Our Legislative Priorities

IWO Legislative Priorities
As of April 22, 2023

ECONOMIC SECURITY & FAMILY STABILITY 

• Support equal pay for women: stop pay secrecy & retaliation for talking about wages so discrimination can be addressed; prevent discrimination perpetuation by stopping use of salary history to set wages. 
• Raise the minimum wage and allow local control of wage and paid leave policies.
• Provide paid sick and family leave to all workers. 
  
• Provide early childhood care and education access, incentivize local investments & ensure living wages for child care workers. 

HEALTH CARE & HEALTH EDUCATION

• Improve health outcomes for women and all people by restoring and expanding state health care funding and focus including mental/behavioral health services. 
  
• Increase access to healthcare for all Louisianaians by removing barriers to practice for NPs and CNMs. 
  
• Improve health & education outcomes for young people in school by requiring provision of healthy food, free menstrual products and policies to support pregnant & parenting students. 
  
• Address health disparities & equity issues including the high rate of maternal mortality in LA, particularly for black women who die at 4 times the rate of white women in pregnancy related deaths. 
  
• Support age-appropriate, trauma-informed, comprehensive sex education as an effective way to help young people live healthy, productive lives. 
  
• Support individuals’ rights to manage their sexual and reproductive health and oppose any barriers to reproductive justice. 
  
• Support bills that protect pregnant people and their health care providers from criminalization secondary to first trimester pregnancy care. 
  
• Require health insurance and Medicaid coverage for the full range of health care, from contraception to infertility treatments, and birthing care from doulas and midwives.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 

• Support policies that prevent and better address violence against women, including “power based violence” or sexual harassment. 
  
• Provide state funding for domestic violence victim services and trauma-informed sexual assault victim services, including requiring Emergency Contraception for victims of sexual assault. 
  
• Oppose efforts to back track on positive steps taken in Louisiana to better address violence against women. 

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION

• Oppose bills that deny the rights of trans youth to participate in sports and receive needed healthcare 
  
• Prohibit LGBTQ discrimination of any kind, particularly in the workplace and in housing. 
  
• Ban discrimination against Black students and employees, particularly women, over natural hair styles. 
  
• Support enforcement of Title IX, the federal law which prohibits gender-based discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding. 
  
• Prohibit state standards, textbooks and other instructional materials that limit or restrict the teaching of African American history, and other aspects of American history. 

BUDGET & TAXES

• Support policies that provide adequate revenue coming from appropriate sources to make the critically needed investments. 
  
• Support policies that tax business fairly, with less reliance on regressive taxes, and that ensure local control over the spending of local taxes. (i.e. Industrial Tax) 

VOTING RIGHTS

• Oppose any efforts to make it more difficult for citizens to vote. 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM 

• Oppose efforts to back track on positive steps taken in Louisiana on Criminal Justice Reform.

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

• Support legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, investing in renewable energies and decreasing dependency on fossil fuels. 
  
• Support efforts to limit and remediate the harmful effects of the petrochemical industries in our communities.