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PA NOW's Key Issues and Positions for Endorsement

Pro-Choice Position
Supports:

  • Roe. v. Wade
  • Medicaid coverage of abortions
  • Funding for comprehensive family planning
  • School based health clinic/ distribution of condoms, full access to all contraceptive information
Opposes:
  • All restrictions on abortion, (i.e. Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act, waiting period, spousal notification, parental accompaniment/or notification, or any restrictions on young women's decisions)
Equal Rights/Civil Rights/Lesbian Rights
Supports:
  • Pennsylvania Equal Rights Amendment
  • Affirmative Action
  • Gender balance/ gender equity legislation-creating gender balance in government appointments, committees, etc.
  • Domestic Partnership or Civil Unions
  • Hate crimes legislation including "gender" and "sexual orientation"
  • Equal civil rights for all (i.e. adoption/ custody rights not denied on grounds of race, ethnicity, disability, region, sexual orientation-etc.)
Opposes:
  • School vouchers (private schools not subject to same state requirements, can discriminate)
Economic Justice
Supports:
  • Equal pay (equal pay for same work)
  • Pay Equity (equal pay for work of comparably worth)
  • Require government contractors to pay a living wage
  • Raise minimum wage to a living wage
  • Re-institution of a real safety net for out of work/ unemployed (including education, child care, attention to extra concerns of domestic violence victims)
  • Workers right to organize for collective bargaining
Opposes:
  • Privatization of city/state jobs, including public education
  • Punitive welfare measures
Health Care
Supports:
  • Universal health coverage
  • Funding for Birth control, breast cancer screening etc.
  • Medical research specific to women
NOW'S PRIMARY ISSUES:
  • Equal Rights for All women
  • Elimination of Racism
  • Full Reproductive Rights
  • Economic Justice
  • Lesbian Rights
  • Ending Violence Against Women
National NOW policy
  • Opposed to capital punishment
  • Supportive of gun control legislation