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Careers July 22, 2015 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Page 7 O PINION Battlegrounds in the War on Women’s Bodies Public health standards take a hit J OYCELYN E LDERS , M.D. As Americans, we strive for safety -- the safest med- icines, cars and toys. But when it comes to women’s reproductive health, state legislatures have passed about 250 laws since 2011 that put women’s health at risk. And they do it under the guise of “women’s safety.” Wom- en of color are disproportionately affected by these policies through- out the Southern states where I live and spend much of my time mentoring young physicians and health professionals. Politicians are cutting access to family planning services and tell- ing doctors how to practice medi- cine, especially concerning proce- dures that terminate pregnancies. Clinic licensing standards, in- vasive ultrasound procedures and mandatory waiting periods are un- necessary because legal abortion BY is one of the safest surgical procedures. Nearly 90 percent are GRQH LQ WKH ¿UVW WUL- mester, when abortion is safest. Texas is one bat- tleground in this war on women’s bodies. A few years ago, Texas had 41 abor- tion clinics but a recent court de- cision to uphold restrictions may mean only 9 will stay open. The public health community knows ZKDW¶VOLNHO\WRKDSSHQPRUHXQ- intended pregnancies, since many of these clinics also provide con- traceptive services. Guttmacher Institute research shows unintended pregnancy is highest among the poor, youth and women of color. Eliminating barriers to culturally and linguis- tically appropriate health infor- mation and services would help reduce these disparities, as would age-appropriate sexual health ed- XFDWLRQ LQ RXU VFKRROV<HW IXQG- ing for these programs is being cut. Again, it’s politicians making these decisions, not health profes- sionals. The Affordable Care Act re- solves disparities by requiring that preventive services, includ- ing contraception, be provided at no cost. Congress’ attacks on Obamacare, coupled with the Su- preme Court’s pending decision concerning access to insurance plans, stand to jeopardize these gains. Ironically, some legislators talk about the “sanctity of life” while railing against affordable contra- ception and prenatal care, which serve to enhance women’s quality of life. Consider a young woman mak- LQJPLQLPXPZDJHZKR¿QGVKHU- self pregnant and not yet ready to raise a child. Or an older woman with health conditions that could become life-threatening if she stays pregnant. Because at least 93 percent of Texas counties do not have an abortion provider, she may have to travel long distanc- es, take time off work that likely has no paid sick leave and arrange transportation. With Texas’ wait- LQJ SHULRG VKH ZLOO KDYH WR ¿QG a place to stay overnight. Once at the clinic, she will hear state-man- dated pseudo-science about the “risks” of abortion. Research shows that 42 percent of women obtaining abortions have incomes below the poverty level. And because of the feder- al Hyde Amendment, Medicaid funding for abortions is prohibited under most circumstances and in most states. The irony is that the U.S. ranks 47th among 183 countries for ma- ternal deaths from pregnancy-re- lated conditions. And childbirth is 14 times more likely to result in death than an abortion. These rates go up for women with dia- betes and other health conditions. Before the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade, the pub- lic health community expressed concern about high rates of mater- nal deaths in the U.S. and the need for universal access to a full range of reproductive health services, including abortion. The recent restrictions, roll- backs and de-funding of repro- ductive health services will inev- itably drive up maternal morbidity and mortality rates, again placing women’s health at risk. As a nation, I hope we take a hard look at how our public poli- cies stand to jeopardize the health of women and prevent this from happening. We must have healthy mothers and healthy babies if we expect to have a healthy nation. Joycelyn Elders, M.D. is a professor at the School of Public Health, University of Arkansas, and served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1993 to 1994. Companies like Uber Could Do More for Workers Supporting the information-age workforce BY I SAIAH J. P OOLE I have a love-hate relationship with ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. I