Republicans Plan To Assault Women’s Privacy and Control Over Their Bodies

Republicans Hatch Their Plan To Assault Women’s Privacy and Control Over Their Own Bodies

By hook and by crook the Republican Party has forced their agenda into the US Supreme Court. Their first action is to use the religious issue of abortion to violate every woman’s right to privacy and their supreme sovereignty to rule over their own bodies.

You’ll read the reactions to this Republican move from Need To Impeach, MoveOn.org, the ACLU and the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign.

This post will be updated as the situation develops so bookmark or share or save this site address and come back for nothing but facts. The oldest fundraising ploy of the far right has spawned the worst anti-choice legislation for this Constitutional court battle. I won’t go into the false and un-Biblical reasoning that drives this right now. It’s plenty enough to say this is an un-American attempt to put women in a socially inferior class forever.

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Help Raise National Network of Abortion Funds
 
Late on Wednesday, the governor of Alabama signed the most extreme anti-abortion law in the nation, outlawing the procedure in nearly every instance, with no exceptions for rape or incest. 
 
Let that sink in: Republicans continue to push a hard-right agenda — in this case, directly attacking Roe v. Wade with the hope that a deeply conservative majority on the Supreme Court will overturn the will of the American people. This isn’t an isolated incident — this is what defines the GOP, a party that continues to find cruel ways to oppress, control, and criminalize women. This is the kind of behavior that Donald Trump has encouraged and enabled in our country, and other conservative states are already following Alabama’s example. 
 

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We all have a responsibility to oppose systemic injustice. I encourage you to join me in donating to the National Network of Abortion Funds, which works to provide resources, access, and financial aid to those seeking abortions.
 
Thank you, 
Tom Steyer
Founder – Need to Impeach

 

Pulin Modi, MoveOn Civic Action moveon-help@list.moveon.org

May 16 219

Dear MoveOn Member,

Alabama just passed a law banning abortion in nearly all cases—even in instances of rape and incest. And now Michigan lawmakers are looking to follow Alabama’s lead and pass similar legislation restricting women’s access to safe abortions.

This is an urgent moment for the people of Michigan to push back against government control of women’s bodies. Tell Michigan lawmakers: Protect Michigan women’s right to choose.1

It sounds like MoveOn members would be interested in signing a petition in support of this issue, but a local member like you needs to take the lead by launching a campaign on MoveOn’s online petition site. If you get the petition started, we’ll give you support and help you get it going. Can you take the lead?

Yes, I’ll start up this petition

 

I can’t start the petition, but I’ll sign it if someone else does.

Thanks for all you do.
–Maria, Pulin, Tillie, Erica, and the rest of the team


Yellowhammer Fund moveon-help@list.moveon.org

Sign the petition telling the Supreme Court to protect Roe v. Wade and defend our rights.

 

 

Dear MoveOn member,

I’m Helmi Henkin, an organizer with the Yellowhammer Fund in Alabama, which helps people access safe abortions. I started a petition after our state passed an abortion ban which gives the government control over pregnant people’s bodies—even in cases of rape or incest.

As similar extreme bills continue making their way through state legislatures, it’s vital that we send a clear message to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the other members of the Supreme Court of the United States that we will not tolerate these attacks on our protected human rights.

Add your name to our petition to the Supreme Court in defense of the right to a safe and legal abortion.

Don’t overturn Roe v. Wade. Protect abortion rights. End the attacks on reproductive rights and pregnant people’s health. We won’t go back!

Alabama’s extreme bill gives the state control over pregnant people’s bodies and increases the already tremendous barriers that people seeking abortion care in Alabama face in accessing their procedures. Access was already a problem in Alabama, which is why the Yellowhammer Fund exists. 

The government’s control and politicization of our bodies is unacceptable. Families in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, and communities across the nation are under attack as part of a publicly stated, coordinated effort to have the Supreme Court overturn its own legal precedent set by Roe v. Wade.1

This is truly concerning, because some members of the Supreme Court are already signaling a willingness to overturn legal precedent on other cases.2

Sign the petition telling Chief Justice John G. Roberts and the Supreme Court justices to end these extreme policies which deny families the right to determine whether, when, and how to create a family.

People espousing “pro-life” politics frequently talk about how much they love pregnant people and babies. However, their political agenda does not extend to ensuring that pregnancy and birth are safe for pregnant people or that parents, children, and families can access the health care they need to live healthy lives. In Alabama, for example, this means that a large number of pregnant people are going without the prenatal, birth, and postnatal care needed to ensure healthy pregnancies and birth outcomes. Maternal and infant mortality rates are high.3 

We will work with trusted partner organizations such as MoveOn to ensure the support of this petition is used to further pressure key decision-makers, keep the story in the media, and give everyone opportunities to stay engaged! MoveOn members have already raised more than $30,000 for our work in Alabama, and we’re seeing generosity across the country—but we also need to make sure the Supreme Court respects the fundamental right to access an abortion, so we need to act now.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends and family.

