elaurenson21ahsgov

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Blog post 9, Infographic

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Civic Action Assessment of Issue

1. This semester I did my best to attend the extra credit assignments, but my time after school is usually very busy so I didn’t attend as many as I wish I could have. I did though go to the feminist women speaker who was at academy a few months ago and she was very interesting. I didn’t go for extra credit because my grade in this class has been solid and I just went because it seemed interesting so I didn’t really getting a lot of notes down on all. I did love learning about the history of the women’s rights movement and it was so cool to hear from someone who had real first hand experience of this stuff from back in the day. I was also happy to see how many other people attended and it was inspiring to hear how enthusiastic she was about this cause. 

2. For this class project, I was not completely as civically engaged as I could have been this semester so I think it’s important that for next semester I prioritize things like the city council meetings and other after school events because those are very valuable learning experiences that I wish I participated in this semester. Next semester I’m willing to devote more time to my issue and really make sure I am able to get involved first-hand. 

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Legislative and Executive Action

1. The bill is H.R. 4078: EARLY Act Reauthorization of 2020 and it was introduced in July 25th of 2019. 

2. This bill originated in the house and was also passed by the house, now it’s waiting on the Senate.

3. This bill allows for programs that will raise awareness and education around breast cancer especially for young women and also provide support for those diagnosed with breast cancer. This impacts my civic action issue because if this bill passes it shows government support for women’s rights and freedoms. 

4. This bill was sponsored by 49 Democrats and only 6 Republicans which might be an issue when it comes to voting on this topic in the Senate especially if the December 7th Senate elections don’t go well for Democrats. 

5. This bill was assigned to the House Energy and Commerce committee and also the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee. 

6. I would definitely advise people to vote yes for this bill because it would provide necessary support for women who are probably going through the biggest struggle of their life. 

7. The executive department that should manage my civic action issue is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

8. Their mission statement is focused on corona virus and it is, “Corona virus stops with me. Take steps to care for yourself and help protect others in your home and community.” This doesn’t really relate to my issue besides the fact that mothers and women are always taking steps to care for others in their homes and communities.

9. Alex Azar is the secretary of the Health and Human Services department and he was sworn in by Trump in 2018. He has already served as General Council and Deputy Secretary for this department in the early 2000s. He went to both Dartmouth and Yale and although his visions for women’s health rights and abortion rights are different than mine I would definitely say he is qualified for the job.

10. I searched through the programs and services for a long time and I could find limited information on women’s rights, especially abortion. There were many sections about family planning and there was lots of information about adoption and other social services, yet none about abortion. The only program I could see my issue falling into is the social services category but it still barley applied. 

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California Proposition Assessment

1. Prop 16: Affirmative Action in Public Education and Employment

2. Prop 16 would erase the ban on considering race, sex, color, ethnicity, and country of origin in the application process for jobs and schools. 

3. This prop would fortunately have no fiscal effect on any state or local entities.

4. This proposition actually did not pass and there were 3 million more people who voted to uphold discrimination in our application processes instead of repealing it. 

5. Although I wasn’t necessarily surprised by the endorsements, it was fun to see all those incredibly famous politicians and organizations supporting this proposition. From Bernie Sanders to Gavin Newsom and from the New York Times to the founder of the Black Lives Matter Movement, it’s incredible to see all these people supporting affirmative action. It also just makes me even more confused as to why it didn’t pass because all these staple democratic politicians are supporting it and I know that California is more democratic than republican. 

6. An argument I thought was very convincing in support of the proposition was that today, colleges can consider the city you came from, the school you went to, your families economic background, and many other things- but not race. There is no reason for this and when you look at it from a perspective like this it makes no sense why you would not look at race as a deciding factor in an application process. People who are against the proposition argue that it is wrong because they believe it is legalizing racism and sexism and “no one should get a job just because of the color of their skin or their gender,” even though that’s not what the proposition does. 

7. I would have 100% voted yes for the proposition because not only is there no fiscal impact but there is also no logical reason why race or gender shouldn’t be considered in an application process because they are important factors. In addition, there has been discrimination in our country going back hundreds of years and it is still visible through things like the wage gap and police brutality, so there is no reason why that discrimination which is incredibly impactful shouldn’t be considered in an application process. 

