a president and a member of a powerful, rich family.”

Pendleton quoted pundit Chris Matthews who attributed Clinton’s success as a politician to her status as a victim. Matthews said, “we know that Hillary Clinton succeeded as a victim after than whole Lewinski mess. She gets to be elected senator. People of New York sort of cheered her on as a victim.”

Attacks on supporters: “There is the claim that women who voted for her are somehow irrational, and voting only on the basis of gender. They implied they were stupid or shallow.”

Some women including those in the media, also have succumbed to sexist criticism of Clinton, Pendleton said. But why?

“We all know that part of oppression is to convince the oppressed to internalize their own subordination and to some degree accept the old stereotypes as valid descriptions of themselves,” she said. She noted New York Times columnist Maurine Dowd commented, “unfortunately for Hillary there is no White Bitch Month.”

Pendleton continued, “when you’re surrounded by negativity, it’s difficult not to internalize” the stereotypes and negative messages about women.”

Media sexism means that “daughters everywhere are hearing the message that women are not competent and not as effective as leaders as men. Or that all strong women are bitches or just ball breakers,” she said.

She urged the group to continue to monitor sexist coverage and send messages of protest to the media.

During a question session, Pendleton said, “It’s fair to criticize (Clinton’s) policies, philosophy and ideas,” but not use sexist attacks. “I take issue with below the belt terms” such as “white bitch day.”

Asked why there is so much hostility against Clinton, she responded “a lot of people were hardened against the Clintons” due to “the anger” about the president’s indiscrete behavior and his wife’s response to it.

The chapter presented awards to several area leaders, including:

Denise Adams, choral teacher and musician, who established a program at Woodruff High School so parenting students in this urban school who cannot stay after school can participate in choir during the noon lunch hour.

Adams commented, “the benefits of music in people’s lives is incredible. Sometimes (music) is the only place where urban school students can find peace and beauty.”

Dorothy and Elliott Murray, long time professionals and activists, for their example of equality and human rights in their work, volunteer activities and personal relationship.

Cassandra Powell, for her work in preventing teen pregnancy and helping the community become aware of HIV/AIDS issues.

Stacey Robertson, whose work as a Bradley University history professor includes bringing prominent women speakers to the community.

Martha Herm, executive director of the Center for Prevention of Abuse, who has expanded the agency which works with more than 5,000 victms of sexual, domestic and senior abuse every year.

Herm commented that the Bush administration has eliminated $175,000 in grant funding that the center has been receiving for years, though Illinois members of Congress are working to restore it to the budget. “These funds have been under attack since Bush has been in office. Now they’re zeroed out,” she said.

Their loss endangers several vital programs including the center’s work with the Family Justice Center, which took 18 years to develop, Herm said.

“The boys at that table came because of the funding. That’s the carrot that got them there.” Eliminating that program will impact the entire local criminal justice system, she said. “We can’t let it fall apart.”

-- Elaine Hopkins

Planned Parenthood awards

PEORIA -- It's been a month since Planned Parenthood Heart of Illinois announced its award winners for 2007. News releases were sent out, but apparently ignored by the Journal Star, whose staff members received awards.

One of the newspaper's top reporters, Clare Howard, received the Choice Action of the Year Award for her four-part series published in April on the impact of HIV/AIDS in the community, the most significant investigative project the newspaper has presented this year.

According to the news release, Howard "sought out people to interview who were both above and below the radar in the battle against HIV/AIDS. She sought out people who were living with the disease, those who work every day to help treat, identify and prevent future infections, those who determine policy for our public schools and those representing churches.

"We are grateful for Clare Howard's confidence to tackle this controversial topic and for her journalistic skills that enabled her to present the reality of HIV/AIDS for people living in central Illinois."

JS Assistant Managing Editor Sally McKee also received a Choice Action of the Year Award for overseeing the HIV/AIDS project, which also included stories by reporter Molly Parker. Parker has since left the JS to take a journalism job elsewhere.

Parker's two-part report was on "An unspoken peril- Teens, Sex and STD's" and dealt with the controversial topics of sex, teens, disease, condoms, HIV/AIDS and sex education.

"We commend the Peoria Journal Star management for having the foresight to provide accurate information and articles that were concerned with probing local people for insight and solutions," the release stated.

State Senator Dave Koehler of Peoria received the Hope for Humanity Award, given to individuals, organizations or corporations who have worked collectively in an air of cooperation with PPHOI toward the betterment of women and families in the eight county greater Peoria area.

The release stated, "Senator Dave Koehler's life's work and passion exemplifies the Planned Parenthood Promise of: Creating Hope for Humanity: The freedom to Dream, to make Choices and to live in Peace with our Planet. Dave has worked for years in our area as a steadfast supporter of PPHOI and encouraging others to be supportive of reproductive health care choices. In fact, Dave's life has been devoted to making a better world for all of our citizens in the greater Peoria area.

