ANNA NEVENIC ON WOMEN'S ISSUES

By Anna Nevenic, RN

In this position paper, I answer questions regarding my stands on women's issues that are frequently asked by people I meet. Compare my answers with those of my opponents. You will see that issues that affect women are very important to me.

A. Reproductive Rights

1. What is your position on freedom of choice?

Freedom of choice is central to the progress of women. A woman must have an absolute, unrestricted right to the use of her body.

2. What is your stand on public funding for abortion and reproductive health care access?

Unrestricted access to the full range of reproductive health services should be in all health insurance packages regardless of funding source. These should be treated as normal and routine services. Legislation is needed to assure that all women lacking health insurance have access at a minimum to abortion and reproductive health care. (By the way, men also need reproductive health services.) Any proposal for universal insurance for all California residents must include abortion and reproductive health care access.

On a related issue, I am concerned about increasing numbers of hospital conversions from private not-for-profit to religious auspices, and the subsequent decline in the availability of abortion and reproductive health services. I support legislation requiring health plans to tell potential subscribers -- up front, loud, and clear -- when hospitals do not offer the full range of reproductive services. Women should know, before their time of greatest vulnerability, that a health plan and/or its providers do not offer services they may need at a critical time in their life. This is fundamental to free choice. Indeed, one must question the values of health plans and hospitals that do not fully disclose such vital information.

3. Do you support any restrictions on a woman's right to choose?

No. A woman's right to choose is fundamental.

B. Affirmative Action. What does "affirmative action" mean to you and what specifically would you do to promote this concept should you be elected to this office?

Affirmative action attempts to achieve equity for members of groups that have suffered discrimination. Examples are women, disabled, older workers, race/ethnic minorities, gays/lesbians/transgendered. In 1996, I opposed Proposition 209, which prohibits "racial preference." Changes were not called for. Affirmative action has served us well. The subsequent sharp decline in certain race/ethnic admissions to California's public colleges and universities is unacceptable. I support legislative efforts to guarantee admission to the top 10% of graduates from every California high school. If we must live with Proposition 209, another possible remedy may be to develop a system of preference based on socioeconomic status or community "risk", since that so often is correlated with race/ethnic disparities. Helping children in high-risk communities to seek a brighter future is good for California.

C. Child Care. What should be the role of government if any, in expanding child care facilities.

Children are the most neglected segment of California society. Providing safe, healthy, and developmentally appropriate day care when parents cannot care for them at home is fundamental to showing children that we value them. We need more facilities for children who are sick and whose parents work nights and evenings. Expanding high quality day care to make it available to all California children is critical. To do their best work on the job, parents need the peace of mind that can come only by offering sufficient numbers of safe day care centers with sufficient numbers of staff well-trained in child development.

Child care workers have high rates of serious infectious diseases like hepatitis because they care for too many children. Their pay is too low and too poorly benefited to attract and retain qualified staff. These workers are disproportionately female and this ties directly into issues of comparable worth/pay equity, earning a living wage, and universal health coverage.

D. Comparable Worth/Pay Equity

1. What does comparable worth mean to you?

Comparable worth is achieved when people with the same training, experience and ability receive the same pay for jobs with similar or comparable complexity. It is fundamental to achieving economic parity for many individual members of disadvantaged groups.

2. If you support the concept of comparable worth, how will you implement it if elected to this office? Be specific.

One of my opponents has said that people earn what they deserve. I do not believe that. Primarily because of prejudice, bias, or history, some groups are disproportionately affected by the lack of comparable pay for comparable work. Low income workers -- particularly women, race/ethnic minorities, and the disabled -- are most affected. Because of the breadth and depth of the problem, we would make great strides in achieving comparable pay for comparable worth by lifting the economic floor with respect to pay and benefits.

Two crucial elements are universal health coverage and living wage legislation. It is not right to deny hard working, low income parents these core pieces of family well-being. Parents cannot work two or more low-income jobs and have time to raise their children. Too many sick parents and children go to hospitals for care because they are uninsured and lack access to primary health services. No society that purports to value children and families can prosper in the long run if it continues to deny such basic elements of family well-being.

