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Happy Friday, rulers! My puppy and I are gearing up for fall. Scroll down for Bowie’s Women Rule debut. (One of you kindly requested photos last week.) Thanks to Maya Parthasarathy for helping to compile these links.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced a plan to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for individuals making less than $125,000; for those who received Pell grants, the plan would forgive $20,000. The executive action quickly ran into opposition from critics across the political spectrum. Those on the left argued it didn’t go far enough. Centrists and conservatives argued it was unfair to forgive student loans when others chose less expensive education options and that it would drive up inflation by giving people more money to spend.
The debate also brought attention to the fact that student loan debt is not distributed equally, and one group in particular holds a disproportionate amount of it: women.
Women hold two-thirds of student loan debt in the United States, and the majority of those borrowers are Black or Latina. After graduating, those women make74 percent of what male college graduates make, which means that women take two years longer, on average, to pay off their student loans than their male counterparts — that’s two years longer to save for retirement, a house or starting a business.
On average, women borrowersowe more than $30,000 in student loan debt, and women of color owe more than $37,000.
Why do women hold more student loan debt? “Women of color in particular don’t have the generational wealth … to help pay for their college education,” Gloria Blackwell, CEO of American Association of University Women (AAUW), said. “They take on more loans, and … they pay them off more slowly because we have the gender pay gap, and interest is accruing more over that longer period of time.”
These structural challenges are continuing even as college costs have continued to increase quickly. Since 1987,college costs have increased 103 percent, while median household income has risen only 14 percent, according to AAUW.
Does Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan go far enough for women dealing with high debt loads? “This is a big deal, particularly for women of color,” Blackwell said. “Would we [at AAUW] have liked to see more? Of course. Black women have somewhere in the upper thirty-thousands in student loan debt.”
National Women’s Law Center recommended $50,000 in forgiveness in June, in line with areport on student debt by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
AAUW recommended a range of solutions in a2021 report on student debt. The group recommended that Congress act to expand Pell Grants for low-income students; state and federal legislators increase funding for public schools so that they can provide reduced-tuition options for students; and employers establish more tuition repayment options.
“We talk a lot about those who are current debt-holders,” said Blackwell, “but we also have to think about what can be done to ensure the system doesn’t perpetuate the ways in which students are being in so many ways forced to take on insurmountable debt, due to the overwhelming increase in the cost of higher education.”
“Women should not be forced to sacrifice their financial future just to get an education,” Blackwell said.
CALL FOR RESPONSES – Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, reports are surfacing of patients — even those not seeking abortion — having trouble filling certain prescriptions, and of patients being denied treatment for pregnancy-related complications.
Have abortion laws affected your access to health care? We want to hear from you.
“Abortion access crumbles: 4 more states enact new restrictions this week,” by Megan Messerly and Alice Miranda Ollstein for POLITICO: “The erosion of abortion access in the United States accelerated this week with four more state trigger laws taking effect — in Idaho, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.
“While three of those states had significant restrictions on the procedure already in place, the new laws carry narrower exemptions and harsher criminal penalties, all but eliminating abortion in broad swaths of the U.S.
“As of Thursday, abortion is prohibited starting at conception, with limited exceptions, in a dozen states, and two more states forbid the procedure after the detection of fetal cardiac activity, around six weeks of pregnancy.
“The newly effective laws make good on conservative promises to swiftly prohibit abortion in as many states as possible following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June and will leave much of the South and Plains states with virtually no access to the procedure. The laws could also make it harder for people to access non-abortion care, including for a miscarriage and family planning.
“In Texas, which has banned all abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy for nearly a year, abortion providers now risk a life sentence for performing an abortion at any time during pregnancy, unless the pregnant person’s life is in danger.”
“White coats in the state capital: OB-GYNs become political force in abortion wars,” by Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly for POLITICO: “Red state lawmakers rushing to pass new abortion restrictions are being stymied by an unexpected political force — OB-GYNs.
“These physicians — many of whom have never before mobilized politically — are banding together in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, lobbying state lawmakers, testifying before committees, forming PACs and launching online campaigns against proposed abortion restrictions. Legislators who are themselves physicians are using their medical backgrounds to persuade colleagues to scale back some of the more restrictive and punitive portions of anti-abortion laws being considered.
“In Nebraska, OB-GYNs’ advocacy scuttled attempts to pass abortion restrictions in a summer special session, and the Republican-controlled legislature has punted the issue until early next year.
In West Virginia and Indiana, doctors secured smaller wins, stripping provisions out of bills that would have imposed “harsher criminal penalties on physicians and patients, and ensuring exemptions for cases of rape, incest and threats to the health of the pregnant person.
