WBA supports An Act to Lift the Cap on Kids (SD1762/HD1262) the centerpiece of a campaign to repeal the Family Cap, a law which denies TAFDC cash assistance to a child born after the family first received TAFDC. Reproductive Rights: An Act relative to Advancing Contraception Coverage and Economic Security in our State (SD939/HD450) would codify the access to cost-free preventive care for women from ACA into state law, protecting access to no-copay birth control by requiring insurers cover all contraceptive measures approved by the FDA. Employment: The WBA supports two bills. An Act Establishing a Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program (SD1768/HD2573) requires employers to offer employees up to 16 weeks of paid leave for family care and up to 26 weeks for temporary disability leave. Employees would be eligible for such benefits after 1,250 hours of service, the current federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) standard. An Act Establishing the Massachusetts Pregnant Workers Fairness (SD338/HD955) amends MGL §4, ch.151B to cover women (pregnant & nursing) who need minor accommodations. Legal Services Funding: The WBA supports a funding increase to $23M for FY2018 budget item 0321-1600: General Support for legal services, funding for Battered Women's Legal Assistance Project, a program for advocacy for Medicare and a Disability Benefits Project to correct the shameful unmet need. Women's Health: The WBA supports An Act to Protect Girls from Genital Mutilation (SD1466/HD2873), a redraft developed by the WBA, which would protect girls in Massachusetts from harm from female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM involves removing part or all of a girl's healthy sex organs and surrounding tissue for non-medical reasons resulting in health consequences, death in childbirth and lifelong trauma and is recognized by the UN as a violation of human rights. Civil Rights In order to protect transgender people, the WBA supports a bill to add "gender identity or expression" to hate crimes and employment, housing, credit, public accommodation and education non-discrimination laws. An Act Relative to Transgender Equal Rights (S764/H502). Recent Legislative Achievements Employment: An Act to Establish Pay Equity to protect employees' freedom of speech regarding pay, eliminate the use of salary history in the hiring process, require compensation to be based on comparable skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions and require employers to include minimum pay in job postings. Signed into law as Chapter 177 of the Acts of 2016 on 8/16. Transgender Civil Rights: An Act Relative