Month: March 2019

Several Republican-led state legislatures are advocating for women to gain over-the-counter access to birth control in what they say is an effort to reduce unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

State legislatures in Arkansas and Iowa, for example, are working on legislation that would allow women older than 18 the ability to receive birth control from a pharmacist rather than going first to a doctor for a prescription. The measures are seeing bipartisanship support in those states and come after similar laws have passed in nearly a dozen other states.

​Arkansas legislation

Arkansas state Representative Aaron Pilkington, a Republican, said he started working on the bill after seeing “about a 15 percent decrease of teen births” after other states passed similar legislation. Arkansas consistently has one of the highest birth rates among teenagers in the country.

Pilkington said support for the bill “in many ways, it’s very generational. … I find that a lot of younger people and women are really in favor of this, especially mothers.”

According to the Oral Contraceptive (OCs) Over the Counter (OTC) Working Group, a reproductive rights group, more than 100 countries, including Russia, much of South America and countries in Africa, allow access to birth control without a prescription. 

Women are required to get a doctor’s prescription to obtain and renew birth control in most of the U.S., much of Europe, Canada and Australia, according to the reproductive rights group.

Pilkington, who identifies as a “pro-life legislator,” said he brought the bill forward partly as an effort to counter unwanted pregnancies and abortions. The bill would require a doctor’s visit about every two years to renew the prescription.

Rural residents

Arkansas has a population of about 3 million people, a third of whom live in rural areas. Pilkington said the bill would likely benefit women who reside in rural areas or those who have moved to new cities and aren’t under a doctor’s care yet.

“A lot of times when they’re on the pill and they run out, they’ve gotta get a doctor’s appointment, and the doctor says, ‘I can’t see you for two months,’” he said. “Some people have to drive an hour and a half to see their PCP (primary care physician) or OB-GYN (obstetrician-gynecologist), so this makes a lot of sense.”

What Pilkington is proposing is not new. In 2012, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists endorsed the idea of making birth control available without a prescription. Today, at least 11 other states have passed legislation allowing for patients to go directly to the pharmacist, with some caveats.

In October, ahead of a tight midterm race, Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds raised a few eyebrows when she announced she would prioritize over-the-counter access to birth control in her state. Like Pilkington, she cited countering abortion as a main driver behind the proposed legislation. The bill closely models much of the language used in another Republican-sponsored bill In Utah that passed last year with unanimous support.

The planned Iowa legislation comes after the Republican-led state Legislature passed a bill in 2017 that rejected $3 million in federal funds for family-planning centers like Planned Parenthood.

The loss of federal funds forced Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit organization that provides health care and contraception for women, to close four of its 12 clinics in the state.

Since then, Jamie Burch Elliott, public affairs manager of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland in Iowa, said that anecdotal evidence shows that sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies have gone up.

“With family planning, it takes time to see the impacts, so there are long-term studies going on to really study the impact of this,” said Burch Elliott. “Right away, we saw STI (sexually transmitted infections) and STD (sexually transmitted diseases) rates go up, particularly chlamydia and gonorrhea. As far as unintended pregnancy rates, we are hearing that they are rising, although the data is not out yet.”

Pro-life pushback

So far the Iowa legislation has received some pushback, mostly from a few pro-life groups.

The Iowa Right to Life organization has remained neutral on the issue of birth control, but the Iowa Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the bishops of Iowa, and Iowans for LIFE, a nonprofit anti-abortion organization, have come out against the bill, citing concerns that birth control should not be administered without a visit to a physician.

Maggie DeWitte, executive director of Iowans for LIFE, also pointed out that oral contraception can be an “abortifacient [that] sometimes cause abortions,” challenging Reynolds’ motivation for introducing the bill.

On the other hand, Iowa family-planning organizations and Democratic legislators are mostly on board.

“Policywise, I think this is really good,” said Heather Matson, a state representative of a district located just outside the state capital, Des Moines. She appreciated that insurance will still cover birth control, but took issue with the age restriction, saying she would like to see an option for people younger than 18. “Is it exactly the bill that I would have written, if given the opportunity? Not exactly.”

