Last night at our annual legislative reception in Annapolis, we presented our 2013 Legislative Agenda to advocates and legislators from around the state. The Agenda document is presented here as a PDF: MLAW 2013 Legislative Agenda. Throughout this session of the General Assembly, MLAW will work with lead groups, activists and legislators to pass these bills. Make sure that we have your email address on file so that you receive our action alerts. Send us an email at mdlegagenda4women@yahoo.com and asked to be added to the list.

Please join us at our annual legislative reception on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 from 4:30 – 6:30 pm at the Maryland Inn, located at 16 Church Circle in Annapolis, MD. The event will feature the presentation of our 2013 Legislative Agenda. Registration fees are $25 for attendees; legislators are our invited guests. Participants may register by completing the MLAW Leg Reception 2013 Registration Form or visit this link to register and pay by credit card using our secure PayPal account. Sponsorship opportunities are also available – please support this event as a sponsor. Event sponsors will be recognized in our publicity and at the reception. Questions? Contact 443-519-1005 or email mdlegagenda4women@yahoo.com.

MLAW has announced the bills that will comprise the 2013 Legislative Agenda:

• Asset Forfeiture for Human Trafficking and Related Offenses
• Earned Sick and Safe Time Act
• Akin’s Law
• Child Abuse—Failure to Report
• Protective Orders—Relief for Victims of Dating and Sexual Violence
• Committing a Crime of Violence in the Presence of a Minor

The most powerful advocacy tool for the Agenda is your signature as a supporter. Organizations and individuals are invited to sign on as a supporter of the 2013 Agenda. We also encourage you to invite your friends and colleagues to sign on. A list of supporters will be attached to the document before it is distributed to legislators and the public, as well as included on our website. Click here to download a sign on form: MLAW 2013 Agenda Sign On.

Cooperative action is the basis upon which MLAW operates. One voice is important but the collective voices of many impacts public policy and enables advocates and legislators to demonstrate concern and support for women’s issues. Make your voice count for women and their families in the 2013 session of the Maryland General Assembly.

A document containing the priority issues, background information, names of individual and organizational supporters will be published and circulated to legislators and various organizations. The document will be released at our Legislative Reception and Briefing and will be distributed to all legislators.

Please make sure to return your completed sign on form no later than January 18th. (MLAW 2013 Agenda Sign On). Individuals and organizations will NOT be listed without positive affirmation from someone authorized to sign on. Signing on to the agenda is a separate process from other forms of support, such as membership, sponsorship or attendance at past events.

With balloting from our membership complete, MLAW has selected six bills from the eleven presented at our Fall Conference to comprise the 2013 Agenda.  Those initiatives are:

ASSET FORFEITURE FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Victims of sex trafficking are most often women and children.  Pimps and traffickers use every means of power and control to exploit their victims and derive significant profits from the sexual acts their victims are forced to perform.  This bill provides that profits disgorged from convicted offenders will be subject to forfeiture and will be used for an Anti-Human Trafficking Fund established by this legislation.  Fifty percent of the funds must be given to nonprofit or private organizations that provide direct services to victims of human trafficking, programs for prevention of human trafficking, or education programs on human trafficking.  The balance is to be distributed to law enforcement organizations that respond to and investigate human trafficking cases.

EARNED SICK AND SAFE TIME ACT
Working women need a basic workplace standard of paid sick days so they don’t have to choose between keeping their job and caring for a sick child or family member.  Here in Maryland, more than 800,000 of our neighbors are forced to make impossible choices: Go to work sick, send an ill child to school or daycare, or stay home and sacrifice much-needed income or, worse, risk job loss.  Working women are more likely to have significant caregiving responsibilities yet women-dominated industries are among the least likely to offer paid sick days.  Without this basic workplace benefit, women are often left with no choice but to forego pay in order to meet their families’ health care needs.  The proposed legislation requires employers to allow workers to earn a certain number of annual paid sick and safe days.  The “safe time” component of the legislation requires employers to allow survivors of domestic abuse or sexual assault to use their accrued paid sick leave to care for their health after these incidents or to seek legal protections or new housing.