"As an ordained Minister, Dave has served on our Planned Parenthood Clergy Advisory Board and in 2003, the 30th anniversary of Roe v Wade, he presented our Clergy statement to the media at a press conference on behalf of PPHOI. He is an example of one who, regardless of potential controversy has found success by standing firm in their beliefs and serves as an example and source of strength for others."

Barb Nall received the Betty Osborne Memorial Award. She has been a Planned Parenthood nurse practitioner for almost two decades, and demonstrates warmth, compassion and advocacy for her patients, the release stated.

The Rev. Anna Clock-Saxon received the Geri Green Board of Directors Award, to a board member who has exhibited exceptional dedication to the Planned Parenthood mission. She is currently chairwoman of the board, and "demonstrates through words and actions that the terms 'family planning,' 'reproductive choice,' and 'religious faith' are not opposites but complementary terms."

NOW conference focuses on rights, politics

EAST PEORIA -- The Illinois chapter of the National Organization for Women doesn’t hold any illusions about women in today’s world.

Women don’t need more shopping or more beauty products or anything else the commercial society offers to confuse them about their role and place.

They need legal rights that are enforced, including equal pay and reproductive rights, so they can control their own lives. After years of rule by the Bush administration, those rights are now in jeopardy.

That was the message at the Sept. 29 conference held at Illinois Central College where speakers focused on what can and should be done now to improve the lives of women. Politics comes first.

Illinois NOW has endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for president.

“When women take charge it will be a different world,” said Illinois NOW president Bonnie Grabenhofer. “Women’s lives will be important. Policies will reflect women’s concerns. No sexism, racism, homophobia. (Just) justice and equality.”

Peoria attorney Patricia Benassi, who received the group’s Ida B. Wells award for her high-profile victories for women discriminated against in the Mitsubishi Motors case, spoke on a panel on legal issues and delivered the keynote address.

In her speech, Benassi stressed the importance of the upcoming presidential election. “Our choices are going to affect every man, woman and child, the elderly, the world. We are in a profound time historically. We have to decide whether we will change where we are going,” she said.

“Under the leadership of George Bush and the right wing, the US has lost its leadership for freedom, tolerance and justice,” she said. After 9-11, “under the guise of protecting ourselves” the Bush administration “violated the Constitution and engaged in criminal activity throughout the world. (They) used (US) power and strength to bully and destroy rather than help” and engaged in “preventive war that makes us the aggressor.”

She mentioned the now familiar list of outrages, from secret prisons and torture to the widening gap between the rich and everyone else. “We are outraged and disgusted.”

She endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose nominees to the US Supreme Court will reflect her values. “She has consistently voted for civil rights. She took on health care and education. She cares about people and is a team player who can get along with everyone including Republicans,” Benassi concluded.

Meanwhile, the threats to equal pay and reproductive rights continue from a hostile Supreme Court.

In a panel discussion on legal issues, Benassi discussed the Ledbetter case, which refused to allow a woman suffering from pay discrimination to collect what was owed her. “It shows a complete lack of understanding of the world. It is hostile to women and other protected minorities.”

Congress may overturn this decision since it goes against established law, she said.

Lori Chaiten of the American Civil Liberties Union said the Supreme Court’s April 18 decision on the so-called “partial birth abortion” ban overturned “years of precedents” and bans common procedures for abortion and miscarriages that could be used to protect a women’s health and fertility.

The court relied on “junk science to restrict rights,” she said. Overturning this decision in Congress is possible, she said, but unlikely now. Clinton twice vetoed this legislation, but Bush signed it and his appointees on the Court upheld it.

A pro-choice presidential administration could issue narrow guidelines for enforcement, she said.

The issues in Illinois include a parental notification law on abortion for teens, passed years ago under Republican rule, even though notices elsewhere have led to deaths by teens afraid to tell their parents. It’s not yet in effect. Each county court must come up with guidelines for the law, said panelist Lori Post.

The statute is under challenge, Chaiten said. “We have lots of strategies up our sleeve.”

Meanwhile the Illinois Reproductive Privacy Act has been introduced in the General Assembly to protect abortion rights. But it’s “on the back burner,” Post said.

Those at the meeting also discussed the controversy over a Planned Parenthood clinic in Aurora where abortions would be performed along with other women’s health care. Anti-choice activists have intimidated city officials into delaying the permit to open.

The controversy has brought new visibility to NOW, whose officers have been interviewed, quoted, and have developed new relationships with reporters, NOW leaders said.

Illinois NOW’s president Grabenhofer expressed her delight in meeting in the Peoria area. “When we think of Peoria we think of Betty Friedan,” she said.

--Elaine Hopkins

Abortion rights in jeopardy

PEORIA -- Two recent major events affecting reproductive rights for women have yet to be implemented.

