PA Superior Court Hears Argument on Insurance Claim of Domestic Violence Arson Victim

By Susan Frietsche, WLP Senior Staff Attorney

Q.: What’s worse than having your house burned down by your abusive spouse?

 A.: Finding out your insurance company won’t cover the damage.

On April 2, 2013, the Women’s Law Project presented oral argument to the Pennsylvania Superior Court in Lynn v. Nationwide Insurance Company, a case of first impression involving the insurance claim of a domestic violence survivor whose abuser intentionally set fire to their house.

At stake is the continued vitality of a 2006 Pennsylvania law (referred to by the Women’s Law Project as the “Innocent Co-Insured Victim Act”) that requires insurers to pay the claims of innocent co-insureds when their property is deliberately destroyed by an abusive partner. This statute was passed after a ten-year lobbying effort by dozens of domestic violence advocacy organizations led by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Terry Fromson, Managing Attorney of the Women’s Law Project. The passage of the Innocent Co-Insured Victim Act was part of a larger initiative to fight a host of insurance industry practices that disadvantaged or endangered domestic abuse survivors, described here.  The trial judge in the Lynn case misinterpreted this statute to require insurers to pay the property claim of a domestic violence survivor only when the claimant can show that the insurer’s reason for denying coverage was because of discriminatory animus against domestic violence victims—a showing that is virtually impossible to make.

In the Lynn case, a woman drugged her two children, left her husband an angry suicide note, and set fire to the family home with herself and her children inside it. She did not succeed in harming herself or her children, fortunately, but the house was damaged, and the woman is currently incarcerated for these offenses. When her husband filed a claim under their homeowner’s policy, he was turned down, and among the grounds for its denial of the claim, Nationwide cited a clause in their contract that excludes coverage of damage caused by the intentional acts of anyone insured under the policy. As applied here, this intentional act exclusion essentially blamed the victim for the wrongs the abuser committed.

On appeal from the trial court order holding that Nationwide did not have to pay the husband’s claim, an all-female Superior Court panel (Judges Bowes, Donohue, and Mundy), sitting at a special session at the Beaver County Courthouse in western Pennsylvania, heard argument from attorney Gary Davis, representing the appellant Brian Lynn, and from Sue Frietsche of the Women’s Law Project, representing the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence and two dozen other Pennsylvania non-profit organizations that serve domestic violence survivors. To read the amicus brief, click here.

If the lower court’s opinion is permitted to stand, the impact on domestic violence victims will be devastating. One of the primary reasons abuse victims cannot get out of violent relationships is economic: they face destitution if they leave. Permitting abusers to leave their victims homeless will make it very difficult for survivors to put their lives back together. It also violates the plain language of the Innocent Co-Insured Victim Act, a statute specifically adopted to avoid this very injustice. The Superior Court may issue its ruling at any time.

New York Times Reports on Dating Violence in Young Teenagers

Nikki Ditto, WLP Intern

An article published last week in the New York Times addresses the problem of dating violence among young teenagers, including those who have not yet entered high school. According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control, teen dating violence remains a significant problem, and the behaviors can begin to appear in teens as young as eleven and twelve.  

Studies that emerged over a decade ago showed that the group most at risk for dating violence and sexual assault was girls age 16 to 24. This report helped to increase funding and prevalence of programs aimed to educate teenagers about healthy relationships. While these programs have made an impact, reports show that they may not be starting early enough to catch the dangerous behaviors before they start.

A study conducted in 2010 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation surveyed 1,430 seventh graders from eight middle schools across the country. The study found that three-quarters of the students had been in a relationship. One in three had already experienced psychological dating violence, and one in six had experienced physical violence.

Thankfully, this information has encouraged the development of new programs and resources that provide early intervention and instruction. These programs target middle school students, as well as their parents, in the hope that they can teach warning signs and good decision making early. While the reports and the new early intervention programs recognize that males and females can be both the abuser and the abused, women and girls are still disproportionately the victims of dating violence.

Psychologically and physically abusive relationships that begin in the early teenage years can cause long-term patterns of abuse that continue into adulthood.We discussed the adverse health effects of intimate partner violence in our report, Through the Lens of EQUALITY: Eliminating Sex Bias to Improve the Health of Pennsylvania’s Women. While the report focuses on adult women, teenagers are at risk as well.

The New York Times article was released as Congress debates reauthorizing VAWA. This is the first time since the bill was passed in 1994 that reauthorization has been challenged, and support has been divided along party lines. In this year’s reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the age limit for participants in programs funded with federal grant money has been lowered to eleven. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has also given $1 million grants to each of 11 schools nation-wide in order to establish programs in middle schools that educate students about healthy teen relationships. More than ever, funding and education are needed to help to stop intimate partner violence, and protect and provide services for victims.

