October 1, 2020 |
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2016 was a “pivotal year” for women’s health, according to a 50-state report card released Monday by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR)—and given signals from the incoming Trump administration, “2017 will undoubtedly bring new challenges and new opportunities for action.”
This year brought a historic U.S. Supreme Court victory in Whole Woman’s Health v Hellerstedt, which CRR president Nancy Northup described as “the most important abortion rights ruling in a generation.” The decision struck a major blow to the more than 300 abortion restrictions—also known as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers, or TRAP, laws—enacted by state legislatures since 2011.
But 2016 also saw the enactment of at least 60 bills restricting access to reproductive healthcare across the country, and the introduction of hundreds more—including nearly 100 bills linked to the smear campaign against Planned Parenthood alone.
These included Flordia’s HB 1411, “a harmful omnibus anti-abortion law that places additional restrictions and onerous requirements on abortion providers, jeopardizing their ability to provide reproductive healthcare services,” according to CRR; Louisiana’s “unprecedented” seven bills restricting abortion (the most passed by any state in 2016); and Oklahoma’s “Humanity of the Unborn Child Act,” which requires the state Department of Health to develop and distribute materials “for the purpose of achieving an abortion-free society.”
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What’s more, CRR notes in its report (pdf): “Reproductive rights advocates must use Whole Woman’s Health to dismantle each and every sham abortion restriction on the books to ensure that every woman gets high-quality reproductive healthcare without interference from politicians—and that won’t happen overnight.”
Not to mention that many of this year’s salvos were issued even before the election of Donald Trump (and his anti-choice ticketmate Mike Pence), which appears to have further emboldened anti-abortion legislators.
Following comments Trump made just days after his election in November, Northup said: “Our country now stands perilously close to a return to the dark days when women were forced to put their own lives at risk to get safe and legal abortion care.”
As such, Northup warned on Monday, “As we embark on 2017, we must hold our leaders accountable to the constitutional protections guaranteed in Whole Woman’s Health. A woman’s ability to access basic reproductive healthcare services like contraception or a safe, legal abortion are essential to her health and well-being. It’s more important now than ever that elected officials at all levels of government stand up against this decades-long crusade to eliminate women’s reproductive healthcare services.”
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October 1, 2020 |
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Throwing the weight of his office behind the nation’s biggest polluters, President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing his administration to dismantle the Obama-era Clean Water Rule.
Surrounded by other foes of environmental regulation, including the newly confirmed EPA head Scott Pruitt, the president declared the 2015 law, also known as Waters of the United States, “a horrible, horrible rule. Has sort of a nice name, but everything else is bad.”
Passed under former President Barack Obama, the Clean Water Rule extends Clean Water Act protections to streams and wetlands. As The Hill observed Tuesday, Trump’s move is seen as “an opening shot by Trump against the EPA, which was a frequent target of criticism from Republicans for alleged overreach under Obama’s tenure.”
Though implementation of the rule has been on hold due to ongoing litigation, the move drew outrage from environmental groups, who see it as a necessary provision for the protection of clean water.
The White House has not yet released the full text of the order but it reportedly directs the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to formally consider rolling back the rule, which Pruitt is sure to oblige given that while serving as Oklahoma attorney general he sued the agency he now heads against implementation of the Clean Water Rule.
“Water is life, and Trump’s dirty water order puts our environment and millions of American lives at risk so that polluters can profit from the destruction of our waterways,” said Marissa Knodel, oceans campaigner with the group Friends of the Earth (FOE).
“Water is life, and Trump’s dirty water order puts our environment and millions of American lives at risk so that polluters can profit from the destruction of our waterways.”
—Marissa Knodel, Friends of the Earth
“The Clean Water Rule is grounded in science and the law so that our streams and wetlands can keep us healthy and safe, provide habitat for fish and wildlife, and beautiful places to recreate,” Knodel added. “In contrast, Trump’s dirty water order is dangerous and illegal, based on corporate greed and unlawful environmental pollution.”
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Decrying the order as “reckless” and “a giveaway to polluters,” Trip Van Noppen, president of the environmental legal organization Earthjustice, said that Trump is “putting the drinking water of 117 million people at risk, demonstrating that he puts the interests of corporate polluters above the public’s health.”
Similarly, Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, called the order “a gift to Trump’s friends who will pollute and destroy some of the last remaining wetlands in the country. It’s deeply troubling—but not surprising—to see Trump move so quickly to gut wetlands protections.”
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Connecting the president’s myriad business interests with his desire to rollback environmental regulations, Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, said it is predictable for the nation’s “golfer-in-chief…—who happens to own or brand golf courses in Florida (two), New York (three), New Jersey (two), Virginia (outside Washington, D.C.), California, North Carolina and Pennsylvania—to aid his industry and himself by moving to repeal the Clean Water Rule.”
On the flip side, a number of groups pointed out that dismantling the rule will not be a quick or easy process.
“The Obama administration held more than 400 stakeholder meetings and reviewed over 1,200 scientific studies to develop the 408-page technical report that accompanied the rule,” FOE noted, “and the Trump administration will have to justify any changes with science and the law.”
Additionally, Van Noppen vowed that Earthjustice “will use the full strength of our nation’s bedrock environmental laws…to ensure this Administration does not dismantle the basic mission of the EPA—the protection of our health and the environment.”
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October 1, 2020 |
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Ferrari has given three leading members of its Driver Academy the chance to get a taste of what it’s like to be behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car.
Mick Schumacher, Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman all took to the track on Wednesday at its dedicated test track at Fiorano at the wheel of a 2018 Ferrari SF71H. It’s part of the trio’s preparation for their maiden free practice appearances at upcoming official Grand Prix weekends.
“They were all quick and immediately began running at a good pace,” Ferrari Driver Academy technical chief Marco Matassa told Motorsport.com. “The laps they did today will be very useful when Mick and Callum run on Friday at the Nurburgring.”
- Read also: Schumacher to make FP1 debut in Germany with Alfa
“It’s not easy to switch from the driving style demanded from a Formula 2 car to one best suited to Formula 1,” he added. “The car has much more power, a significantly more sophisticated braking system and power steering that requires sensitivity and precision to use properly.”
Current Formula 2 championship leader Schumacher has already had two previous outings in contemporary F1 equipment, and is the second for Ilott, but it was all new for 2019 Formula 3 champion Shwartzman.
“It was very useful to get used to all the procedures again, which are pretty complex,” said Schumacher, who will take the wheel of an Alfa Romeo next week. “I can’t wait to jump into the cockpit in Germany and it will be nice to take part in a practice session for the first time in front of my home crowd.”
“What struck me about the SF71H was its aero efficiency, which means you have grip levels you just don’t find in other categories,” said Ilot who will be testing with Haas. He described his test outing as an “unforgettable day”.
Shwartzman will have to wait until the final race of the season to jump into the Alfa Romeo for FP1.
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