But they are steps toward severely weakening the right to abortion in Illinois and in the U.S., Peoria Planned Parenthood chief executive officer Joyce Harant told those attending the annual dinner on June 27 for the Peoria chapter of the National Organization for Women.

The U.S. Supreme Court in April upheld the ban on so-called “partial birth abortion,” a medical procedure occasionally used to protect a woman’s health or fertility. For the first time, the court did not consider a woman’s health in banning this procedure, Harant said.

“This court said the politicians decide. An individual woman cannot make an informed decision on the best way to proceed with an abortion,” she said.

“The preponderance of medical opinion was that different techniques should be available. The court retreated from the way it made previous decisions. In the past there was always a medical exception to protect the woman’s health,” she said.

“We now have a Supreme Court majority that is hostile to women’s right to choose. Once there is no Constitutional protection for abortion, Roe is gone,” she said.

Abortion battles will shift to the states, and the right to a safe, legal abortion will evaporate in many states, she said. “Now there are parts of this country where it’s not available, even though it’s legal.”

She predicted that a black market for abortion medication will open, and women will be denied medical help if they attempt to abort themselves.

In Illinois, a blue state, “we cannot pass comprehensive sex education or add another adult to help a minor obtain an abortion,” she said.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who claimed to be a pro-choice politician, moved to set up guidelines to implement a requirement for parental notification before a minor can have an abortion. The state law was passed years ago but a federal court stopped it from taking effect because the guidelines have not been written.

“Madigan asked for the federal injunction to be lifted,” Harant said. “She made an intentional move to limit a minor’s right to choose. No politician is trustworthy.”

NOW members discussed reproductive rights, and the fact that most younger women are not aware of the narrowing of their choices, and don’t seem to care unless it affects them directly.

One member reported observing sex education taught to middle school students outside Peoria by the Women’s Pregnancy Center, an anti-choice organization. The children were receiving erroneous information, she said.

She was fearful of embarrassing her children by complaining publicly, but set them straight and hopes they will talk with their friends, she said.

Others recalled the courage that some NOW members showed years ago in fighting racism and discrimination. They implied that similar courage is required today to fight right wing attempts to squelch sex education as well as to preserve a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion.

--Elaine Hopkins

A Kennedy on Women

PEORIA -- Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, oldest child of Robert Kennedy, niece of John F. Kennedy, a lawyer and former Lt. Gov. of Maryland, melded details from her own life with the aspirations of the women's movement in a candid and informal talk that delighted her audience.

She spoke to the Peoria YWCA Leader Luncheon on May 2, and met earlier with some of the audience.

She's supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, she said.

"The 21st century could be the century for women," she told the audience. Women are winning higher offices throughout the world, she said. "We do have a serious woman running from Illinois."

When the audience was silent, she continued, "I know you have another candidate from that response. This is clear feedback." Laughter followed.

Women face challenges when they seek to become leaders, she said, because of the masculine traditions in war and religion. "It's a challenge when you think about women in power. Where are your guidelines?"

Despite that, women have been able to rise, she said. "When women work, they do a better job than the guys."

Circumstances have conspired to favor women, she said. "I think because the (Iraq) war is such a disaster, there will be a change. The course of history (will provide) women with leadership possibilities," she said.

"What do you feel about yourself? Where do you get your inner strength? What does society tell you?" she asked.

She told about growing up in the Kennedy family, where "women were not involved in public life."

Yet the Kennedy traditions of competition, sports and intellectual development were part of the heritage for her as well as for her brothers.

Her grandmother, Rose Kennedy, made her memorize great quotations, telling her she might use them in speeches. Rose Kennedy never attended college, but was still studying French and German at age 95, she said.

She told her granddaughter about prejudice against the Irish in Boston.

At the Kennedy dinner table, the children were quizzed about current events. They also were told they had an obligation to help the impoverished people that their father had met in Mississippi.

The day after JFK was assassinated, her father, Robert Kennedy, in the midst of grieving and planning the funeral, wrote her a note, she said, quoting it. "As the oldest of the Kennedy grandchildren, you have a special responsibility to be kind to others and work for your country. Love, Daddy.

"He wasn't bitter, angry or vengeful. He was talking about responsibility and kindness and working for his country."

She said she grew up as the women's movement gained momentum. "I went to law school because the women's movement said 'you can do that.' The doors were being opened for women. But there are still challenges."

She was turned down for jobs as a lawyer because she asked about time to care for her children, she said.

But by the time she ran for Lt. Gov., no one was asking why she wasn't staying home with the children, she said. "This is what happens. We prepare ourselves, and when the culture changes we can take advantage of it. But we do have to change the culture."

She proposed new laws against domestic violence, she said, and new help for caregivers who are mainly women.

"We have to be our sisters' keeper. You can make a difference. We think we're alone but we're not. We can build an alternative political movement."

--Elaine Hopkins