Women’s Law Project Releases Through the Lens of Equality: Eliminating Sex Bias to Improve the Health of Pennsylvania’s Women

The Women’s Law Project (WLP) released today a major report, Through the Lens of Equality: Eliminating Sex Bias to Improve the Health of Pennsylvania’s Women, linking sex bias to adverse health outcomes in women.   The release of this report coincides with National Women’s Health Week (May 13-19^th), during which time organizations around the country are raising awareness about the benefits of the health care law.

Inspired by the public debate on health care, WLP embarked on an examination of the relationship between the sex bias that women experience and their health, resulting in the publication of Through the Lens of Equality.  “As familiar as we were with ongoing bias and discrimination against women and with data on critical health measures for women, our in-depth examination of the linkage between the two truly shocked us,” said Carol Tracy, Executive Director of the Women’s Law Project.  “The focus is on Pennsylvania, however, the finding and recommendations have nationwide application,” she added.

“For all of the years that I have been involved in women’s rights and women’s health care, I have never seen the connections between health and equality more dramatically demonstrated that it is in this report,” said Kate Michelman, former President of NARAL Pro-Choice America and long-time Pennsylvania resident who served as a consultant to this project.

Through the Lens of Equality examines the health impact of sexual and intimate partner violence, caregiving responsibilities, poverty, and bias in the workplace, school, and health care.  The report delves into the politicization of women’s reproductive health care and shows how women are harmed by limited access to abortion, contraception, and maternity care.  It repeatedly points to the importance of implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to expand access to better health care for women, while acknowledging the ACA’s serious gaps, including not mandating abortion coverage.

“This is not a publication about diseases, but instead an exposition of how biased environments in which women live, work, study, and receive health services are infected with outdated notions about women’s role in society which in turn have negative health consequences for them,” said Amal Bass, staff attorney at the Women’s Law Project.

The publication also provides a series of recommendations tailored to both overcoming sex bias and improving women’s health.  “Numerous targeted interventions well beyond improving access to insurance through the ACA — are necessary to cure institutional and individual prejudices about women,” said Terry Fromson, Managing Attorney of the WLP.  “Failure to do so will result in significant inequitable and avoidable health problems for women,” she added.

Through the Lens of Equality acknowledges the impressive strides that have been made in women’s rights over the past fifty years, but shows that past victories are not enough.  “Looking to the future requires insistence on equal treatment, equal access, and equal opportunity to achieve not just healthy women, but a healthy society,” said Susan Frietsche, Senior Staff Attorney

The Women’s Law Project is a legal advocacy organization based in Pennsylvania.  Founded   in 1974, its mission is to create a more just and equitable society by advancing the rights and status of all women throughout their lives.  The Law Project engages in high impact litigation, public policy advocacy and community education.   Through the Lens of Equality is available at http://www.womenslawproject.org/NewPages/wkTLE_Base.html.

 

Monica Henry: Women and Girls Still Bear Brunt of Domestic Violence

Recently, Caryl Rivers and Rosalind C. Barnett wrote a guest post for WeNews which cited Mary Straus’s research findings that women and men tend to instigate violence in roughly an equal number of domestic violence instances.  Monica Henry, who holds a master’s degree in gender and peace building and has served as a domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking and elder abuse victim advocate for the Quileute Tribe since 2006, wrote a response to Rivers and Barnett’s article, finding flaws in Straus’s research methods and emphasizing that the kinds of violence women and men usually instigate do not equate.

Rivers and Barnett stated that “surveys of U.S. households have found rates of wife-to-husband violence “remarkably similar” to those of husband-to-wife violence.  And an early cross-cultural survey did not find that men were significantly more aggressive than women.”  However, Henry takes issue with the data they cite, noting several critiques of studies showing similar rates of violence committed by women and men that Jack C. Straton, Ph.D. noted in his article “The Myth of the ‘Battered Husband Syndrome.’”

