Public Policy

Coalition Statement Opposing Reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule

Coalition Statement Opposing Reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule

We join together as diverse voices from a variety of sectors to oppose any effort to reinstate the harmful global gag rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy. While the Helms Amendment restricts U.S. foreign assistance funding for abortions “as a method of family planning,” the global gag rule goes a step further by preventing foreign organizations using their own funds to provide information, referrals, or services for legal abortion or to advocate for access to abortion services in their own country from receiving U.S. international family planning assistance.

In Support of Affordable Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care Services

In Support of Affordable Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care Services

The fiscal year (FY) 2016 draft of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) funding bill that was passed by the House Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee proposes a complete elimination of the Title X family planning program, the nation’s only dedicated source of family planning funding. The undersigned organizations urge you to oppose this drastic measure and protect the millions of poor and low-income women and men who depend on the Title X program for affordable family planning and reproductive health care services.

In Opposition to the Reauthorization of the D.C. School Voucher Program

In Opposition to the Reauthorization of the D.C. School Voucher Program

The 54 undersigned organizations write to voice opposition to the reauthorization of the District of Columbia private school voucher program. We oppose this and all private school voucher programs because public funds should be spent on public schools, not private schools. But the D.C. program, in particular, has proven ineffective and unaccountable to taxpayers. Not only have multiple Department of Education (USED) studies1 concluded that the program has failed to improve educational outcomes for participating students, but two U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports have also identified its repeated management and accountability failures.

In Support of Protecting and Improving Women’s Health

In Support of Protecting and Improving Women’s Health

The undersigned organizations committed to protecting and improving women’s health write to you in regards to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) birth control coverage benefit. We appreciate the Administration’s leadership in implementing the ACA, and the role it has played in ensuring that women are benefitting from this landmark law. While, thanks to the ACA, many women now have coverage of birth control without cost-sharing, some health insurance issuers are not in compliance with this law. This means that the women beneficiaries in these plans continue to face barriers when accessing the birth control they need.

Oppose Attempts to Curtail D.C. Civil Rights

The undersigned religious, interfaith, and civil liberties organizations that advocate for freedom of religion and belief write to urge you to reject any and all congressional efforts, including resolutions of disapproval, that would prevent two D.C. civil rights bills from taking effect. The D.C. Council unanimously passed both the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act of 2014 (RHNDAA) and the Human Rights Amendment Act of 2014 (HRAA) to support one basic underlying principle: fairness. The bills help ensure that others are treated fairly—as we all would like to be treated. These bills do not violate religious freedom, but instead protect freedom of conscience of and ensure equal treatment for all students and employees.

We urge you to oppose H J. Res. 43, which seeks to overturn the RHNDAA. The RHNDAA strengthens the District’s existing nondiscrimination protections so that employees in D.C. and their dependents do not face employment discrimination because of their personal reproductive health care decisions.

The RHNDAA would ensure that employees and their families can make their own private health decisions, based on their own consciences and in consultation with their own physicians, without fear of losing their job. Business owners are absolutely entitled to their personal religious beliefs—but they cannot use their beliefs to justify discrimination against their employees.

Similarly, we urge you to oppose H. J. Res. 44, which would repeal the HRAA. The HRAA ensures that all educational institutions in D.C. provide access to school facilities and services for all student clubs equally. Contrary to opponents’ claims, the HRAA does not require religiously affiliated schools to provide LGBT student groups with funding or official recognition. The HRAA simply upholds students’ freedom of conscience by repealing a congressionally imposed exemption to D.C. law that allows religiously affiliated educational institutions to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

In Support of Medically Accurate Sex Education

In Support of Medically Accurate Sex Education

We, the undersigned medical and public health organizations, stand in strong opposition to the addition of any provision to legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that would interfere in the relationship between students and health care providers by limiting access to information or health care services. On February 26th, 2015, during consideration of H.R. 5, the Student Success Act, a politically motivated amendment was added to the Manager’s Amendment that would do just that.

In Support of the Healthy Families Act

In Support of the Healthy Families Act

We, the undersigned organizations, urge you to support the Healthy Families Act, a common sense bill that would allow workers to earn up to seven paid sick days a year to recover from short-term illnesses like the flu, access preventive care, care for a sick family member or seek assistance related to domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. Without paid sick days, workers are forced to make impossible choices when illness strikes: stay home, lose pay and risk their jobs; or go to work sick, risk their health and spread disease to their co-workers and communities. Paid sick days keep families financially secure, workplaces and communities healthy and productive, and businesses and the economy strong.

High Profile Domestic and Sexual Violence Incidents

High Profile Domestic and Sexual Violence Incidents

We write as members of the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, domestic and sexual violence advocates, faith-based and law enforcement groups, civil, human, and women's rights organizations who represent millions of survivors of sexual and domestic violence and stalking, and their advocates – with both requests and reflections following two solid months of media coverage of a number of high profile domestic and sexual violence incidents.

Advancing Women's Equality and Health

Advancing Women's Equality and Health

The Institute for Science and Human Values is committed to protecting and advancing women’s full equality and health, with a particular interest in ensuring that women receive all of the benefits of access to paid contraceptive coverage, as provided in the Affordable Care Act, without regard to the religious views of their private employer. ISHV, under the auspices of our pro bono attorney, Ms Marcia Cohen, has signed onto two amicus briefs listed below.

2013 Report From the ISHV Office of Public Policy

2013 Report From the ISHV Office of Public Policy

As you may know from following the work of ISHV, we advocate on many issues of interest of the progressive secular humanist movement. An important way we do this is to work in coalition with other groups and organizations. We participate by helping to write and sign onto letters, sending out alerts asking you to contact your representatives, traveling around the country to do civic trainings and participating in dialogues with U.S. and international leaders on how best to advance the movement. In addition we work on the international stage to aid and provide a safe place for those who suffer persecution from radical religionists.

In Support of the Affordable Care Act

In Support of the Affordable Care Act

The Institute for Science and Human Values has signed on to two amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs filed by the National Women’s Law Center in support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Virginia vs. Sebelius and Florida vs. US Department of Health and Human Services. Both briefs address the Affordable Care Act as curing a “moral and social wrong”, namely the disadvantages and discrimination women have faced in obtaining health care and health insurance. The Act does this by eliminating insurance companies’ ability to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions such as pregnancy, a previous Caesarian section, or a history of having survived domestic abuse, and by requiring individuals to be insured, thus making health insurance available to all who seek it.