Women4Change's 2024 Bills of Impact (Newsletter Archive: February 2024)
Women4Change’s 2024 Bills of Impact
Women4Change Indiana advocates for equality.
Our goal is to support and advance policy and legal reform that confronts systems of inequality and helps create just outcomes for women and their families by countering misogyny, institutionalized racism, and discrimination.
We acknowledge the presence of legislation advancing through the IGA which stands in the way of citizen voting access, tenant rights, equitable land use, free speech, scholarship, academic freedom, and damages economic equity and upward mobility in Indiana. We are monitoring all legislation closely, assessing, and preparing potential mobilization efforts.
Indiana’s legislative session is underway, and we believe that SB 2: Childcare, HB 1418: Long-acting Reversible Contraceptives, and HB 1058: Breast Tissue Density, will have direct impacts on Hoosier women in 2024.
Women4Change’s 2024 Bills of Impact
SB 2: Childcare. Requires the Indiana Economic Development Corporation to annually report to the Indiana General Assembly regarding funds dedicated to supporting childcare under specified state and federal programs.
Why we support SB 2.
-Respective to income, Indiana’s childcare is the most expensive in the nation.
-Statewide, more than 39% of Hoosier parents are not getting the care they need because they do not have access or cannot afford it.
-55% percent of families in Indiana live in a childcare desert.
HB 1418: Long-acting Reversible Contraceptives. Requires a hospital that operates a maternity unit to ensure that a woman who is: (1) giving birth in the hospital; and (2) eligible for or receiving Medicaid assistance; has the option, if not medically contraindicated, of having a long-acting reversible subdermal contraceptive implanted after delivery and before the woman is discharged.
Why HB 1426 is important.
-Abortion care is illegal in Indiana and over 429,000 Hoosier women live in reproductive healthcare deserts.
-Back-to-back births (two separate births within 18 months) not only increase maternal and infant mortality and morbidity but increase mortality outcomes for the child/children born first.
HB 1058: Breast Tissue Density. Requires that facilities performing mammograms notify patients if their breast tissue is considered “dense.” It also requires that insurance to cover rehabilitative and reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy that includes chest wall reconstruction and aesthetic flat closure.
Why we support HB 1058.
-Women who have dense breast tissue have a higher chance of breast cancer and dense breast tissue makes it harder for radiologists to see cancer on mammograms.
-Hoosiers who loses their breasts to breast cancer deserve dignity and access to reconstructive surgery.
We encourage our supporters to contact your legislators in support of SB 2, HB 1418, and HB 1058 and to fight for any other legislation that is important to you.
Love Letters to Legislators
On Galentine’s Day, we gathered at the Statehouse and wrote our legislators.
Couldn’t join us? We’ve got you covered.
Write a letter with our persuasion points and/or use your own voice!
Thank you to all who came, to our interns, staff, board members, and partners such as the Herbert Simon Family Foundation who made this event possible!
Contact your legislators: https://iga.in.gov/information/find-legislators/
Voting and Indiana’s General and Primary Elections in 2024
We materialize nonpartisan voting guides every year to equip Hoosiers with the most accurate and the up to date election information and critical deadlines.
Celebrating Black History’s Unsung Heroines
Gone, but not forgotten, we love finding and celebrating important and lesser-known stories about the black women who have helped shape our present and future. Learn more about suffragists Fannie Lou Hamer, Frances Berry Coston and others throughout Black History Month and beyond, on our blog.
Women4Change Indiana is growing, and we love hearing from our supporters!
Contact our newsroom!
Aimee Robertson-West, Vice President
Development and Communications
Contact our staff!
Kennedy Phillips, Program Manager
kennedy@women4changeindiana.org
Chloe Holliday, Communications Coordinator
Stephanie Picarra
stephanie@women4changeindiana.org
Can you help Women4Change fight for equality and to preserve democracy in Indiana?
Chip in! www.women4changeindiana.org/donate
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Sincerely,
Women4Change
Women4Change is a registered 501(c)3 corporation and your gifts are tax-deductible. To make a donation through Donor Advised Funds, please contact us.
Women4Change Indiana
1100 W 42nd Street Suite 215
Indianapolis, IN 46208
United States