Straton, in critiquing studies Straus co-authored in 1980, said that researchers used a “set of questions that cannot discriminate between intent and effect.  This so called Conflict Tactics Scale (or CTS) equates a woman pushing a man in self-defense to a man pushing a woman down the stairs.”  The studies also “excluded incidents of violence that occur after separation and divorce, yet these account for 75.9 percent of spouse-on-spouse assaults, with a male perpetrator 93.3 percent of the time, according to the U.S. Department of Justice,” and did “not include sexual assault as a category although more women are raped by their husbands than beaten only.  Adjusting Straus’ own statistics to include this reality makes the ratio of male to female spousal violence more than 16 to one.”  Numerous other critiques of the study can be found within Straton’s article.  Henry also notes that “[t]he survey’s finding is also based on claims of innocence by friends and family members on behalf of the accused. [However,] [t]here have been several cases where the accused admits to committing domestic violence or sexual assault and family and friends continue to deny it simply because they can’t handle the thought that their loved one could commit such an act.”

While Rivers and Barnett noted that women usually suffer more severe injuries than men in instances of domestic violence, Henry gives more detail to illustrate the severity of the disparity.  She states that “[a]fter analyzing the results of the U.S. National Crime Surveys, Straton writes that ‘sociologist Martin Schwartz concluded that 92 percent of those seeking medical care from a private physician for injuries received in a spousal assault are women.  That same study shows that one man is hospitalized for injuries received in a spousal assault for every 46 women hospitalized.’”  Henry ends her article by stating that “I am very aware that there are male victims of domestic abuse and I strongly believe that we need to provide them with support…I am also aware that people sometimes make false accusations.  But neither of these facts should be used to minimize the degree to which girls and women take the brunt of household violence.”

To learn about efforts to end domestic violence in the U.S. and what you can do to help in the effort, visit the National Network to End Domestic Violence website.  You can learn about what the Women’s Law Project has done to “improve system responses to violence against women” here.

Cyberstalking: A Growing Problem

We have written before about cyberstalking, the disturbing use of technology by stalkers. WeNews reports that “stories like these [involving cyberstalking] are becoming more common.” While cyberstalking affects both women and men, women are disproportionately targets. According to a National Violence Against Women Survey, 80% of targets of stalking of any kind are women and 60% of cyberstalking targets are women.

Cyberstalking can involve perceived threats, harassment, and worse. Karen Baker, director of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, defined cyberstalking to WeNews as “threatening behavior or unwanted advances that use computer communications.” Baker stated that 1 in 4 adults has been the target of a cyberstalker.

The utilization of technology allows stalkers to harass their target from oceans away. A teenage boy in Western Australia sent a girl in Wisconsin various “gifts,” including a Domino’s pizza. Worried, the girl blocked the boy on Facebook. After realizing that he had been blocked from the girl’s Facebook, the boy began to threaten her via e-mail and text. One text read, “If you thought ultimate love was bad, wait till you see ultimate hate. I’ll ruin your life. I know exactly where you live.”

Luckily, authorities were able to find the boy from his internet protocol (IP) address which he used when ordering the pizza online. The boy was arrested and “may face stalking, fraud and harassment charges, according to a police report.”

Some targets are not as lucky as the Wisconsin girl was. WeNews relates cases of cyberstalking that resulted in more violent consequences.

In Ohio, a high school student committed suicide after her ex-boyfriend sent nude photos of her to her classmates via text message from his cell phone.

In Florida, a female teen stabbed and killed a romantic rival after exchanging months of threats on the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook.

In Wyoming, a woman was raped by a stranger when her ex-boyfriend posted an ad on Craiglist.com calling for a man to go to her house, pretend to attack her and act out a “rape fantasy.”

Legislators have taken notice of the growing instances of cyberstalking. The Rhode Island House passed a bill which would make cyberstalking by a relative or household member a crime listed under domestic violence offenses. While cyberstalking is already a crime in Rhode Island, making it a domestic violence offense would “automatically prohibit offenders from contacting victims, prompt tougher criminal penalties for repeat convictions and provide victims with advocacy services.” Congress is considering a bill that would extend the federal definition of stalking to cyberstalking.

To find out what cyberstalking laws your state has, click here.

PA House Budget Cuts Domestic Violence Program Funding by Over $1 Million

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania House members – mostly Republican – voted for burdensome, expensive new regulations for abortion providers, citing their concern for women’s health and safety as their only motive.

Last week, they approved the House Republican version of the FY 2012 state budget in House Bill 1485. It looks like the rhetoric of protecting women’s safety that figured so prominently in the House floor debate on abortion was all but forgotten when it came time to actually fund programs that save women’s lives.

In approving this budget, the House cut funding for domestic violence programs in the Commonwealth by 10% – amounting to a decrease of over $1 million. This cut will take funding for domestic violence programs back to the level it was at in 1998.

Just between 2008 and 2009, domestic violence related homicides increased by 48% [PDF]. This increase shows how important it is that the 92,000 battered women and children who seek help in Pennsylvania continue to access programs that help them escape violence in their own homes.