While Matson represents one of the fastest-growing districts in the country, she pointed to the number of “health care deserts” in rural Iowa, where a shortage of OB-GYNs is leading to the closure of some maternity wards.

Like Planned Parenthood’s Burch Elliott, Matson agreed that this bill would be just one step in providing more access to birth control for women in rural parts of the state.

“Even before Planned Parenthood was defunded, there wasn’t great access to birth control in Iowa to begin with,” Burch Elliott said. “Having said that, [this bill] is not a solution. Pharmacists are never going to be a replacement for Planned Parenthood, for example, where you’ll get STI and STD screenings, and any other cancer screenings or other preventive care that you might need.”

Regardless of whether the bills pass in Des Moines or Little Rock, Arkansas Representative Pilkington expects other states to follow suit.

“As the times have changed and you have a lot of conservative states like Tennessee, Arkansas, Utah (pass this legislation), I think it makes it way less of a partisan issue” and more of a good governance issue, he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see other states kind of pushing this as well. Especially when they see the success that other states are having with this.”
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A groundbreaking new exhibit at the Newseum in Washington marks the 50th anniversary of a police raid on a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, and highlights key moments in the modern gay rights movement in America that many believe was born out of that historic event. For some members of the LGBTQ community, the exhibit is deeply personal. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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Death row inmates Patrick Murphy and Domineque Ray each turned to courts recently with a similar plea: Halt my execution if the state won’t let a spiritual adviser of my faith accompany me into the execution chamber.

Both cases wound up at the Supreme Court. And while the justices overrode a lower court and allowed Ray’s execution to go forward in Alabama in February, they gave Murphy, a Texas inmate, a temporary reprieve Thursday night.

What the justices wrote suggests the opposite results came down to one thing: timing. Ray, a Muslim, didn’t ask to be joined by his spiritual adviser soon enough, while Murphy, a Buddhist, did.

​Issue raised too late

Spencer Hahn, one of Ray’s attorneys, said in a telephone interview Friday that he hoped his client had helped bring attention to the fact some inmates are treated differently when it comes to religious advisers in the execution chamber.

“I’d like to think Mr. Ray’s death was not in vain,” he said.

Hahn said the Supreme Court’s action in Murphy’s case sends a message to other corrections departments: “The Supreme Court doesn’t want to see people mistreated like this in their final moments.”

Ray, 42, was sentenced to death for the 1995 rape and murder of 15-year-old Tiffany Harville. His attorneys argued that Alabama’s execution procedure violated the Constitution by favoring Christian inmates over Muslims. A Christian chaplain employed by the prison is typically present in the execution chamber during a lethal injection, but the state would not let Ray’s imam in the chamber, arguing only prison employees are allowed for security reasons.

A federal appeals court halted Ray’s execution, but the Supreme Court reversed that decision and let it take place Feb. 7. The court’s five conservative justices said Ray waited until just 10 days before his execution to raise the issue. The court’s four liberal justices dissented. Justice Elena Kagan wrote that Ray’s request to have his imam by his side was denied Jan. 23 and he sued five days later. Ray’s imam watched the execution from an adjoining witness room.

Murphy’s plea was similar. The 57-year-old, who was among a group of inmates who escaped from a Texas prison in 2000 and then committed numerous robberies, including one where a police officer was fatally shot, became a Buddhist while in prison. He asked that his spiritual adviser, a Buddhist priest, accompany him into the execution chamber. Texas officials said no.

They argued that only chaplains who had been extensively vetted by the prison system were allowed in the chamber. While Christian and Muslim chaplains were available, no Buddhist priest was.

Religious rights

Murphy’s lawyers argued that violated their client’s rights. Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch would have allowed Murphy’s execution to proceed. But a majority of the Supreme Court said the state can’t carry out Murphy’s execution at this time unless it permits Murphy’s spiritual adviser or another Buddhist reverend the state chooses to accompany him in the execution chamber.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel said Thursday that the state would review the ruling to determine how to respond.

Speaking just for himself, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote “that Murphy made his request to the State in a sufficiently timely manner, one month before the scheduled execution.” No other justice wrote separately.