8. An additional fact I found interesting was that there was over 20 million dollars raised in support for this proposition compared to only 1.5 million raised in opposition of it, yet the proposition still didn’t pass. I’m really confused and wondering how many people just claim to be democratic but actually are just  selfish and don’t have the same intent as they say they do. 

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Political Interest Groups and PACs Assessment

Interest Group Name: National Organization for Women

Position: The NOW works to end discrimination and harassment against women in the workplace, schools, justice system, and all other sectors of society. Also to secure abortion, reproductive rights and birth control for all women, end all forms of violence against women, and also to promote justice throughout all genders, races and economic statutes. 

Legislature: The NOW recently signed onto a Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice along with ninety other organizations. This blueprint would entail that the next president must do many things including issuing an order saying that he’s committed to protecting reproductive health care and also re-engaging with international efforts to support and protect reproductive and sexual health. 

Location: NOW is an international organization with chapters all over the country. The most local chapter for me is their Contra Costa County chapter and this chapter is hosting a virtual conference on November 7th that I could attend.

Volunteering: In order to help out NOW, there are options to both become a member or start your very own chapter, and from there I would assume there are many more volunteer opportunities and ways to get involved. 

Super PAC Name: Republican Voters Against Trump 

Position: This PAC’s main position is pretty self explanatory, their main goal is to prevent the re-election of Trump and to help other republicans see why Trump is not the best choice for president. 

Money Raised: $9,767,074

Money Spent: $9,549,038

Independent Expenditures: The total spent for democrats was $6,096,172 and against them was $0. The total spent for republicans was $0 and against was $3,452,866. This is not surprising as they are openly advocating for the democratic candidate and against the republican one. 

Donors: Their biggest donor is the repeat donor of an organization called Defending Democracy Together and most of their other donors seem like personal names. This is nice to hear because although they are funded by an organization, it is an organization that aims to protect democracy and our country which I am also in favor of. 

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Election 2020 Presidential Candidates Assessment

Green Party (Hawkins/Walker): Howie Hawkins briefly mentions his stance on the issue of women’s rights under a section of his website called “social justice.” All that is mentioned is that they will defend abortion rights and the Equality Act and Equal Rights Amendment. These statements are similar to the party’s beliefs on their party website because although it says they support a women’s right to choose, it is very brief and provides no detail. I do agree with this stance though, and think it is important that whoever is in charge will defend abortion rights no matter what. 

Republican (Trump/Pence): On the website, it states that Donald Trump “recognizes the precious gift of life and protects the sanctity of life at all stages,” and then goes on to mention how Trump has taken away money from Planned Parenthood and other abortion programs. Although I do agree that life is precious, I disagree with his false assumption that a clump of cells that can’t feel, think, speak, or survive on their own is actually a human life. I am more focused on the life of the mother and no matter what her situation might be, I believe it is completely her choice to terminate the pregnancy because at the end of the day forcing someone to have an unwanted baby is going to hurt the baby later on in their life, so the pro-life argument is inherently flawed and not pro-life for both the mother or the unwanted baby. Trump’s views stay in line with the views mentioned on their party website, which continue to be very pro-life and almost seem religious based, even though I thought we all knew at this point about the importance of the division between church and state. 

Peace and Freedom (La Riva/Freeman): The views mentioned on this website for the Peace and Freedom party are the same as the ones mentioned on their party website. It states that they believe in “equality for women and free, safe, legal abortion on demand. Stop the attack on women’s rights and defend Roe v Wade...Close the wage gap and end the gender division of labor.” I am in complete agreement with all of these beliefs and agree that they are basic human rights which should be provided for all women. 

American Independent (Guerra/West): I could not find these candidates positions on abortion and women’s rights from the website, because although it did mention healthcare, it completely left out anything about abortion. So, I have emailed the candidate to inquire about his view on this topic, but in the meantime I know Kanye West has been very vocal about his pro-life views and talked about them at one of his speeches while he was running. 