It is easy to see the effect a 10% cut in funds will have when, in the hundred-day budget delay last year, two shelters had to shut down. The effects of a 10% cut will be widespread and devastating if we do not do something about it.

The budget has passed in the House, but still needs to pass the Senate. Now is the time to call your senator and tell them that cutting programs desperately needed by women and children in Pennsylvania is not the moral way to balance the budget.

Clinic Violence Update: A Federal Grand Jury Investigates the Larger Agenda

Scott Roeder has been sentenced to life in prison for killing abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in 2009, but a federal grand jury is investigating the murder’s possible connection to a larger plan, as reported by the National Partnership for Women & Families.

An anonymous federal law enforcement official recently commented on the matter: “Yes, there is a grand jury investigation. I can tell you that there are several attorneys from Washington, D.C., looking into this matter and are looking into the broader case than just the actual incident that occurred in Wichita.”

Dr. Tiller’s murder is indeed part of a larger faction of anti-choice activism in the U.S. As we discussed last year, Dr. Warren Hern, director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic, has received numerous death threats and is followed to and from work by federal marshals.

There are varying degrees of severity when it comes to direct anti-abortion action – bullying and insulting women outside of clinics under the guise of “sidewalk counseling” and holding gruesome signs are among the most common and least violent – but threats against the lives of abortion providers have become a widespread tactic that not only frightens and intimidates doctors, but all too often leads to their murders.

Since 1993, when Dr. David Gunn was killed outside a clinic in Pensacola, Florida, there have been several major acts of violence against clinics and abortion providers, five of which resulted in the deaths of one or more people. Another doctor was killed in the same Florida city in 1994. Clinics in Austin, Amherst, NY, Birmingham, and the Boston area have been targets of severe violence, with bombs or guns characterizing each event.

As evidenced by a number of extremist attempts to harm clinics over the course of the past 17 years, it’s clear that these are not isolated incidents that have no effect on the anti-choice movement. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act has helped curb the blockades and clinic invasions that were all too common prior to 1994 (when it was passed), but has not completely prevented extremists from setting off bombs or tracking down providers outside of their clinics and shooting them. A life prison sentence doesn’t seem to deter some abortion opponents’ desires to kill doctors and others involved at clinics, either.

In Pennsylvania, reproductive health care facilities have been firebombed, blockaded, and severely vandalized. They have been threatened with death, targets of fake anthrax attacks, bomb scares, and harassment at their homes, neighborhoods, and churches. In 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice brought a FACE Act case against anti-abortion protester John Dunkle, who posted on the Internet the names, addresses, and photos of PA abortion providers, complete with detailed instructions on how to kill them. Although he has been complying with the injunction that removed all of the information from the Internet, Dunkle continues to picket PA abortion providers at clinics and their homes.

The reported grand jury investigation follows U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s crackdown on clinic violence that we wrote about this past August.

If you’re interested in more information about clinic violence, you can watch “The Assassination of Dr. Tiller,” a documentary narrated by Rachel Maddow that will air on MSNBC on October 25^th at 9 PM.

Reproductive Coercion Update: Study Offers Hope for Reducing Unwanted Pregnancies in Violent Relationships

Earlier this year, we wrote about a study conducted by researchers at the University of California at Davis which found that a significant number of unwanted pregnancies are the result of reproductive coercion – young women and teenagers being pressured into becoming pregnant by their male partners.

Reproductive coercion is a form of intimate partner violence rooted in the abuser’s struggle for power and control over their victim, rather than a sincere desire to have a child. One in five women surveyed said they had experienced pregnancy coercion and 15% had experienced birth-control sabotage.

Researchers recently published a follow-up to the original study, which measured the effects of clinicians discussing reproductive coercion with their patients prior to an unwanted pregnancy. The LA Times reports:

Among women who were recent victims of intimate partner violence, the patients who were asked about pregnancy coercion and birth control sabotage were 71% less likely to become pregnant against their will, according to the study. They were also more likely to break up with their boyfriends – 52% of them did, compared with 45% of their counterparts who were treated at the clinic where pregnancy coercion and birth control sabotage weren’t discussed.

According to the researchers, the results link ending unhealthy relationships to lower rates of unwanted pregnancy, emphasizing the need to include discussions of pregnancy coercion and birth control sabotage in the realm of reproductive education. As we previously noted, it’s vital to educate women about the skills they need to free themselves from abusive relationships, but outreach must include men as well. Weight must be placed on preventing and avoiding manipulative situations in addition to ending them. As this study shows, the conversation about unwanted pregnancy can’t stop at contraception, and hopefully this will be a cue to healthcare providers and educators to amp up the approach to reproductive freedom.

