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Annual Coalition Reports

Lake Michigan Interleague Organization
by Janet Greenwald

History: The Lake Michigan Interleague Organization (LMILO -- pronounced "El Millo") officially came into being at the annual meeting October 16, 2004 in Indiana. However, the organization is actually 40 years old in 2007!  Formerly the Interleague had been the Lake Michigan Interleague Group (LMILG - pronounced "El Milg").  It had been decreed, two years earlier, that Interleague must become "organizations" under the LWVUS structure.  Previously, LMILG had been led by a steering committee. A complete new set of bylaws was required.  The essential element (and one vastly different from the earlier "group" structure) was the requirement that LMIL obtain permission from LWVIL, LWVIN, LWVMI, and LWVWI before taking any action. After two years of submitting by-laws to the state LWV boards for approval, those guidelines were finally in place, and the bylaws were accepted at the Indiana meeting.

New Name: Lake Michigan League of Women Voters will come into existence October 6, at the 2007 annual meeting at Illinois Beach State Park , Zion, IL, if the membership so votes.  This was the appellation determined by the Board to be most representative of our structure. Co-President, Jeanette Neagu received permission from the four Lake Michigan Basin state LWV's for the change. We are finding that public lacks recognition that we are the League of Women Voters. Many suggestions were offered so that the name would better reflect our purpose and our connection to LWVUS.

Indiana Representation: At the beginning of our League year, long-term representative, Harriet Schlesinger, resigned for health reasons. She has been sorely missed. Currently members representing Indiana on the LMILO include Janet Greenwald and Sharon Carnes, of LWV of LaPorte County serve as the Indiana representatives. Barb Reed of LWV of Cass County serves as an alternate. LMILO meetings are held quarterly: three in Chicago and a fourth at the location of the annual meeting.

Milwaukee was the site of 2006-07 annual meeting. Tours in Milwaukee were to the Metropolitan Sanitary District (MMSD), the Wisconsin Aquatic Technology and Environmental Research (WATER) Institute, and to Pier Wisconsin and its Discovery World children's science museum. The keynote speech was entitled "Pharmaceuticals: the Emerging Contaminants in the Great Lakes and Their Effect.”

U.S. Congress Pays Attention to Great Lakes: During the past year, the work of the Interleague organization has become vastly more interesting and more complicated. After many years of being largely ignored by Congress, the Great Lakes became the focus of proposed legislation. Thus, in supporting (or opposing) legislation or governmental regulation we are taking action affecting ALL of the Great Lakes, not simply Lake Michigan.

Coast Guard Firing Live Ammunition on the Great Lakes: The Coast Guard began and planned to continue live ammunition firing in designated zones on the Great Lakes. LWV action taken demonstrated excellent co-operation from state Leagues and led to a significant success in a decision by the Coast Guard to place the proposal on hold.  Our action was approved by our Lake Michigan states and from LWVMN, LWVNY, LWVPA, and LWVOH. In addition, Pat Boy, League member from LaPorte County, and a member of the Michigan City Common Council, authored a resolution protesting the Coast Guard action. The resolution passed unanimously, and subsequent news coverage by USA Today and the New York Times led to a storm of publicity, additional resolutions by other cities and towns, and a flood of letter-writing.
On another front, we have been given permission to push for funding for the Asian Carp electric barrier in the Illinois River and Sanitary Canal, and for the Great Lakes Restoration Act.

The Great Lakes—St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement is another important piece of legislation. This agreement, between the eight Great Lakes states and coupled with a separate agreement signed by Ontario and Quebec, will prohibit diversion of water outside the Great Lakes Basin, and regulate inter-basin transfers. It must be signed by all of the Great Lakes states legislatures, and then by U.S. Congress. Two Senate bills and one House bill were introduced in the 2007 Indiana General Assembly. Your Indiana reps to LMILO pushed to have the basic agreement signed with implementing legislation to follow.  Our efforts were curtailed by environmental organizations, which convinced the sponsors of the bills to wait until the implementing legislation was drafted. The Water Resources Agreement will be introduced in the 2008 session of the General Assembly. It should be noted that Minnesota has enacted the Agreement into law -- implementing laws to follow. It has passed one house of the Illinois Legislature

Healing Our Waters Coalition: This multi-organizational group sponsored a lobbying effort on March 7, 2007, - Great Lakes Day in the U.S. Congress.  LMILO members from Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan attended. Jeanette Neagu and Janet Greenwald called on Sen. Lugar and six Indiana representatives, speaking with their aides, and directly with two of the representatives urging passage of the Asian Carp barrier, ballast-water treatment legislation, and other legislation designed to protect the lakes.