Libertarian (Jorgensen/Cohen): Again, this website also does not have anything mentioned about women’s rights or their views on abortion, so I have sent them an email. On their party website, the only thing they said regarding abortion was that it was a sensitive issue that should be left out of government, so I understand why they didn’t include it on this website. 

Democratic (Biden/Harris): Not only does this website go into immense detail about Biden’s support for abortion rights and everything he has done in his positions to protect it, but it also mentions many other things he believes in to support women like ending violence against women and helping women navigate work and families, which are all part of women’s rights. I am in complete agreement with these views and I love how much detail the website gives including the specific acts that Biden will endorse and approve of to aid women and also mentioning all of his accomplishments in the past for women. Again, these are in line with the democratic party’s views from their platform website because there as well as here it goes into detail about their support for a women’s right to choose and everything they will do to protect that. 

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Political Party Action

Republican: The Republican party believes that there needs to be legislation which would call for parental consent if a child wanted to travel across state boundaries for an abortion, that American taxpayers should not have to fund abortion, and that there should be a ban on federal funding and subsides for abortion and other healthcare plans which include abortion coverage. I personally do not agree with their position because for one it is based on religion, not science, and their belief that a fetus is a human life with feelings while it is actually only a clump of cells. In addition, I don’t agree because I don’t think they understand all the other support that abortion facilities provide like birth control, education, free condoms, etc. Finally, I disagree with their position because for some reason they believe that it is their right to choose what happens to other females bodies. I completely understand being pro-life for yourself, but creating legislation against abortion for all women is a violation of constitutional rights. 

Democrat: The Democratic party believes that all women have a right to reproductive health care services including safe and legal abortions. They will repeal the Title X rule and restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood. In addition they will repeal the Hyde amendment and protect and codify the right to reproductive freedom. I 100% support and am in agreement with this platform. I think reproductive health care is a right and that Planned Parenthood deserves federal funding and also that we need to write into law that reproductive healthcare for women is a right so that we can stop all of this nonsense. 

Libertarian: This party only mentions that they understand abortion is a sensitive issue and they believe the decision should be left out of the government. Although this would be nice and I do see why they believe that government should stay out of these matters, I feel like that is an unrealistic solution and won’t actually work for everybody. 

Green: The Green party states that they support a women’s right to reproductive choice no matter her age or marital status and that contraception and safe legal abortions should be covered in all health insure in the U.S. Though the Green party didn’t mention any specific methods they would use the achieve this, I’m in complete agreement with their views and my personal goals and beliefs are similar to theirs. 

Peace and Freedom Party: They believe abortion falls under the equal rights amendment so it’s protected by law and that there needs to be safe and free birth control education and tools. Again similar to the Green party, I agree with their views and my beliefs align with theirs, but they just don’t mention any specific methods they would use to achieve their goals. 

Personally, I definitely identify with the Democratic party the most which is unsurprising as I have always considered myself and Democrat and I would also 100% vote for Joe Biden, I think he’s the only option we have that actually has a chance at helping our country at this point. I listened to most of the debate and I didn’t hear this point brought up, but I think that’s probably because we know where both of the canidates stand already. 

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Media Assessment of Abortion and Women’s Rights

Liberal Leaning Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/myth-abortion-hurts-women_n_5f52647bc5b6578026cd5e51

Subject: The central message of this article is to dispute the belief that women are more likely to have emotional instability if they have an abortion, because the exact opposite of that is true actually.

Author: The article was written by Melissa Jeltson, but it was centered around a book written by Diana Greene Foster and an interview with her about her research. Foster is a professor at UCSF who’s research focuses on the effectiveness of family planning policies and the effect of unintended pregnancy on women’s lives. She went to both UC Berkeley and Princeton to receive the degrees she has today and is a reliable source. 

Context: This article was published only eight days ago but Foster’s book about her past research was published in June 2020. In the interview she mentioned that she had been collecting data for the past ten years, because the experiment tracked women who were either turned away or allowed and abortion for the next five years after that experience. 

Audience: This was published by a women but it was intended for people of all genders and ages. It was published in order to inform and educate people on the science behind the mental stability in result of receiving or not receiving an abortion, which people are commonly confused about.