In addition, I would support other legislation to implement other comparable worth policies that would have the effect of reducing disparities among and between people. When such public policies are in effect (universal healthcare, living wage, comparable pay for comparable work), all employers are equally affected, no employer is at a competitive disadvantage, and all families benefit.

E. Rape and Domestic Violence. How would you address the issues of rape, assault, and domestic violence if you are elected?

Rape and domestic violence emerge out of family environments where the rights of women and children are not valued. I am a registered nurse who worked in large urban hospitals. I have been involved in many community organizations fighting homelessness, crime, mental illness, and other problems, and was a founder and Executive Director of United Children's Network, a non-profit organization aimed at preventing illiteracy at an early age.

In my community work and in my work as a nurse, I have seen first hand the consequences of failing to protect basic human rights of women and children. Rape, domestic violence, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, delinquency have their roots in this failure to protect basic human dignity.

Domestic violence is not limited solely to women and children. Adult protective services has as one of its core missions protecting the elderly from abuse. Abuse has been documented and shelters have been created to protect victims of violence in same-sex couples.

A core element of my legislative agenda is to strengthen curriculum, counseling and guidance services through all grades from preschool through college in order to prevent such problems or to identify them early so effective intervention can begin. California schools must increase these services in their education package. In addition, I would work to ensure that no person injured in such ways would lack access to health care. No just society fails to protect its residents when they are most vulnerable.

F. Sexual Harassment

1. What does "sexual harassment" mean to you?

Sexual harassment is unwanted behavior of a sexual nature in a situation where power imbalances place the target of the harassment at disadvantage. It includes unwanted interactions between people of the same or different sex. It may be a single event or it may be repeated over time. It is not restricted to the work place, and we have come to recognize that it is common in schools.

The roots of sexual harassment begin early and reflect a failure to respect basic human rights. Harassing female and gay/lesbian/transgendered students has been an unfortunate "rite of passage" on and off school grounds for generations. Harassed students suffer diminished self-esteem and diminished academic performance. When adults ignore, tolerate, or reinforce such damaging behavior, harassers and victims each carry into adulthood the lessons learned. These lessons have a long-term negative impact on responsible adult behavior and achievement and thus are passed to the next generation.

2. What will you do to eliminate sexual harassment if elected?

Parents and teachers must teach children to value and respect all people. Many adults are uneducated about the long-term developmental consequences of sexual harassment, and often fail to recognize its consequences on their lives. Parents and teachers alike need to learn strategies to prevent it, to stop it when it occurs, and to teach children why not to harass and how to respond when it happens. Age-appropriate curriculum to address this serious problem must begin in the earliest grades and must be a continuing element of education. Because of the developmental consequences, my program to increase the availability of counseling and guidance services throughout the education system will include reducing sexual harassment as a key goal.

3. Which public or private programs do you feel have been most effective in addressing this issue?

In my opinion, both schools and the work place need to promote human understanding, human dignity and tolerance. Such a curriculum would prominently feature sexual harassment. Along these lines, the University of California offers its staff a series of training programs to understand the benefits of a racially diverse workplace free of sexual harassment. As the most racially, ethnically, and sexually complex state in our nation, California has both an obligation and an opportunity to lead the way in such efforts.

G. GENDER BASED BUDGETING. Would you support investigating the annual budget review process in order to evaluate whether resources are proportionally allotted to women?

Yes. And I would add a review to evaluate the proportional allotment of resources to children. San Francisco's Children's Budget is a model to emulate.

H. ERA. The Equal Rights Amendment states the "Quality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex."

1. Do you support the principles of the ERA.

Yes. Without reservation.

2. What have you done, or will you do, to promote the principles of the ERA?

The promise of the ERA is hollow until women are present proportionally at every level of business and government. As the only woman candidate remaining for the 6th Assembly District, I promote by example the principles inherent in the ERA.