Power Point Presentation:  Jeanette Neagu has prepared an educational presentation designed to supplement a talk to LWV's and other groups. She used it with a talk to LWV-Elkhart in February. The Wisconsin representative to LMILO is adding some flourishes, and the final product should be ready by June.

LMILO 2008 Annual Meeting:  This event will be held in Indiana.  It is to be hoped that ALL Lake Michigan Basin Leagues participate in the planning and carrying out of this meeting.

Indiana Land Use Consortium 2007 Annual Report
by Jim Faber

Much of the work of the Indiana Land Use Consortium (ILUC) centers on the planning for the fall program, “COMMUNITIES AT THE CROSSROADS”.  Workshops at this all day affair cover a wide range of land use issues.  In addition, ILUC includes programs at their monthly meetings.  One such presentation during 2006 was a power point program on RISE (Rural Indiana Strategy for Excellence).  Meetings scheduled around the state by other organization are highly publicized through ILUC so that all communities can take advantage of the many resources available to them.

ILUC follows the activity during the legislative sessions related to land use.  Such legislation this term dealt with large cattle feeding lots, brown fields created by underground storage tanks, development around lakes in northern Indiana and bills relating to modular homes to name a few.

The ILUC is currently forming committees to study and sponsor community forums on three areas of interest:  urban settings, rural and small towns, and natural resources and agriculture.

Please contact me if you have issues related to land use in your community.  Learn more about ILUC at www.indianalanduse.org .

Health Access & Privacy Alliance (HAPA) Annual Report
by Erin Kelley

Areas of Report

• HAPA & League Positions on Reproductive Rights
• Prevention Now Rally
• Legislation

HAPA & League Positions
Since 1989, the Health Access & Privacy Alliance (HAPA) has advocated that reproductive choice in Indiana must be maintained and strengthened.  Our member organizations join together because we recognize that reproductive choice comprises more than abortion, and includes access to contraception, sex education, and regular health visits, as well as the health and safety of women, children, and families.

Statement of Position on Public Policy on Reproductive Choices (January, 1983):
The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that public policy in a pluralistic society must affirm the constitutional right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices.

Statement of Position on Health Care (April, 1993):
Every U.S. resident should have access to a basic level of care that includes the prevention of disease, health promotion and education, primary care (including prenatal and reproductive health), acute care, long-term care and mental health care.

Prevention Now Rally
HAPA, under the leadership of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, sponsored a “Prevention Now” rally at the Indiana Statehouse on February 8, 2007.  The rally attracted over 300 attendees and emphasized the need for commonsense measures to help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in Indiana.

The state board supported a $600 donation to help underwrite the costs of the rally and the League also produced flyers highlighting its positions on reproductive rights.  Leaguers from across the state supported the rally by sponsoring “scholarships” for bus tickets, attending the rally themselves, and by writing/calling their elected officials in support of the legislative goals of “Prevention Now.”

These legislative goals included:

1. Patient Protection Act -- Pharmacies, not pharmacists, must ensure patient’s
   prescriptions are filled and may not confiscate prescriptions such as birth
   control or Plan B (Emergency Contraception)
   
   
2. Parents’ Right to Know Act -- Schools must tell parents what is … and is not
   … being taught in sex ed classes)
   
   
3. Birth Control Protection Act -- Birth control is not abortion and the state of
   Indiana will not declare or regulate it as such.

To date, none of these measures have been adopted by the General Assembly.  However, Sen. Sue Errington successfully inserted a Birth Control Protection Amendment into SB135 before the bill died in committee.  (Many Leaguers e-mailed their senators regarding this amendment as well as submitting editorials to their local papers.)

Legislation
One of the primary duties of HAPA is to monitor and plan action on abortion-related bills in the General Assembly. 

This session we saw the introduction of bills such as:

• SB172 (Delph & Walker) which proposed to amend Indiana’s informed consent law to require a doctor to inform a pregnant woman that the fetus may feel pain and that human life begins at conception.  (Later amended into SB135 which died in committee.)
  
