ABC Women’s Center, a non-profit organization in Middletown offering free support services to women facing unplanned pregnancies, has this response to a report released by NARAL Pro Choice CT entitled, “The Right To Lie.” The report is part of a nationwide strategy by abortion advocacy groups to harm the reputation of those charitable entities providing critical pregnancy support services in communities across the state. As part of Care Net, a national pregnancy center affiliation organization, ABC Women’s Center complies with an industry set of standards called ‘The Commitment of Care and Competence’ which ensures that every client is treated with respect and compassion.
CT Viewpoints
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Posted inCT Viewpoints
Paid family leave act could help CT economy and prevent foreclosures
As part of my work for the Women’s Economic Agenda for Connecticut Working Families, I spent the legislative session collecting the stories of women who earn, on average, $15,000 per year. Many don’t have any health insurance outside of Title 19 and they have no savings. Lack of paid family leave devastated their lives when they gave birth or underwent surgery. As a result, many have lost all hope that they can ever own a home. But higher income Connecticut residents – homeowners – are affected by the lack of paid family and medical leave as well, perhaps in even more drastic ways and they don’t even know it. Here’s why a state-funded study on the issue is essential.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
SBAC: Data but no meaning, when meaning matters most
“Statistical calculations based on warped figures lead to confusion, frustration and wrong decisions.” These wise words from W. Edwards Deming are most timely as the educational community awaits the next batch of big data to be delivered, the results of the latest test promising to revolutionize schooling, the SBAC. A hollow promise, based on warped figures, that will certainly deliver hollow results. What will the SBAC data mean? Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. Numbers in isolation, lacking story and context.
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Connecticut’s ‘defined benefits’ pension system best for retirees
In a recent article “CT still lags most states in saving for public-sector pensions,” the Connecticut Mirror wrote about a report from Pew Charitable Trusts on the strength of pension funds around the country. The Pew report ignores a number of important pieces of context regarding the growing strength of the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds which provides a safe and secure retirement for many Connecticut families.
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GMO labeling: Is it necessary, wise, useful or misleading?
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill that would block states such as Vermont and Connecticut from requiring food producers to label products containing genetically modified organisms. CTViewpoints would like to examine this issue and welcomes informed commentary exploring its complexities. Read more here for details.
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Connecticut’s juvenile detention program needs reform
Sexual abuse. Physical abuse. Emotional abuse. Neglect. Sex Trafficking. Community violence. Violent deaths of family and friends.
This is just a partial list of the traumas that many – if not most – youth who become involved in the juvenile justice system in Connecticut have experienced in their short lives. No wonder that they become willing to act “by any means necessary” in order to survive and protect those close to them — even if this lands them in juvenile prisons such as the Department of Children and Families’ Training School for boys and Pueblo Unit for girls.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Don’t blame medicines for higher health care costs
The insurance industry’s blame-everything-on-medicines rhetoric simply does not hold up to the facts. Just this week, the federal government projected that, even with new treatments for hepatitis C, high cholesterol and cancer, medicines will continue to account for just 10 percent of health care spending through the next decade, the same share as in 1960. It is time for a more balanced discussion of health care costs that moves beyond simple sound bites and political rhetoric and considers the big picture.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Crisis pregnancy centers should be accountable for lies, misinformation
Connecticut has long been a national leader in reproductive rights, yet as long as so-called crisis pregnancy centers are allowed to operate without oversight or regulation, dispensing lies and misinformation, they threaten all the progress we’ve made. The right to have an abortion means little when these centers are falsely telling women the procedure is dangerous or deadly. Now that we have clear evidence that these centers lie about medical information while posing as real providers, we have an obligation to hold them accountable for their actions. Connecticut women deserve medically accurate, unbiased healthcare, and they deserve better than CPCs.
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Close the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Training Center
In a scathing 68-page report released July 22, the Office of the Child Advocate reported on its findings after an investigation of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School over the past 18 months. OCA conducted site visits and interviewed staff and residents; viewed videotapes; and analyzed facility reports, educational attendance data and treatment plans. The youth prison model embodied at CJTS can’t be fixed. CJTS should be closed and here’s why:
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Call for DCF’s Katz to resign is about children, not politics
Recent reports concerning the Department of Children and Families, along with Commissioner Joette Katz’s long history of failure, misplaced priorities and lack of transparency and accountability, leave me with no confidence in her willingness or ability to openly and seriously confront critical issues within her agency. That’s why I felt compelled to call for her resignation.
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Is your Connecticut nonprofit trying to get the word out?
Nonprofits rely on The Connecticut Mirror and now the organization’s other digital publications, CTViewpoints and TrendCT, for public policy news, analysis and opinion. After months of shaping CTViewpoints’ identity, we believe we can offer more.
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Governor, close Southbury, other similar state-run institutions
Connecticut likes to think of itself as a progressive state. Yet when it comes to the civil rights of those with intellectual disabilities, we are not. As Connecticut clings to a discredited institutional approach, many states — including Oklahoma and Tennessee — will observe the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with none of their citizens isolated in segregated institutions. Sadly, “progressive” Connecticut will not be able to do the same. I call on the governor to close the state’s five such institutions by the year 2020.
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Good reasons to leave Connecticut; many more to stay
My nephew thinks we should all skedaddle right out of Connecticut as fast as our Prii can take us – last one to cross the border, turn off the lights. Party over. He emails me articles to bolster his case, and there is no question that our state is facing serious challenges. The cost of living and taxes are high and rising here, some businesses are grumpy and threatening to move to Florida and beyond, and our economy is growing slower than most other states. While still ranked near the top for our median household income, our personal revenue actually has declined since 2000; and Connecticut recently has become a leader for economic inequality among its citizens, a dubious honor that used to go to places like Mississippi.
Still…
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Body cameras on Connecticut cops — a help or not?
New state law providing funding and standards for the use of police body cameras will go into effect in October, signaling a new era of oversight of law enforcement officers. How effective do you think this law will be? CTViewpoints invites you to contribute your insights on this new legislation from your perspective as a citizen, civil rights advocate, law enforcement official or other interest group.
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
The secrets of E-ZPass
Today you can travel toll roads from Maine to Illinois to Virginia and use the same E-ZPass. And Connecticut drivers… get ready, as everyone admits that tolls are in our future. But even law-abiding E-ZPass holders should know that Big Brother may be watching them, miles from any toll lane. The NYC Dept of Transportation uses hundreds of E-ZPass readers in Manhattan, it says, to monitor the flow of traffic. Your E-ZPass could even let authorities determine if you were speeding as you pass between readers, though the NY Thruway insists that’s not in the plans and wouldn’t stand up in court. The choice is yours: pay cash, wait in long lines and remain anonymous… or get an E-ZPass, enjoy the discounts and speedy trips but leave a record of your travels.