Israel's Politics -- Not Religious Laws -- Put Women At Back Of Bus During Pence's Visit To Israel

On Pence's trip to Israel, women journalists like Andrea Mitchell were constantly required to stand behind the male journalists. No exceptions. Netanyahu's security detail made sure that women towed the imaginary line. At the Western Wall, women journalists were on the other side of a fence, peering in.  The image is taken by a woman journalist, who basically seeks the backs of men. 

Tal Schneider, a prominent Israeli journalist, tweeted: “Separation at the Western Wall. The women stuck in isolation and cannot photograph, work. Women journalists are second-class citizens. The American women photographers are frantically yelling at the representatives of the White House. #PenceFence reported The Washington Post.

Reporter Noga Tarnopolsky called the situation “a disgrace.”

“I have covered many visits; this was an aberrant first,” she tweeted. 

The “Pence Fence” fiasco happened the day after a Finnish female journalist in Israel was reportedly strip searched and told to remove her bra during a security check. The journalist is of Palestinian descent. According to reports, she refused to comply and was barred from visiting the prime minister’s office to cover Pence’s arrival on Monday.

Haaretz reports that the "last-minute public relations black eye" was avoidable. "It seemed that the American embassy in Israel, which set up the press arrangements in cooperation with the rabbinical authorities at the Wall had paid little attention to the grumbling of female journalists back in May, when U.S. President Donald Trump and his family visited the wall. During that visit, too, women and men, including journalists, were completely separated, the women restricted behind what is known as a “mechitza” - a barrier separating the sexes, intended to allow each gender to focus on praying undistracted."

When the Trump contingent visited the Western Wall, the group included Orthodox Jews Jared Kushner and Ivanka and the custom of separation was required. However, writes Haaretz, there was no need to separate the women journalists during the Mike Pence visit because the entire site had been cleared for the VIP visitors.  ". . . while Karen and Mike Pence may be religious and used the time at the Wall to pray - there are no strictures on Evangelical Christians requiring them to pray only in the company of their own sex.

It's pure politics, writes Haaretz, citing the ongoing battle between ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Jewish feminist group "Women of the Wall," together with the Reform and Conservative movements, locked in an ongoing battle over policy and procedures at the Western Wall. 

We'll see if women are blotted out of the Israeli photos, as Hillary Clinton was from the US situation room the night Bin Laden died. Now THAT was fake news!!! Then again, if they are always behind the men -- on the entire Israeli trip -- then a mere crop takes women out of the scene. "

Mary Alice Carter Leads New Equity Forward, Monitoring Women's Reproductive Health Care Rights At HHS

Valerie Huber (L), VP Mike Pence, Teresa Manning (R)

Teresa Manning, the controversial official in charge of the Title X federal family planning program, was escorted from the Department of Health and Human Services premises 10 days ago. Manning's initial HHS appointment was a gut punch to ALL Dem women activists and some Republicans, too.

I can imagine Sen. Murkowski and Collin registering major complaints that her office was running more than two months behind schedule in approving states' family-planning grants. That's because Manning doesn't believe in family planning unless it's done naturally with temperature taking and abstinence. Imagine that in 2018 America, Trump is determined to take away women's right to birth control. 

Valerie Huber is not much better for women, but at least Huber knows that she, too, can get the boot by taking away women's access to birth control. Acting Huber is a social conservative who has actively supported the failed abstinence-only sex educations programs in schools. She is equally skeptical about birth control. 

Hearings opened for on Jan. 9 for HHS nominee Alex Azar to replace Tom Price as HHS Secretary. Women's health groups launched a full-scale confrontation around women's reproductive health -- clearly under assault by the Trump administration. The issues go far beyond abortion rights and into contraception. Trump has stacked HHS with women who don't believe in birth control. 

Mary Alice Carter Leads Equity Forward

A new group Equity Forward will be acting as a watchdog focused on reproductive health care at the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Mary Alice Carter, the executive director of Equity Forward, which officially launched Friday, said the nonpartisan group will hold accountable organizations and individuals they argue limit access to reproductive health care.

Its first project, HHS watch, will include a full audit of decision makers at the agency, investigating their public positions relating to reproductive health, their backgrounds and alliances, and then monitoring their actions at HHS.

“Americans deserve to know when their government is hiring people with backgrounds antithetical to the mission of the offices in which they serve,” Carter said.

“The reason we exist is because there hasn’t been an organization like this up until now, and there are ways that organizations, entities and individuals have been able to act without full transparency.”

Equity Forward takes issue with political appointees at HHS that have worked for anti-abortion groups or have made critical comments in the past about some types of contraception.

“Instead of hiring qualified public health professionals, the administration has put anti-contraception political activists in charge of four million women’s birth control access,” Carter said.