Kavanaugh said the state has two options going forward: allow all inmates to have a religious adviser of their religion in the execution room, or allow religious advisers only in the viewing room, not the execution room.

Timing or something more

Robert Dunham, the head of the Death Penalty Information Center, said it’s possible something besides timing was considered by the justices.

“The more centrist conservatives on the court may have been stung by the overwhelming criticism they received from people across the political and religious and ideological spectrum” following Ray’s execution, he said.

It was not clear how many other inmates might find themselves in a similar situation. Only eight states, including Texas and Alabama, carried out executions last year.

But law professor James A. Sonne, whose Stanford clinic has studied the issue of chaplains’ presence at executions, said most of the 30 states with the death penalty allow a chaplain of the inmate’s choice to be present at the execution, though that doesn’t necessarily mean in the death chamber. He called Thursday’s ruling a “sea change.”
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The United States is calling on China to stop what it calls its growing oppression of people of faith, noting the detention of a million ethnic Uighur Muslims. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has the story from the State Department.
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Twenty years ago, Yang Li left northeast China in the prime of her life and crossed the Pacific Ocean borne by her own American dream.

She became an American citizen, founded a spa and massage business in Florida, participated in community activities, attended events where American politicians appeared, and posted on social media photos of herself with U.S. President Donald Trump.

That photo opportunity ignited a media firestorm around Yang amid accusations that she sold Chinese businessmen access to American politicians, actions that may have violated the U.S. campaign finance laws.

Robert Kraft’s arrest

Yang’s name surfaced in the U.S. media March 8. That was days after police in Florida arrested Robert Kraft, the owner of American football’s New England Patriots, on Feb. 22, on allegations that he was soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida. Kraft has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Yang told NBC News on March 20 that she sold the spa seven years ago.

At the time Kraft was arrested, Yang ran a public relations business that provided opportunities for Chinese businessmen to have access to Trump at his Florida hotel and golf course. Yang’s company, GY US Investments LLC, also helped U.S. firms “expand their brand image in the modern Chinese marketplace.” Although the GY US website is down, the business remains open, according to public records in Palm Beach County.

The Miami Herald reported a trail of campaign donations to Trump funneled by Yang through family, her work, and business associates.

Yang told NBC News she does not know Trump despite the selfie she posted after a Super Bowl football championship party Feb. 3 at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club.

“I love Americans,” Yang told NBC, adding that she immigrated in 1999 and is now a U.S. citizen. “I love our president. I don’t do anything wrong.”

Suggestions of espionage

But media speculation about her ties to the Chinese government has dogged Yang since the days after Kraft’s arrest, as have suggestions that she may be a spy.

The result is that Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress have asked the FBI to launch criminal and anti-espionage investigations into Yang’s businesses and activities.

Yang, 45, has in turn used the media to say the American institutions she has long cherished are unfairly targeting her. She has scoffed at the spy charges and said she had never been involved with prostitution and did not violate any laws when she brought guests to Trump events.

“I’m a Republican,” she told NBC. “I am Chinese. That’s why the Democrats are investigating me.”

Yang took the English name Cindy, an homage to the American supermodel turned businesswoman, Cindy Crawford.

“I like her,” Yang told NBC News.

Entering the political fray

Yang has worked as a journalist, ran a media company and an art promotion agency, sold medical supplies, and worked in the spa/massage industry long before entering the American political fray.

Through Yang’s lawyer, Voice of America has requested the opportunity to interview Yang. Although no decision has been reached, the invitation remains open.

Yang was active in Chinese political and social circles in South Florida.

Yang served as president of the Florida branch of the Chinese Cheongsam Association, which celebrates the traditional form-fitting Chinese dress, also known as a qipao. On the website of her consulting company, Yang said she was vice president of the Miami branch of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, USA. The association was established in 2016.

According to Chinese media reports, Yang participated in the local chapter of the Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China (CPPRC), which was founded in 2016. The organization is believed to have close ties to Beijing.

Yang also set up a non-governmental organization, the Women’s Charity Foundation, in 2015.

Suddenly a public figure

Outside southern Florida, Yang wasn’t a public figure until she became national news.

