Between The Lines - Sarah Lipton-Lubet: New anti-abortion legislation denies women emergency abortion services (Week Ending Oct. 28, 2011)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

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House Passes Bill that Denies Women Emergency Abortion Services

RealAudio MP3

Posted Oct. 19, 2011

Interview with Sarah Lipton-Lubet, policy counsel, American Civil Liberties Union, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

The U.S. House of Representatives just passed another in a series of anti-abortion bills that has been characterized by women's and civil liberties groups as one of the most extreme yet from the Republican-controlled body. The measure would allow hospitals to deny life-saving care to women in need of emergency abortion services. It would also deny women insurance coverage for abortion services under the new health care system, taking away insurance coverage that millions of women already have. According to the American Journal of Public Health, Catholic hospitals already have a history of ignoring their obligation to provide emergency care that may involve performing abortions. In 1979, an Arizona bishop excommunicated a nun who authorized an abortion procedure for a woman who otherwise might have died of pulmonary hypertension at a Catholic hospital in Phoenix.

The main sponsor of the bill was Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., who was a co-sponsor of anti-abortion legislation known as the Stupak-Pitts amendment to President Obama's health care reform legislation. Pitt’s bill, HR 358, the Protect Life Act, passed in the House by a large majority – 251 to 172 – and now goes to the Senate.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Sarah Lipton-Lubet, policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union. She describes what the bill would do and explains why the ACLU is involved in opposing the measure.

SARAH LIPTON-LUBET: It's one in a line of anti-choice measures that the anti-choice leadership of the House has been pushing in an unrelenting fashion this year. But this bill in particular is both unprecedented and unconscionable. It literally puts women's lives on the line in a way we haven't seen before.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What are some examples of what would happen if this bill were to pass?

SARAH LIPTON-LUBET: Current law requires that patients in medical emergiences receive appropriate medical treatment, including abortion care if that's what is medically indicated for them. And this bill – the so-called Protect Life Act, actually threatens women's lives – it would allow a hospital to ignore those essential emergency protections. So that means taht a women could show up at a hospital, mid-emergency, her health and/or her life under serious threat. The care that she needs is an emergency termination of her pregnancy. Her treating physician knows that's the care that she needs, wants to provide that care, and the hospital could say no.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Is this different than what Catholic hospitals do now?

SARAH LIPTON-LUBET: This bill is designed to give license to those practices, which are currently not permitted.

BETWEEN THE LINES: And what do you think its chances are in the Senate?

SARAH LIPTON-LUBET: We certainly hope that outrageous legislation like this wouldn't get a minute of time in the Senate. But it shouldn't have come to the House floor in the first place. It's insulting to women and to their families and it would be almost unbelievable if the threat to women weren't so real.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Has Obama spoken out on this yet? I imagine he would veto it if it got to his desk.

SARAH LIPTON-LUBET: The administration issued a veto threat.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Sarah Lipton-Lubet, I first heard about this bill not from my usual sources, like NARAL Pro Choice America, the National Organization for Women or Planned Parenthood, but from the ACLU. How does abortion fit into the ACLU's mission?

SARAH LIPTON-LUBET: For decades, ACLU has been centrally involved in the pro-choice movement. We've been involved in litigation in almost every case having to do with reproductive rights that's come before the Supreme Court, and we're actively involved in D.C. trying to protect the right to privacy that protects women's access to abortion care and, in particular, when it comes to institutions refusing to provide appropriate medical care or information on religious grounds. About a year ago, you may recall the story of a woman in Arizona, the mother of several children, who had a life-threatening condition, was at a Catholic-affiliated hospital. The ethics board there permitted her to have the abortion care she needed to protect her life, and as a result of that the staff that signed that approval was demoted and the hospital lost its Catholic status. Well, that was a story that got some national attention, and in the wake of that, the ACLU reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services to file a complaint and say, "Department of Health and Human Services, you need to make sure that hospitals are informed of their obligations under emergency care laws, such as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, you need to make sure that hospitals are following these protections and giving women the care that they need."

BETWEEN THE LINES: There's another major problem with this legislation regarding insurance coverage of abortion. It's the reappearance of the infamous Stupak amendment that was defeated before Obama's health care reform passed.

SARAH LIPTON-LUBET: In addition to creating this dangerous loophole in emergency protection laws, this bill would effectively eliminate insurance coverage for abortion in plans sold on the new marketplaces created by health care reform. Most private insurance plans already cover abortion care – the standard of care – and this would result in depriving millions of women of the coverage they already have.

For more information on the ACLU, visit ACLU.org. To contact NARAL’s Washington, D.C. office call (202) 973-3000 or visit their website at NARAL.org