Did you know that in Louisiana, the law prohibits "testing, quizzing, or surveying students about their personal or family beliefs or practices in sex, morality, or religion"?
The legislative session is picking up speed. Here is what has happened with several of the bills we are tracking.
The Good News...
Lift Louisiana Launches State-Focused Lies into Laws Education Campaign
Last Thursday’s passage of the Republican health care plan in the House is devastating. Already marginalized communities, including communities of color, the poor, elderly, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, women, and immigrants will be most impacted by the plan. The scale of the damage that the American Health Care Act (AHCA) would cause is huge: an estimated 30 million people in the U.S. would be negatively impacted.
This week, the President signed an executive order to roll back women's birth control coverage. 55 million women in the US have benefited from this essential requirement.
And yesterday, House Republicans passed their dangerous new bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. If the bill becomes law, it will put women's health and economic security in dire jeopardy.
AHCA would take health care coverage away from tens of millions of people, and raise costs for many more.
The bill is especially devastating for women and families. It would:
In case you missed it, here's a rundown of what happened this week in Louisiana's Capitol. And what's coming up next week!
This week, a federal district court permanently blocked Louisiana’s Texas-style clinic shutdown law, citing the Supreme Court’s recent historic ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v Hellerstedt.
Today, a new lawsuit was filed in state court against the Louisiana Department of Health challenging agency regulations on abortion providers pushed through under the Jindal administration in 2015. These regulations are burdensome, medically unnecessary, and if fully enforced, could threaten to close the remaining three clinics in the state.
Tomorrow is Equal Pay Day -- the day when Louisiana's women’s average earnings finally catch up with men’s average earnings from the previous year. Women in Louisiana earn only 68 cents to every dollar a man makes. This is even worse for black women, who earn only 47.8 cents and Latino women, who earn only 50.9 cents. This is unacceptable, and that’s why tomorrow, we are joining advocates nationwide in demanding equal pay.
Louisiana Senator JP Morrell has introduced SB 24 and SB 27 this year that would exempt from state sales tax, tampons, pads, and other feminine hygiene products as well as cloth and disposable diapers size 7 and smaller.