Perspective: Although this was published by a liberal leaning source, I would say it’s pretty objective due to the fact that her entire argument is purely based on facts. It is definitely anti-abortion and pro-choice so that is what makes it left leaning.

Significance: The author uses all of the data that she collected in the past ten years from multiple test subjects over a wide variety of states to back up her findings. This data is scientifically sound and in turn can be used as evidence.

Impartial Source: https://www.npr.org/2019/05/18/724656365/2-women-discuss-their-shifting-views-on-abortion-rights

Subject: The main point this article is trying to convey is that there are many different approaches and opinions on abortion and that your opinion doesn’t have to be final.

Author: This article is a transcript of an interview done by NPR host Michel Martin with two women, Gabby Weiss who grew up as a fundamental Christian and Abby Johnson who was a former Planned Parenthood employee. Michel Micheal is a Harvard graduate who was a journalist covering politics for the Wall Street Journal for 10 years before becoming a talk show host. She is very centered when it comes to her reporting and interviews.

Context: This article was published more than a year ago, around the time when the laws were passed in Alabama outlawing all abortion except for in cases which the mother’s life was in danger. I think this effected the article because this bipartisan source wanted to show how there were women who were on both sides of the argument.

Audience: This interview was done with all women regarding their feelings about abortion, so I mostly feel that it was also directed at women to tell them to open their perspectives a little and see the points of both sides. 

Perspective: This source is definitely very objective because it shows how one women was very pro-life and then was raped and came to understand how important abortion was, while the other women was a former employee of Planned Parenthood, but she came to see that she wasn’t in agreement with all of their morals and values.

Significance: This article is not very factually sound as it is mostly based on opinions, but it is super interesting to see the two different points of view both coming from a woman. 

Conservative Source: https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/07/women-can-never-constitutional-right-abortion/

Subject: The main point of this article is that the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling that women have a constitutional right to abortion is incorrect.

Author: This article is written by Timothy M. Jackson. I have tried to look up information and the credentials of him but all I can find is that he is a writer for the Federalist, so I’m assuming that what he’s writing isn’t very credible and is not based on fact.

Context: This article was published in 2019 in reaction to Kansas’ Supreme Court ruling that even if Roe V. Wade was overturned, women would still have a constitutional right to an abortion. This situation is what sparked this article because he obviously disagrees with the conclusion the Supreme Court came to.

Audience: This article was written by a man, but I assume he is directing this article to anyone that will listen. He is not trying to single out specifically men or women, but he does talk a lot about his interpretation of the constitution.

Perspective: This article is definitely conservative since it is very blatentely pro-life and is also very focused on the rights that the constitution grants us.

Significance: There are little to no facts to back up this author’s argument. He does use excerpts of the declaration of independence to prove his point, but it is commonly known that the declaration and bill of rights can both very much be up to interpretation and this man is completely basing his argument on his interpretation. 

3. The similarities I see are that all three sources are taking into account multiple different perspectives and their reasoning for those perspectives. I also noticed though that the left leaning source is the only source to use real solid facts based on evidence. 

4. I definitely identify most with the left leaning side, not only because it’s purely based on true facts, but it’s goal is also to educate people on a common misconception that leads to many people opposing abortion. 

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Conceptualizing the Issue and Assessing Types of Action

1. I chose the civic action issue of women’s reproductive freedoms and rights because this subject hits close to home for me. As a women in living America, the potential that it could become illegal for me to have an abortion is a scary and unjust thought and I want to do my best to stand up against it so that that doesn’t happen. 

2. This issue is concerning whether it’s a women’s right or not to choose if she wants to have an abortion or continue out with a pregnancy. It also concerns women’s access to types of birth control and other rights. This is related to the government because a women’s right to choose right now was determined by the case Roe v. Wade but it is coming up again in politics with Donald Trump as our president because he is in favor of taking away a women’s right to choose. 

3. Actions that need to be taken to address this issue are many public discussions about the impact that this decision could have and ultimately the biggest action that needs to happen is a vote which would upkeep the precedent set with Roe v. Wade.