Equal Rights Amendment: An Act Relative to Equitable Coverage in Annuity Policies (S622; H901) ends annuity pricing and practices which violate our state ERA, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, marital status or national origin. The WBA supports An Act Prohibiting Discrimination in Insurance Policies. (Financial Services Committee)

Nursing Mothers: An Act to Promote Breastfeeding gives women the right to breastfeed in a public place and makes it clear that a woman nursing her child in public is not engaged in lewd or lascivious behavior or indecent exposure under MGL c. 272 §§16 and 53.  (S2438 is a new bill reported favorably from Public Health Committee which omits the employer requirements of last year’s bill and is awaiting action in the Senate)

Probate:  An Act Improving Spousal Elective Share (S891) - A compromise version of a WBA/BBA-drafted bill modernizes property rights of surviving spouses; under current law a spouse has stronger rights to marital property if s/he divorces rather than stays married. The bill provides safeguards against evasion, notice, right to know the decedent’s assets and procedural rules absent from current law. (Judiciary Committee)

Legal Services Funding: The WBA supports funding General Support for legal services, funding for Battered Women’s Legal Assistance Project, a program for advocacy for Medicare advocacy and a Disability Benefits Project. (FY2009 budget item 0321-1600)

Health Education: An Act to Provide Health Education in Schools (S288, H597) which adds a defined age-appropriate curriculum for K-12, to include nutrition, mental health, reproduction and sexuality, substance abuse, injury, violence and disease prevention, consumer health, growth and development, and family life. (Education Committee)

Women in Prison: An Act Relative to Pregnant and Postpartum Inmates in State Prisons, County Houses of Correction and Jails (H1540) prohibits shackling during delivery and requires other pre- and post-natal services. (Judiciary)

Work Family Council: An Act to Establish a Work Family Council (H4308) to develop broadly shared understandings of critical work-family issues in the Commonwealth, and to promote through privately funded research, experimentation, and education responsive public policies and innovative private sector practices.  (Economic Development & Emerging Technologies to Rules Committee)

Guardianship Reform: Because of concern for children and families and about exploitation of dependent elders and other incapacitated persons, the WBA supports the guardianship reforms provisions contained in Article V of the Mass. Uniform Probate Code (S843).  (Judiciary)