“‘Physicians have expressed concern and, I would say, to some degree, fear. Like, “Please don’t interfere because you do not understand,”’ Nebraska Sen. John Arch, a Republican who chairs the legislature’s health committee, told POLITICO. ‘There is such a thing as bad legislation, and that is borne of not understanding the topic or the issue before legislation is passed.’”
“Biden administration likely to extend baby formula help for low-income moms,” by Meredith Lee for POLITICO: “Biden administration officials are considering further steps to avoid a steep drop in infant formula access for low-income Americans as shortages linger in pockets across the country.
“Administration officials in the coming days are likely to again extend federal flexibilities for low-income moms and infants to access formula through the federal WIC nutrition program, with current waivers set to expire Sept. 30, according to two people, including a Biden administration official.
“Half of all infant formula in the country is purchased through the WIC program. The move would help the administration lower financial burdens on those families, which is especially critical as the White House tries to tout President Joe Biden’s efforts to ease economic hardship on Americans ahead of the November midterm elections while limiting GOP political attacks around infant formula stocks.”
“Why women are dancing in solidarity with Finland’s prime minister,” by Juliana Kim for NPR: “People posting pictures and videos of themselves partying online has become a political statement for some women.
“In social media feeds, women are showing themselves dancing, singing or holding a drink to show their solidarity with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin. She has been under public scrutiny after videos of her dancing and singing with friends circulated on the internet. Those videos were meant to be private, according to Marin.
“‘I have a family life, I have a work life and I have free time to spend with my friends. Pretty much the same as many people my age,’ Marin said, according to the Finnish outlet Yle.
“Some criticized her behavior, questioning her maturity and competency. Others called for Marin to take a drug test, which she took on Friday in response to the criticism. The test results came back negative on Monday, the Finnish government wrote on its website.
“The reaction to Marin’s behavior struck a particular chord for some women who feel that in both their personal life and in politics, they are held to an unfair standard.”
“Companies Are Cutting Back on Maternity and Paternity Leave,” by Kathryn Dill and Angela Yang in the Wall Street Journal: “Many employers are shrinking the number of paid weeks of maternity and paternity leave they will offer.
“New data show that the share of employers offering paid maternity leave beyond what is required by law dropped to 35% this year, down from 53% in 2020, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, a trade association for HR professionals that surveyed 3,000 employers. Companies including Hulu and some small to midsize firms are trimming weeks off their benefits for new parents as some employers confront inflation, anticipate a recession and try to re-establish prepandemic norms.
“Companies also downsized paternity-leave programs. The share of employers giving paid paternity time off fell to 27% in 2022, from 44% in 2020, the SHRM survey found. “
“Kentucky’s lone transgender athlete can’t play on the team she helped start,” by Moriah Balingit in the Washington Post: “LOUISVILLE — When 13-year-old Fischer Wells signed up for field hockey last fall, she had never played the sport. Her parents were confounded. Fischer had run cross-country before and once tried out unsuccessfully for a street hockey team, but outside of that, the seventh-grader had not expressed much interest in sports.
“A month into the season, her parents were fighting for her right to play. The first games had been marred with challenges. First, there were not enough players, until Fischer recruited classmates to fill out the team. Then Fischer’s stick was too short. Finally, through a teary phone conversation with the athletic director, her parents had learned the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s rules would not allow Fischer to play.
“Because Fischer — besides being a middle-schooler with boundless enthusiasm, a bookworm and a novice field hockey player — is transgender. The association had set extraordinarily high hurdles for transgender athletes to play on teams that matched their gender identity. It required that transgender athletes undergo “sex reassignment” before puberty — though it was unclear what that meant. For transgender athletes who underwent sex reassignment after puberty, the association required that ‘surgical anatomical changes have been completed, including external genitalia changes and gonadectomy,’ procedures that are not recommended for young people.”
PUPPY PICS – Here is my puppy Bowie, who is five months old. He is currently teething, working on potty training and destroyed a roll of toilet paper while I tried to isolate him for a five-minute timeout yesterday. If anyone would like to take a guess at what mix of breeds he is, I’d love to hear it. His paperwork from the adoption agency said shepherd/Great Pyrenees, but I’m not so sure.
Maricella Herrera is the new CEO of Ellevate, a B certified corporation that provides networking and professional development resources to women in the U.S. and overseas. … Paula Garcia Tufro will be senior director for development, global health and humanitarian response at the NSC. She currently is chief of staff at the Millennium Challenge Corporation. (h/t Playbook) …
Chonya Johnson is now chief of staff for Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.). She previously was senior domestic policy adviser at Bread for the World. … Marli Collier is now comms manager for Airlines for America. Most recently, she was press secretary for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Republicans. (h/t Playbook) …
Claire Viall is now deputy assistant secretary of Education for higher education in the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs. She previously was a senior adviser for education policy for the House Education and Labor Committee. (h/t Playbook)
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