Cliff Zhonggang Li, executive director of the National Committee of Asian American Republicans (Asian GOP) has worked with Yang. 

“Yang Li has tried a lot of business,” he told VOA. “She’s a very energetic and capable person, and I think she’s always on the lookout for new opportunities.”

Li Zhonggang first met Yang at a May 2015 cheongsam association event she had organized. In the midst of founding the Asian GOP, Li Zhonggang pegged Yang as a people person with organizational skills.

“I thought it would be very good if her energy could help us to promote Chinese-American political participation,” Li Zhonggang said.

Yang helped mobilize more than 200 Chinese-Americans to attend a June 15 rally where Jeb Bush announced his candidacy for president. Asian GOP supporters occupied VIP seats as the group made its debut.

Volunteering as fundraiser

At other Republican Party events, Yang met Karyn Turk, who was Mrs. Florida 2016, a conservative commentator and a radio host.

“I found her to be a very friendly person, who did not have English as the first language,” Turk told VOA. “So she was kind of hard to communicate with, but she always seemed to be very friendly with a smile on her face.”

Li Zhonggang said that after the Bush rally, Yang volunteered to be a fundraiser for the Asian GOP and act as an outreach director for its Florida chapter.

Now Karyn Turk, and her husband, Evan Turk, are respectively Yang’s spokesperson and lawyer, helping Yang deal with what Karyn Turk calls “another media hype.” Li Zhonggang believes that a media “witch hunt” targeting Trump ensnared an innocent Yang.

The Turks and others who know Yang told VOA she has become caught in a web of negative exposure and false speculation. American political insiders say it’s not difficult to make contact with Trump, or other politicians, and that people who are politically active or who make donations, often have opportunities to meet high-ranking officials.

However, Li Zhonggang, of the Asian GOP, said some Chinese-Americans use photo ops with political figures to improve their visibility in the community as a way of making money for themselves.

Amid the publicity, Li Zhonggang’s organization has severed ties with Yang. He said that this is not because Yang did anything wrong, but because his organization was overwhelmed by the media “bombardment.”

​Investigation sought

Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, asked FBI Director Christopher Wray last week to launch a criminal and counterintelligence investigation into Yang.

In a letter, House Democrats such as Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, wrote: “Ms. Yang’s activities may only be those of an unscrupulous actor allegedly selling access to politicians for profit, her activities also could permit adversary governments or their agents access to these same politicians to acquire potential material for blackmail or other even more nefarious purposes.”

The FBI has not commented.

Yang’s attorney, Evan Turk, said his client’s reputation had been damaged and she is another Trump supporter who’s become a media casualty.

Yang said that after the exposure, she couldn’t eat or sleep well and lost 15 pounds because, she told NBC News, “I’m so scared.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump is on the offensive now that the two-year investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. national election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign ended with no immediate backlash for him. VOA’s Michael Brown reports, Trump is paying special attention to Democrats who seem not ready to accept he has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who is in Beijing, posted on Twitter Friday that he has held “constructive” talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.

A new deal could possibly end hefty tariffs both countries have imposed on each other during the last eight months. The United States has taxed $250 billion of Chinese imports while China has imposed levies on about $110 billion of U.S. goods.

The United States is demanding wide changes to Chinese industrial policy, including an end to large-scale state intervention in markets, subsidies for various industries and the alleged theft of American technology.

U.S. President Donald Trump said last week he was confident the United States could strike a deal with China, but added, “If this isn’t a great deal, I won’t make a deal.”

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow says the talks are not time-dependent and could last weeks or even months.
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Now that we know the conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, how does that reset the U.S. political landscape looking ahead to the presidential election in 2020?

According to the summary provided by Attorney General William Barr, Mueller found no conspiracy or collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.

But Mueller did not make a judgment on whether Trump sought to obstruct justice in connection with the Russia investigation. According to Barr, while Mueller’s report “did not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

In the end, it was Barr who decided that the evidence Mueller developed on obstruction was not sufficient to move the matter forward.

At the Capitol this week, Trump was said to be in a triumphant mood in the wake of Barr’s summary of the Mueller report.

