Page 10
May 1, 2019
C LASSIFIED /B IDS O PINION
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.
Advertise with diversity
in
The Portland
Observer
Call 503-288-0033
email ads@portlandobserver.com
Metro runs the Oregon Zoo,
Lead Security Agent, full-time,
Oregon Convention Center,
$20.33 - $21.16 hourly. Deadline
date: May 9, 2019
These opportunities are open
to First Opportunity Target
Area (FOTA) residents: This
area includes the following
zip codes located primarily in
N, NE and a small portion of
SE Portland: 97024, 97030,
97203, 97211, 97212, 97213,
97216, 97217, 97218, 97220,
97227, 97230, 97233, 97236,
and 97266, whose total annual
income was less than $47,000
for a household of up to two
individuals or less than $65,000
for a household of three or more.
Oregon Convention Center,
Portland Expo Center and
Portland’5 Centers for the Arts
and provides services that
cross city limits and county
lines including land use and
transportation planning, parks Visit oregonmetro.gov/FOTA for
and nature programs, and the complete job announcement
garbage and recycling systems. and a link to our online hiring
Visit oregonmetro.gov/jobs for center or visit our lobby kiosk
current openings and a link to at Metro, 600 NE Grand Ave,
Portland.
our online hiring center.
Metro is an Affirmative Action /
Metro is an Affirmative Action /
Equal Opportunity Employer
Equal Opportunity Employer
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
RFP 3664
Drupal platform and website redesign for
Metro, Oregon Zoo, Expo Center, Portland’5 and
Oregon Convention Center
Metro, a metropolitan service district organized under the laws of
the State of Oregon and the Metro Charter, located at 600 NE Grand
Avenue, Portland, OR 97232-2736, is requesting proposals for Drupal
platform and Website Redesign for a three-year contract to update
Metro’s public website platform and redesign its family of five websites
listed above.
A voluntary pre-proposal conference will be held at 600 NE Grand
Avenue, 97232 on May 14 2019 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm at Room
370A. Interested vendors and subcontractors are encouraged to
attend the conference in order to gain information about the RFP
requirements.
Sealed submissions are due no later than 2:00 PM, May 30, 2019
in Metro’s business offices at 600 NE Grand Avenue, Portland, OR
97232-2736, Attention: Riko Tannenbaum, Procurement Analyst, RFP
3664.
Solicitation documents can be viewed and downloaded from the
Oregon Procurement Information Network (ORPIN) at http://orpin.
oregon.gov/open.dll/
Metro may accept or reject any or all proposals, in whole or in part,
or waive irregularities not affecting substantial rights if such action is
deemed in the public interest.
Metro extends equal opportunity to all persons and specifically
encourages minority, women-owned and emerging small businesses
to access and participate in this and all Metro projects, programs and
services.
Metro and its contractors will not discriminate against any person(s),
employee or applicant for employment based on race, color, national
origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability, political affiliation
or marital status. Metro fully complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 and related statutes and regulations in all programs and
activities. For more information, or to obtain a Title VI Complaint Form,
see www.oregonmetro.gov.
Advertise with diversity in The Portland Observer
Call 503-288-0033
or email ads@portlandobserver.com
Dangerous Time for Women’s Rights
Banning
abortion not
enough for some
on right
m artha b urk
We’re living in
the most perilous
time for abortion
rights and reproduc-
tive freedom since
Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
While some erosion of abor-
tion rights has occurred over the
decades — parental consent laws,
waiting periods, procedure curtail-
ment — the fundamental right has
largely been by ruled by the courts,
and viewed by the public, as guar-
anteed under Roe. Around 60 per-
cent of Americans support a legal
right to the procedure.
Now state legislatures are esca-
lating their assault on that right —
and on the women who attempt to
exercise it.
Since President Trump succeed-
ed in elevating Brett Kavanaugh
— an abortion foe, alleged sexual
assailant, and mean drunk to boot
— to the Supreme Court, his right-
wing lynch mob has launched a la-
ser-focused attack on reproductive
freedom. They’ve been flooding
the states with anti-abortion legis-
lation in hopes of getting a case to
the Supreme Court that will over-
turn Roe.
Republicans paved the way for
Trump’s conservative hijack of the
judiciary during Obama’s tenure.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc-
Connell held the Supreme Court
seat created by Justice Scalia’s
death vacant for more than a year
by
until the next election, along with
108 other federal judgeships that re-
quire only Senate approval. Trump
is wasting no time filling the vacan-
cies.
To grease the wheels, the Judi-
ciary Committee has ended the
decades-old practice of seeking
advice from the American Bar
Association on nominee qual-
ifications and started holding
hearings during congressional
recesses. Recently the Senate
voted to shortcut the process
even more by reducing the time be-
tween final confirmation votes on
district court judges from 30 hours
to just two.
Currently, 85 percent of Trump’s
circuit court nominees are mem-
bers of the Federalist Society, an
ultra-conservative legal network
strongly connected to anti-abortion
organizations.
Many of Trump’s nominees for
lower courts are outspoken foes of
abortion rights themselves. Case
in point: In a ruling upholding the
constitutionality of a Kentucky law
requiring abortion providers to per-
form an ultrasound and make the
fetal heartbeat audible to the patient,
Judge John K. Bush referred to “un-
born life” rather than “fetus.”
Packing the courts with an-
ti-choice judges is a necessary pre-
cursor of the larger strategy taking
aim squarely at Roe. Judges can’t
decide until they have something to
decide on — and arch-conservative
zealots are serving up plenty of po-
tential cases.
More than 250 bills restricting
abortions have been filed in 41
states this year. At least a third have
successfully passed 20-week abor-
tion bans, based on the unfounded
assertion that a fetus can feel pain
20 weeks after fertilization.
An even more frightening new
trend has developed since the con-
firmation of Kavanaugh. “Fetal
heartbeat bans,” which outlaw
abortions once a fetal heartbeat is
detected, have passed in at least six
states and are being pushed in sev-
eral more. Some of these laws, like
Ohio’s, offer no exceptions for rape
or incest.
Doctors say such bans could out-
law abortions as early as five weeks
into pregnancy, before many wom-
en know they are pregnant. Though
laws have been blocked from taking
effect pending court challenges,
abortion opponents are banking on
at least one of these attempts being
upheld by Trump’s anti-abortion
Supreme Court majority, overturn-
ing Roe.
Merely banning abortion isn’t
enough for some on the rabid right
— they want to criminalize it al-
together. One Alabama lawmaker
proposed a bill that would make
abortion a felony at any point during
pregnancy, including in cases of
rape and incest.
But the most horrific bill of all
was recently debated in the Tex-
as state legislature. It defines all
abortions as murder, punishable by
death in Texas
These extreme bills aren’t pass-
ing — yet. But the numbers are
frightening: 446 people testified in
favor the Texas measure, with only
54 standing against it.
Will burning at the stake be next?
Be very afraid.
Martha Burk is the director of the
Corporate Accountability Project
for the National Council of Wom-
en’s Organizations (NCWO) and
the author of the book Your Voice,
Your Vote.