love the conve- nience and level of service that traditional taxis don’t offer. But I hate what they portend for the future of work with their rapidly expanding business model that pretends regular workers are fran- chisees. For one thing, casting em- SOR\HHV DV HQWUHSUHQHXUV RIÀRDGV risks, along with the security and EHQH¿WVWKDWDWUDGLWLRQDOMREXVHG to offer. Workers toiling in the so- called sharing economy get no paid vacation or sick leave, no company match for a 401(k) re- tirement plan, and no employ- er-paid health insurance. They PD\ EHQH¿W IURP JUHDWHU ÀH[L- bility that they need for family obligations or even some fun, but these folks are missing out on big swaths of the safety net. What’s more, the chief exec- XWLYH RI¿FHUV DQG LQYHVWRUV ZKR are driving this share of our econ- omy can get pretty stingy when it FRPHVWRVKDULQJWKHSUR¿WVZLWK WKRVH ZKR PDGH WKRVH SUR¿WV possible. That prompted venture capital- ist Nick Hanauer — a billionaire who made most of his fortune by investing in start-up technology ventures — to propose a way for workers in these nontra- ditional employer-employee relationships to have what he calls “shared security.” These kinds of supports would restore more stability to the growing information-age workforce. “shared security accounts” and “shared security standards.” These accounts would encom- pass “all of the employment ben- H¿WV WUDGLWLRQDOO\ SURYLGHG E\ D full-time salaried job,” including health insurance, sick leave, paid vacation, unemployment insur- ance and workers’ compensation insurance, Hanauer and Rolf ex- plain in the journal Democracy. ³6KDUHG VHFXULW\ EHQH¿WV In the near term, that means WKDWVRPHRIWKHRXWVL]HGSUR¿WV that corporations are currently earning will go to workers... “In the old economy, you’d go to work for a company, and it’s en- tirely possible you’d stay there for your entire career,” Hanauer told me in an interview. “And all of the WKLQJV WKDW GH¿QHG D GHFHQW DQG GLJQL¿HG PLGGOHFODVV OLIH ZHUH negotiated with that company, probably through a union. But in an economy in which somebody may have as many jobs in a year as their parents had in their life- time, obviously negotiating these things, employer to employer, job to job, becomes impossible.” Hanauer has teamed up with David Rolf, vice president of the Service Employees International Union, to spell out his concept of would be earned and accrued via automatic payroll deductions, regardless of the employment re- lationship, and, like Social Secu- ULW\WKHVHEHQH¿WVZRXOGEHIXOO\ prorated, portable, and universal,” they write. Hanauer, who lives in a Se- attle suburb, estimates that the costs would be modest. A com- pany like Uber or TaskRabbit, where people can hire them- selves out for domestic work, would only have to pay an ad- ditional 8 cents per employee to cover the cost of 20 days of sick and annual leave. But Hanauer sees far greater costs in the un- certainty that is growing amid today’s increasingly contingent, on-demand workforce. “It makes little sense to pay less for an Uber ride but more in tax- es for the poverty programs that that Uber driver now requires,” KHVD\V³7KLVLVDYHU\LQHI¿FLHQW way of doing business.” All employers — regardless of the nature of their relationship with a given employee — would be legally required to meet these proposed shared security stan- dards. They include paid sick leave, a living wage, and overtime pay for workers earning less than $69,000. “In the near term, that means WKDW VRPH RI WKH RXWVL]HG SUR¿WV that corporations are currently earning will go to workers, and there will be people who will squawk about that, but in the long run that will be better for every- body,” Hanauer says. Our national labor standards were built for the industrial era and aren’t meeting the needs of today’s wired economy. The cre- ators of this app-driven world pride themselves on their dis- ruption of the old business order — and sometimes disruption is good. But we can’t keep dis- rupting the paths to middle-class economic security — and this 1 percenter’s proposal deserves se- rious attention. Isaiah J. Poole is online com- munications director for the Cam- paign for America’s Future. Dis- tributed via OtherWords.org. The Law Offices of Patrick John Sweeney, P.C. Patrick John Sweeney Attorney at Law 1549 SE Ladd Portland, Oregon Portland: Hillsoboro: Facsimile: Email: (503) 244-2080 (503) 244-2081 (503) 244-2084 Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com