Monthly Archives: November 2023

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bing AI responds to: the Insurance Coverage Ban On Abortion for Service Women​ Who Have Been Rape


The Department of Defense is prohibited by federal statute from providing coverage for abortion care except when a pregnant woman’s life is endangered. The ban provides no exception for cases of rape and incest 1. This ban is particularly galling because servicewomen are especially vulnerable to sexual assault 1. Despite the Department of Defense’s efforts, sexual assault in the military persists. Reporting an assault is difficult enough and should a woman become pregnant as a result of rape, she should be able to obtain the same care available to civilian women who rely on the government for their health care needs 1. Further, military women confront an additional barrier to abortion access when serving overseas. In addition to banning military health insurance from covering abortion care, federal law prohibits military treatment facilities from providing abortion services to women even when patients pre-pay the entire cost of the procedure with their own private funds. This second ban, which has a narrow exception for life endangerment, rape, and incest, imposes grave health risks and leaves servicewomen and their families far worse off than civilian women 1.

The ACLU has introduced the Military Access to Reproductive Care and Health (MARCH) for Military Women Act, which would provide coverage (funding) for abortion in cases of rape and incest for servicewomen and dependents who rely on the military health system for their healthcare and lift the current ban on using private funds to pay for abortion on military hospitals 1. The bill aims to provide our military women, who serve and sacrifice, with the same access to abortion care that civilian women receive 1.

1: source

LIFT THE ABORTION BANS: U.S. SERVICEWOMEN DESERVE EQUAL TREATMENT, FAIRNESS AND COMPASSION – ACLU

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Fourteenth Amendment


Constitution Annotated

Browse the Constitution Annotated

Fourteenth Amendment  Equal Protection and Other Rights

  • Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
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On this Day … Moby Dick Published


On this day in 1851, Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville about the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, is published by Harper & Brothers in New York. Moby-Dick is now considered a great classic of American literature and contains one of the most famous opening lines in fiction: “Call me Ishmael.” Initially, though, the book about Captain Ahab and his quest for a giant white whale was a flop.

Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819 and as a young man spent time in the merchant marines, the U.S. Navy and on a whaling ship in the South Seas. In 1846, he published his first novel, Typee, a romantic adventure based on his experiences in Polynesia. The book was a success and a sequel, Omoo, was published in 1847. Three more novels followed, with mixed critical and commercial results. Melville’s sixth book, Moby-Dick, was first published in October 1851 in London, in three volumes titled The Whale, and then in the U.S. a month later. Melville had promised his publisher an adventure story similar to his popular earlier works, but instead, Moby-Dick was a tragic epic, influenced in part by Melville’s friend and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, neighbor, Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose novels include The Scarlet Letter.

After Moby-Dick‘s disappointing reception, Melville continued to produce novels, short stories (Bartleby) and poetry, but writing wasn’t paying the bills so in 1865 he returned to New York to work as a customs inspector, a job he held for 20 years.

Melville died in 1891, largely forgotten by the literary world. By the 1920s, scholars had rediscovered his work, particularly Moby-Dick, which would eventually become a staple of high school reading lists across the United States. Billy Budd, Melville’s final novel, was published in 1924, 33 years after his death.

history.com

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Tell Your Personal Story to Help Stop the Government Shutdown


Right-wing legislators in Congress are threatening a government shutdown unless they can cut programs like Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, food stamps, housing assistance, veterans benefits, and more. Without a budget agreement or short-term extension, the government will shut down after November 17th.

Do you and/or a family member depend on these critical programs?

Are you willing to share your story publicly to fight back against these attacks, and to push for more help from our elected officials to deal with the high costs of living these days?

Food Assistance, Vet benefits, Medicare, Childcare, Housing

Gas, Groceries Prescription drugs, Healthcare and Independence

Source: socialsecurityworks.org