AKIN’S LAW
5% of rape victims of reproductive age (age 12-45) became pregnant as a result of rape, with the majority of pregnancies in adolescents.  “Akin’s Law” would create a legal process for rape victims to terminate the parental rights of rapists when a child is conceived as result of rape.  Victims would be required to meet a clear and convincing standard of evidence.  This is the same standard used for other termination of parental rights cases – no more, no less.

CHILD ABUSE – FAILURE TO REPORT
As the main caretakers and nurturers of children, women are particularly concerned about the need to incentivize all professionals who work with vulnerable children to make good-faith reports of abuse and/or neglect, given the immunity already granted to such professionals who make good-faith reports.  When the failure to report is “knowingly,” any good mother or guardian of a targeted child would be relieved to know that such disregard of moral responsibility by a mandatory reporter is reinforced by statute and that reasonable penalties obtain to knowing violations of reporting requirements.  This bill adds 2 professions to mandatory reporters, as well as adding civil penalties for not reporting so that Maryland would no longer be an outlier.

RELIEF FOR VICTIMS OF DATING & SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Protective Orders and Peace Orders are civil orders to protect individuals against future violence and harassment.  This bill would move dating violence and sexual assault out of the Peace Order statute and into the Protective Order statute.  Dating violence and sexual assault are volatile cases that need the special attention that a protective order produces.  Over 41 other states currently include dating violence in their protective order statutes.  This will provide these victim/survivors with heightened protection and a better systemic response.

COMMITTING A CRIME OF VIOLENCE IN THE PRESENCE OF A MINOR
The bill enhances penalty for persons who commit a crime of violence when such persons know or should reasonably have know that a minor is within sight or hearing of the crime of violence. The enhanced penalty affects only those defendants who have been convicted of a crime of violence with these additional circumstances.

Check out our pictures from MLAW’s Fall Conference by visiting our Facebook album at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.427243547324910.92051.109604352422166&type=1&l=bab3db3568.

Thank you to all who made our Fall Agenda conference a success including our event sponsors: AAUW Maryland, Women’s Law Center of Maryland, 10th District Democratic Club, Maryland Network Againist Domestic Violence, Montgomery County Commission for Women, Job Opportunities Task Force, Maryland Commission for Women, Del. Kathleen Dumais, Joan Stine, Patricia Cornish, Elizabeth Johnson, Susan Elgin, Caren Williams, Liz Joyce, Barbara Schnackenberg, Sen. Kathy Klausmeier, Del. Susan Lee, and Lavanna Stevenson.  We appreciate your support!

We’d like to welcome two new members to the MLAW Board of Directors:  Katie Smith, representing the Montgomery County Commission for Women and Rita Reimer representing the Anne Arundel County Commission for Women.  Welcome!

We are thrilled to announce that Delegate Susan Lee has been selected to receive MLAW’s Legislative Leadership Award!  Delegate Lee has been a strong advocate for women in the Maryland General Assembly and a long-time supporter of MLAW.  Delegate Lee will accept her award at our fall conference on October 20, 2012.

This year’s panel presentation will feature three women who are experts in using social media and grassroots organizing to advance policy change.   Martha Baker from the New York Paid Leave Coalition will provide insight on what has become a very public battle for paid sick days in New York City. Carrie Evans, director of Equality Maryland, will speak about the pursuit for marriage equality here in our state.  Cara Tenebaum, Vice President for Policy at the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, will provide a national perspective by sharing her experiences in advocating on Capitol Hill for numerous women’s health and oncology issues.

For more information about the Fall Conference, click here.

Conference Update!  We have confirmed two speakers for the fall agenda conference: Carrie Evans from Equality Maryland and Martha Baker from the New York Paid Leave Coalition.  We’ll post more information as we finalize the agenda.  Hope to see you at the conference!