U.S. Attorney General Takes Action Against Aggressive Clinic Protester

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is seeking an injunction that would limit anti-choice activist Mary Susan Pine’s access to the driveways leading up to the Presidential Women’s Center, an abortion clinic in West Palm Beach, Florida. According to Sharon Levin, vice president and general counsel of the National Abortion Federation, this lawsuit is the first in Florida to employ the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits obstructing clinic entrances, injuring anyone involved with a clinic, or causing damage to a clinic.

Holder’s action is part of a promised crackdown on clinic violence, a reaction to Kansas abortion provider George Tiller’s 2009 murder. While Pine currently has no charges of violence against her, she regularly participates in “sidewalk counseling” and, according to Holder, once blocked a car from entering one of the clinic’s driveways (an allegation she denies). Presidential Women’s Center attorney Louis Silber contends that Pine’s behavior oversteps the First Amendment, saying, “she’s gone beyond letting her opinion be known.”

This is not the first time the Presidential Women’s Center has dealt with violent action on their property. The Sun-Sentinel reports that an unknown arsonist set fire to the facility in 2006. While the incident initially prompted the West Palm Beach City Commission to enact a 20-foot buffer zone around the clinic, a judge later ruled the buffer zone to be “too restrictive” and replaced the law with one “that limits amplified noise near medical centers.”

The clinic’s struggle to gain legitimate protection from violent protest makes Holder’s efforts all the more significant. Buffer zones can reduce the risk of violence by deterring those who would otherwise consider violating elements of the FACE Act, and making them an integral part of clinic structure would increase the safety and dignity of anyone entering or exiting clinics. The First Amendment is always at the forefront of clinic protest and violence discussions, but the core of this issue is safety from violence, rather than a barricade against protester opinion.

Holder’s injunction could be just the start of many progressive actions taken to enforce federal laws protecting abortion clinics in the United States, and we look forward to more vigorous enforcement of the FACE Act by the federal government in the future.

Sexual Assault in the Military: Servicewomen Taking a Stand

The Washington D.C. law firm Burke PLLC is preparing to file a class action suit against the U.S. military for failure to properly address sexual assault and rape. Not only is a woman in the military more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire, female soldiers who report crimes committed against them are often harassed and intimidated. A Pentagon report revealed that between 2004 and 2007 “more than half of the investigations [of rape and sexual assault]…resulted in no action. When action was taken, only one third of the cases resulted in courts-martial.”

The horrendous way that the military treats sexual assault and rape survivors may be illustrated through Lt. Jennifer Dyer’s story:

In 2004, after Lt. Jennifer Dyer reported being raped by a fellow officer at Camp Shelby, Miss., she said she was held in seclusion for three days, read her Miranda rights and threatened with criminal prosecution for filing a false report. After finally being given two weeks leave, she was threatened with prosecution for being AWOL when she would not report for duty to the same location where the man she had accused — who was later acquitted on assault charges — was still posted.

Unfortunately, Dyer’s story is not an anomaly. Many women in the military are wrongly treated after having endured sexual trauma.

Over 90% of all females that report a sexual assault are discharged from the military before their contract ends. From the 90%, around 85% are discharged against their wishes. Nearly all of the 85% lose their careers based on misdiagnoses that render them ineligible for military service and ineligible for VA treatment after discharge.

When a soldier is convicted of rape, the punishment is often not fitting of someone who committed a violent crime. The military still allows convicted rapists to be buried with full honors, therein perpetuating “the culture of impunity that allows soldiers to commit sexual violence with little worry of being brought to justice.”

Soldiers who have raped other soldiers are sometimes even allowed to stay in the military. Lance Cpl. Sally Griffiths reported having been raped by a fellow Marine. A statement from the Marine confirmed her story. But even with this statement, the Marine was never prosecuted and stayed in the military, enjoying several promotions.

We have written before about the challenges and dangers that women in uniform face, including sexual assault, domestic violence, inadequate resources to address PTSD, lack of access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare, dismissal because of their sexual orientation and more. This lawsuit is one small step to correcting the many wrongs that have been committed against servicewomen.

As the firm is preparing to file a class-action suit on behalf of sexual assault survivors, they are looking for any “any victims/survivors who may be potentially interested in participating in this lawsuit.” To contact the firm, e-mail Susan Sajadi at ssajadi@burkepllc.com.

Photo from the Library of Congress’s Flickr stream