  
• SB221 (Kruse) would have required the Indiana State Department of Health to establish physical plant standards for birth centers and abortion clinics before July 1, 2011.  (This bill died in committee as it was shown to be redundant to laws that already exist.)
  
  
• SB119 (Drozda) would have required high schools to include instruction regarding human fetal development into their health education classes.  (Later amended into HB1059 – a Holocaust education bill – but was eventually dropped.)
  
  
• SB117 (Drozda) provided that a person may not be required, as a condition of employment, training, pay, promotion, or privileges, dispense medical devices or drugs that might produce an abortion or birth control devices or medications.  (Died in committee.)
  
  
• SB194 (Miller) was the only “bad” abortion bill to move out of the Senate (37-10) and as of April 3, 2007 is still awaiting a hearing in the House.  This bill would require physicians who perform abortions to 1.) have privileges at a hospital in the county or the adjacent county to where the abortion was performed and 2.) notify the patient of the hospital location where the patient can receive follow-up care by the physician who performed the abortion.  (Given that Indiana only has 9 abortion clinics and abortion providers work in different clinics across the state, this bill would effectively end abortion services in Indiana.)
  
  
• SB135 (Miller) was probably the most watched bill of the session.  The key components of this bill were that it sought to define contraception, provide a “fetal pain” informed consent clause, and declared that “fertilization of a human ovum by a human sperm immediately begins to divide and grow as human physical life.”  While these provisions are antithetical to League positions, the League did support Sen. Errington’s birth control protection amendment to SB135.  Eventually, this bill was not called for a full Senate vote.
  

Fortunately, many anti-choice bills did not survive the committee process this session.  However, neither did many non-abortion related bills once anti-choice amendments were added to them.

• HB1484 (Sudan Divestment), HB1464 (Kidney Dialysis), and HB1459 (Bias Crimes) all died in committee or were withdrawn by their authors when unrelated abortion amendments were added. 
  
  
• Late in session, after SJR7 failed to pass out of the Rules and Legislative Procedures Committee, ten anti-choice amendments were added onto the following bills, all of which failed to move out of committee:
  
  
• SB 199 (Adoption and surrogacy matters) had three anti-choice amendments added.  One of the amendments (Walorski) defines fetal viability as “at least twenty (20) week of age (from the first day of the mother’s most recent menstrual cycle)” and states that no additional medical evaluation is required to establish fetal viability after 20 weeks.  Rep. Harris authored two amendments that would affect the informed consent law concerning abortion by requiring statements that life begins at conception and that the fetus might feel pain.
  
  
• SB 207 (Medical adverse event reporting) Rep. Stutzman authored an anti-choice amendment that would require physical plant standards for abortion clinics.  This is the same language that was used in 2006.  There are currently 12 pages of code and 38 pages of ISDH regulations which are more stringent standards than those listed in the amendment. 
  
  
• SB 335 (Professions and occupations) This bill concerns professional licensing and has had two anti-choice amendments added by Rep. Walorski.  The first would require that physicians performing abortions have hospital privileges in the county or in a county adjacent to where the abortion is performed.  The second amendment would require that anyone performing an abortion be licensed as a “termination of pregnancy specialist” and pay a $20,000 fee to obtain the license.  (Performing an abortion without this license would be a Class A misdemeanor.)  This amendment also establishes the “Young Woman’s Advancement Grant.”  This grant would provide educational funding to a woman enrolled in an approved post-secondary institution that has a 2 year or longer program or a hospital that operates a nursing diploma program, to be paid for by the licensure fee.

This tactic of adding amendment to non-abortion related bills is not likely to end.  Vigilance on seemingly benign bills must be maintained as strongly as it is on bills overtly dealing with abortion.  These actions not only threaten women’s health, but subvert the democratic process and dismantle legislative efforts that seek to improve the lives of Hoosiers.

Conclusions
Throughout this session, I have tried to follow the course of these bills and the political maneuvers surrounding them.  I have updated the League’s Reproductive Rights e-mail list and have asked them to contact their legislators on numerous occasions.  Feedback from the list indicates that many Leaguers do promptly write or call their legislators.  Some of these individuals have written me off-line asking for additional information on bills and I have done my best to provide that information.