Thank you for your support during such an important moment for this movement.

–Helmi Henkin, The Yellowhammer Fund

Sources:

1. “Alabama Governor Signs Abortion Ban Into Law,” NPR, May 14, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65594?t=7&akid=234356%2E37212143%2EwRiBMI

2. “Supreme Court’s Breyer, mentioning abortion case, warns about overturning precedent,” NBC News, May 13, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65593?t=9&akid=234356%2E37212143%2EwRiBMI

3. “States with the worst anti-abortion laws also have the worst infant mortality rates,” Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65595?t=11&akid=234356%2E37212143%2EwRiBMI

You’re receiving this petition because we thought it might interest you. It was created on MoveOn.org, where anyone can start their own online petitions. You can start your own petition here.

women have right to medical privacy

We’re Rallying to Protect Women’s Rights

Dear MoveOn member,

The governor of Alabama just signed the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country—a near total ban—and we all got a terrifying look at the next frontier of right-wing attacks on women.1

Alabama’s law comes on the heels of so-called “heartbeat bills”—backdoor abortion bans that will functionally outlaw all abortions—in Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

The politicians behind these laws have one very specific end goal in mind: overturning Roe v. Wade. They all know that these laws will never go into effect as they are written; their express goal is for them to be challenged in the courts, land in the conservative-held Supreme Court, and serve as the catalyst for a complete ban on abortions in America.

This is draconian. It is terrifying. And we cannot let it happen.

That is why MoveOn is joining with many partners to organize large demonstrations at state capitols around the country on Tuesday to demand that state lawmakers take action to protect the right to safe and legal abortions around the country.

We must turn our outrage into action—right now. There’s a lot we can do to affect the future of abortion rights—and women’s rights—in America. We can, and must, call on elected officials to condemn the bans, focus heated attention on the courts reviewing these decisions, and support groups on the ground that provide much-needed resources to women seeking abortion care in states like Alabama. (For example, in just the past 24 hours, MoveOn members have donated close to $100,000 to the Yellowhammer Fund in Alabama.)

But these actions do not help protect access to abortion care in the long term. That can happen only through the passage of state laws that ensure that clinics will stay open and that women will be able to have access to affordable, legal abortion care even if Roe falls in the Supreme Court.

Only 10 states in the United States currently have laws on the books that will protect abortion access in the absence of Roe v. Wade, and 18 have so-called “trigger laws” which will outlaw abortion as soon as Roe is overturned and it is legal to do so.2

We must push state lawmakers to pass laws right now that will expand and protect abortion access in states across the country, as Republicans ratchet up their all-out war on women in the courts.

That is why MoveOn is joining reproductive justice, women’s rights, and other progressive partners to hold rallies at state capitols across the country on Tuesday. We need to work through the weekend to help organize, recruit to, and prepare for these events and ensure that the events are seen by as many people as possible. And we need your help.

So please click here to chip in $3 right now to help us pull off emergency rallies at state capitols next Tuesday.

The news over the past week has been devastating and terrifying. The worst fears felt by so many women on November 8, 2016, have come true.

Make no mistake: The laws passed in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, and elsewhere are meant to punish women—especially poor women and disproportionately women of color who lack the resources to travel across state lines for abortion care.

These laws are punitive. They are hateful. And they are being pushed by male politicians without even the most basic scientific understanding of women’s health.

But hope is not lost. Now is the time to show our true people power. We must rise up together in a grassroots movement to stop the assault on women’s rights from the right and ensure that abortion care is kept safe, legal, and accessible for all.

Please click here to chip in $3 right now to help us launch and support rallies in states across the country on Tuesday demanding protections for abortion care.

Thanks for all you do.

–Emma, Robert, Brian, Jayne, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. “Alabama just passed a near-total ban on abortion,” Vox, May 15, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65626?t=5&akid=234424%2E37212143%2EqmmshP

2. “Abortion Policy in the Absence of Roe,” The Guttmacher Institute, May 1, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/42783?t=7&akid=234424%2E37212143%2EqmmshP

Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.


Bernie Sanders Has A Message For His Male Supporters In The South: Abortion Isn’t Just A Woman’s Issue

Here’s How Bernie Sanders Took A Stand For Women Recently

According to Buzzfeed:

At the start of a four-day road trip across the South — looping east from Asheville, North Carolina, south to rural South Carolina, west to black churches in Atlanta, through the Talladega National Forest to end here Alabama, now home to the most restrictive abortion policy in the United States — Bernie Sanders had a message for his male supporters.
Bernie speaks down south

“Let me say something to the men who are here today,” he said an outdoor venue in Asheville, a tree-lined patch of green along the French Broad River. “This is not just a woman’s issue.”

The 77-year-old senator pointed his finger at the crowd from right to left.

“This is an issue that impacts all of us. And the men must stand with the women in their moment of need.”

Before moving through the rest of his speech — a 40-minute demand for a more “just” system of health care, voting, education, and economics — Sanders deviated from his prepared remarks, according to a copy of his speech, to add one more thing.

