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News release

America’s Moms Say Senator Tom Harkin Has Earned Superhero Status

July 28, 2010
Health Care

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

MomsRising Presents Senator Tom Harkin with Superhero Award
MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization for moms and everyone who has a mom, today presented U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) with the organization’s Superhero Award. The award recognizes Senator Harkin’s efforts to pass health reform for America’s families and his efforts to ensure that addressing childhood obesity, preventive care and nutritional labeling were included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
 
MomsRising National Health Care Campaign Director Donna Norton presented the award on behalf of MomsRising's more than 7,000 Iowa members to Senator Harkin at a constituent breakfast the Senator hosted this morning.
 
“Senator Harkin’s efforts to get health reform passed in the Senate were nothing short of superheroic,” said MomsRising Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is giving millions of families who were struggling peace of mind and the promise that they will be able get the health care they need when they need it. We were proud to work alongside the Senator to help get this landmark legislation passed.”
 
MomsRising organized its members across the country in numerous campaigns in support of health reform. Actions included:
  • Holding in-district meeting with Members of Congress;
  • Sharing stories that illustrated the importance of health reform legislation in a book,
  • Mothers Know Best: MomsRising Members Share Their Personal Healthcare Stories;
  • Distributing flyers dispelling myths and untruths about health reform as members of local “Healthcare Reform Truth Squads”;
  • Urging Members of Congress to wear pacifier lapel pins to show their support for health reform; and
  • Making more than half a million constituent contacts to the offices of Members of Congress in support of health reform.
In addition to the award, Norton presented the Senator with a collection of stories from parents in every state across the country who need paid sick days. The book, Even Super Moms Can’t Fight All Germs! We Need Paid Sick Days, shares the moving personal stories of parents who need paid sick days to care for children and other loved ones. They come from front lines of motherhood from every state in the nation, and speak of the impossible choices, struggles, and the sometimes improbable triumphs of mothers and fathers to care for their children and other loved ones.
 
Nearly 40 percent of workers – and nearly 80 percent of low-wage workers – in the United States are not allowed by their employers to earn paid sick days.
 
MomsRising generated the stories in the book through a series of nationwide e-outreaches to its members.
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.