Kate Sheppard

Reporter

Kate Sheppard is a staff reporter in Mother Jones' Washington bureau. She was previously the political reporter for Grist and a writing fellow at The American Prospect. She can be reached by email at ksheppard (at) motherjones (dot) com.

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Her work has also been featured in the New York Times' Room for Debate blog, the Guardian's Comment Is Free, Foreign Policy, High Country News, The Center for Public Integrity, the Washington Independent, Washington Spectator, Who Runs Gov, In These Times, and Bitch. She was raised on a vegetable farm in southern New Jersey (yes, they do exist), but has adapted well to life in the nation's capital. She misses trees and having a congressional representative with voting power, but thinks DC is pretty great anyway.

Boy Scouts of America Proposes Dropping Ban on Gay Kids—But Not Gay Adults

—By Kate Sheppard

| Fri Apr. 19, 2013 10:14 AM PDT

While the nation's attention was turned to Boston on Friday morning, the Boy Scouts of America announced that it intends to end its ban on gay members, as long as its board approves the change. The organization would still, however, prohibit gay adults from serving as troop leaders or volunteers.

The proposed new policy states, "No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone." The proposed policy also reinforces the organization's position that "Scouting is a youth program, and any sexual conduct, whether homosexual or heterosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting." You can read the proposal here, or the media statement here.

The change would apply only to members; it does not change the policy regarding gay troop leaders or other volunteers. "The BSA will maintain the current membership policy for all adults," Deron Smith, the group's spokesman, told Mother Jones via email.

BSA's long-standing ban on gay members has been a huge source of controversy. In January, the group announced that it was considering whether to allow individual troops to admit gay members but put off making a decision until May. As my colleague Dana Liebelson has reported, the group lost some major funders because of the gay ban. Most recently, a number of high-profile musical acts ditched the Boy Scouts' annual Jamboree for this reason.

If the Scouts' 1,400-member board approves the change at its annual meeting in May, it would take effect January 1, 2014.

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States to Feds: Give Us Greenhouse Gas Rules, Or Else!

—By Kate Sheppard

| Thu Apr. 18, 2013 11:55 AM PDT

A coalition of 10 states, the District of Columbia, New York City, and three national environmental groups, announced Wednesday that they intend to sue if the Environmental Protect Agency does not issue final emissions rules for new power plants in the next two months.

The EPA announced draft rules in March 2012, but the agency still hasn't issued final rules, even though they were required to do so by April 13. And they don't seem to be in any rush: The Washington Post reported last month that the EPA is considering revising the proposed rules, which could further delay implementation.

"While the Obama administration has pledged to combat climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency has now missed the deadline for adopting New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new fossil fuel power plants," said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a statement announcing the coalition's plans (via The Hill). "Addressing emissions from power plants is critically important. Today’s notice makes clear that if the EPA does not promptly issue these rules, we will take legal action to hold the agency to its commitment."

You can read the complaint here. The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday afternoon that the EPA is in no hurry to finalize those rules:

In a reply, the EPA declined to set a deadline for releasing the final regulations on the plants. “We are working on the rule and no timetable has been set. We continue to review the more than 2.7 million comments we have received on the rule,” spokeswoman Alisha Johnson said.

Mississippi's Last Abortion Clinic Can Stay Open, For Now

—By Kate Sheppard

| Mon Apr. 15, 2013 6:38 PM PDT

Photo by Kate Sheppard.

A judge in Mississippi has ruled that Jackson Women's Health Organization can stay open, for now.

A state law passed in April 2012 threatened to shut down the state's last abortion clinic, which we recently profiled. But on Monday, US District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III granted a preliminary injunction blocking that law from taking effect, which means that the state cannot revoke the clinic's license to operate.

The new state law requires doctors who perform abortions at the clinic to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. Given the politics on abortion in Mississippi, all of the local hospitals rejected the applications of the two doctors who work at the clinic, so the state Department of Health had begun the process of revoking the clinic's license for non-compliance. The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the clinic, asked the judge to prevent the law from taking effect, as it was impossible for JWHO to comply.

In a statement Monday evening, Nancy Northup, the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, noted that this is just the first step in the legal battle over this law. "While the women of Mississippi may be able to breathe a collective sigh of relief today, this fight is far from over," she said. "We will continue our work to see this underhanded attempt to ban abortions in Mississippi struck down as a violation of women's constitutional reproductive rights."

Read the judge's decision here.

Are You Bro-Choice?

—By Kate Sheppard

| Fri Apr. 12, 2013 4:00 AM PDT

Discussion of "reproductive rights" seems to always focus on the ladies. After all, we are the ones that get the brunt of that whole reproduction thing. But a new campaign from a national reproductive rights group asks the question, "What about the bros?"

"Bro-Choice" is a new project from the group Choice USA, a national organization that works with college students on reproductive rights issues. The program's goal is "disrupting the dominant narrative that reproductive justice is a 'women's issue.'"

"There has been a lot of important conversation lately about rape culture, victim blaming, and masculinity, but it's likely that many of the people who most need take part have not been brought into the dialogue," says Andrew Jenkins, a field associate for Choice USA. "Bro-Choice is intended to reach those men who might recognize sexism and rape culture when they see it, even if they wouldn't use those terms. We hope to turn them into vocal stakeholders in the fight against sexual assault."

Progressives Advise GOP: Back Off On the War on Women

—By Kate Sheppard

| Wed Apr. 10, 2013 12:28 PM PDT

It was clear in both the lead up to and the aftermath of the November 2012 election that Republican candidates are not faring well among women voters. From Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin to Mitt Romney's 11-point loss among women voters, it became painfully clear that the GOP has a lady problem. A new memo from a pair of liberal groups that pulls together some of the polling figures makes a strong case for paying more attention to this divide.

The memo, from Stephanie Schriock of EMILY’s List and Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, notes that even the Republican National Committee's own post-election report found that, "[Women] represent more than half the voting population in the country, and our inability to win their votes is losing us elections." But while Republicans have made some effort to soften the party's positioning on issues like immigration and LGBT rights, the party has not moderated its stance on reproductive rights or other issues of interest to many women voters.

The memo points to the unprecedented attack on access to abortion underway in states like North Dakota and Arkansas, the 160 Republicans that voted against the Violence Against Women Act at the federal level, and the ongoing fights over both contraception coverage and cuts to the federal family planning budget.

NARAL Pro-Choice America's polling right after the election found that Romney's view on abortion was the top reason for voting against him that swing-voting women cited in their survey. Planned Parenthood also used this issue to attack anti-choice politicians. Planned Parenthood also used this issue to attack anti-choice politicians. Another post-election poll from Democracy Corps found that 33 percent of unmarried women listed the attacks on Planned Parenthood and women's preventative health services as a top reason for voting against Romney.

While I'd guess that Republican politicians aren't looking for advice from CAP and EMILY's List, the memo ends with some. "If the GOP wants to move forward, help its image and win elections, it should halt its embrace of extreme and out-of-touch policies that attack women and their families," Schriock and Tanden write. "Ending attacks on abortion rights in the states would be a start."