NM Political Report (https://nmpoliticalreport.com/tag/equal-rights-advocates/)
The U.S. Census Bureau released data this week that shows that the wage gap for women continues to stagnate. Women’s wages have historically been lower than men’s wages. The Census data shows that wages have not improved significantly. Women earn, on average, 78 cents for every one dollar men make. This includes women who work part-time or seasonally.
A law requiring employers to pay women the same as men for the same job turns 60 on Saturday—but women still lag behind white men in pay.
According to the American Center for Progress, working women have lost $61 trillion in wages since 1967 when the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking the data. White women earn 79 cents for every dollar a white man earns, but the wage gap is higher for women of color. Native women make 57 cents for every dollar paid to a white, non-Hispanic man, according to the National Women’s Law Center. A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that women make up more than 40 percent of the workforce overall and earn about 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man overall. Black women earn 63 cents while Hispanic women 58 cents.
After the repeal of Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion activists are looking to turn public sentiment against abortion access in New Mexico, a state where abortion is legal, abortion rights policy experts have said. Nadia Cabrera-Mazzeo, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, said that organizations involved in reproductive rights in New Mexico expected this to happen before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. “It’s a certainty and we’ve been expecting it. We knew the second Roe was overturned, [anti-abortion activists] would set their sights on New Mexico where it’s still legal to get necessary care,” she said to NM Political Report. Last week, an anti-abortion group called Southwest Coalition for Life organized a rally in a parking lot next to the future Las Cruces Women’s Health Organization.
President Joe Biden’s executive order to protect reproductive rights and care announced earlier this month can only do so much without Congressional budgetary support. The order directs federal agencies, particularly the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] to safeguard access to abortion care and contraception, protect the privacy of patients, promote the safety and security of both patients and providers and to coordinate federal efforts to protect reproductive access and rights. But, Biden’s ability to affect change on the current state of abortion care now that the court has overturned Roe v. Wade is “handcuffed” by a lack of action from the U.S. Congress, Noreen Farrell, attorney and executive director with the nonprofit Equal Rights Advocates, told NM Political Report. “Obviously, there’s some congressional handcuffs on the scope and impact of executive action,” Farrell said. Farrell called the order “a plan to make a plan.”
A few days after Biden’s order, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra issued guidance that states that providers must continue to follow the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, a federal law that requires that all patients receive an examination, stabilizing treatment and transfer, if necessary, as needed, irrespective of state laws that apply to specific procedures.