“It was proven very strongly no collusion, no obstruction, no nothing,” Trump told reporters before his meeting with Republican senators. “We are doing so well. We have never, probably, had a time of prosperity like this. It has been great.”

WATCH: How Mueller Report Could Affect Presidential Campaign

​Time for a reset

Trump’s Republican allies now believe the president has an opportunity to reset his political agenda.

“You are probably stronger today than you have been any time in your presidency. This cloud has been removed,” Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters. “The question for you is, how are you going to use it? What are you going to do?” That remains an open question.

Trump has talked about political retribution for those behind the Russia probe.

“There are a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things, very bad things. I would say treasonous things against our country,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.

But political strategist Karl Rove, a former key adviser to former President George W. Bush, is among those warning the president not to devote too much time rehashing the Russia probe.

“The president should focus his time, voice and tweets on the roaring economy, impressive job creation and bigger paychecks,” Rove wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

​Democrats press for full report

Democrats remain focused on demanding that the full Mueller report be released to the public, especially given the lingering questions about why Mueller did not come to a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday that she found Barr’s summary letter to Congress “condescending” and “arrogant.”

Pelosi added, “No thank you, Mr. Attorney General, we do not need your interpretation. Show us the report and we can draw our own conclusions.”

It was a call echoed by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

“Our main thrust on this issue is simply transparency. Release the report, then come to conclusions,” he said.

​A boost for Trump

Analysts believe the Mueller report finding of no collusion with Russia is a political boost for the president as he heads into the 2020 presidential election cycle.

“For President Trump, the preliminary reports on the Mueller report are all very, very positive,” said American University expert Bill Sweeney. “But the questions remain about what is in the Mueller report and how will the administration release that information to the Congress and the American people.”

Sweeney predicted that the fallout from the report could be limited as the 2020 election draws closer.

“I think President Trump’s base stays with President Trump. I think those opposed to President Trump remain opposed to President Trump. So far, the Mueller report has done nothing to change the hearts or minds or soul of any undecided voter going into this election,” he said.

Recent polling seems to back that up. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found the president’s approval rating ticked up from 39 to 43 percent.

The latest Morning Consult and Politco poll found the president’s approval at 42 percent, with 55 percent disapproving, virtually the same as the week before.

And the most recent Quinnipiac University poll found Trump’s approval at 39 percent, with 55 percent disapproving. That was little changed from earlier in the month.

The polls also show that Democrats may be on firm ground in demanding the Mueller report be released to the public. Eighty-two percent in the Morning Consult-Politico survey said the full Mueller report should be released, as did 84 percent in the latest Quinnipiac University poll.

​Focus on 2020

To many Democrats, the outcome of the Mueller report suggests they need to focus on beating the president at the polls in November 2020 instead of a long-shot effort at impeachment.

Even before the Mueller report findings were released by Barr, voters in general seemed disinclined toward impeaching Trump. A Quinnipiac poll in early March found Americans opposed to impeachment by a margin of 59 to 35 percent.

So now the political focus for both parties will shift strongly to the election contest next year.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is the latest Democrat to officially join a crowded field of presidential contenders, and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet says he is interested in running, as well.

In the end, Democrats could field between 15 and 20 White House contenders in the year ahead, all of whom see Trump as vulnerable.

“You would not see this many candidates running if they did not think that they had a real shot at unseating an incumbent for the first time since Bill Clinton did it in 1992 to (President) George H.W. Bush,” said George Washington University expert Matt Dallek.

But given that history favors presidents seeking a second term and that voters see the economy as strong, Democrats should be wary, said University of Virginia analyst Larry Sabato.

“Democrats have to find a way to break up that Electoral College majority that Trump got. There are ways to do it, reasonable ways to do it. But it is not even close to being assured,” Sabato said via Skype.

In the wake of Mueller’s findings this week, Sabato and colleague Kyle Kondik summarized the political landscape in the weekly political newsletter known as Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

“2020 should be a close, competitive high-turnout election with both sides energized. The fate of the Trump presidency is on track to be decided at the ballot box, as opposed to a courtroom or impeachment proceeding.”
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