“Alright, guys?” he asked. “You in this struggle as well?” The crowd in Asheville, a seat of liberal activism in the red-leaning state, roared back in reply.

The Vermont senator repeated the refrain at most of his rallies this weekend, decrying the abortion law passed here as “disturbing,” “grotesque,” “blatantly unconstitutional,” and a threat to the lives of women.

The Alabama Human Life Protection Act, signed into law on Wednesday by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, outlaws almost all abortions in the state, even for victims of rape and incest. Four other states — Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Ohio — have signed similarly restrictive laws as part of a coordinated effort to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that protects a woman’s right to an abortion.

Sanders, who like many of the Democratic presidential candidates on the campaign trail this weekend spoke in fervent terms about fighting the laws, made it a particular point to address the men in the audience while doing so.

In 2016, during the tight and at times bitter contest for the Democratic nomination, some Hillary Clinton supporters viewed Sanders voters as a less diverse coalition standing in the way of the first woman president. Women who supported Clinton took particular issue with his comment, one he later reversed, stating that Washington-based abortion-rights groups that endorsed Clinton “are, in fact, part of the establishment.”

Asked about the choice to directly address his male supporters, Sanders seemed pleased that someone had noticed. “Good. Good question!” he said. “Because it’s, it’s not just a woman’s issue. It’s obviously a woman that goes to get an abortion, but this is an issue that men cannot separate themselves from it.”

“Last I heard, it takes two to have a baby,” he added.

“I think men understand that, but I think that this is not just a woman’s issue. It’s an issue that all of us have got to stand up and say that in America in 2019 you cannot take away a woman’s right to control her own body — and men have got to stand with the women on this issue.

Over the weekend, from Asheville to Charlotte to Birmingham, Sanders promised to “fight those laws in every way possible.” If implemented, he told supporters, “the consequences will be absolutely disastrous and threaten the very lives of women. It is not an exaggeration to say that banning legal, medically assisted abortion — and forcing women back into the arms of quacks — will quite literally kill women.” “That is what happened before Roe v. Wade, and we will not go back.”

Sanders crossed the Alabama state line on Sunday afternoon, arriving at Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park, a civil rights landmark lined with statues of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the four girls killed in the 16th St. Baptist Church bombing.

Across the crowd, women pumped their “Bernie” signs in the air as Sanders spoke at length about the law, calling it “draconian” and a matter of “life and death.” Earlier on Sunday, he told them, the host of NBC’s Meet the Press asked if Sanders would, if elected president, apply a “litmus test” 0n Roe v. Wade when choosing to nominate a Supreme Court justice. “Let me tell you what I told him,” he yelled. “Yes! I will have one. I will not appoint anyone to the United States Supreme Court unless that man or woman is prepared to defend Roe v. Wade.”

Sanders, however, did not delve into more specifics about what he would do to fight the laws if elected. Sen. Elizabeth Warren put forward a detailed plan Friday for what she would do, including pushing for federal laws that would enshrine Roe’s protections and bar states from passing restrictive laws.

 


NEWS FROM THE ACLU

Ohio Lawmakers Ignored Us When They Banned Abortion.
They Can’t Ignore Us in the Courtroom.

By Chrisse France, Executive Director, Preterm
MAY 17, 2019

Last month, Gov. Mike DeWine signed the Ohio Legislature’s abortion ban into law. The law recklessly prohibits abortions starting around six weeks. As an abortion provider, I can tell you this is, in fact, a ban on all abortions in Ohio. Approximately 90% of abortions in Ohio take place at or after six weeks. Before six weeks, most people do not even know they are pregnant.
right to control your own pussy

In defense of people across Ohio, I knew that our clinic couldn’t stand by and do nothing while politicians intrude on one of the most private and personal decisions an individual can make. That’s why this week, my clinic, Preterm in Cleveland, joined our partners at the ACLU and Planned Parenthood to announce that we are challenging Ohio’s law banning abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy on behalf of our physicians, staff, board, and patients.

In banning abortion, Gov. DeWine and the legislature sent a clear message to Ohioans. They’re telling those who would seek or consider abortion that their personal decisions do not matter. They’re telling them that their futures do not matter. They’re telling them that their past traumas do not matter. They’re telling them that they do not matter.

TAKE ACTION IN YOUR AREA

Every day at Preterm, women, pregnant people, and their loved ones walk through our doors needing compassion, empathy, support, and safe, affordable abortion care. They come to us because they know they will be cared for as whole people, without judgment or shame.

The patient struggling to make ends meet. The family who doesn’t have health insurance. The young person who needs help talking to their parents or is too afraid to. The single mom who is doing her best to care for the children she has. They are all our patients.

Each person’s story is unique, their circumstances are theirs alone. Take a recent patient who drove over nine hours to see us. She didn’t have an abortion clinic or a safe place to go in her hometown. She and her partner came to us needing financial assistance. They came to us needing compassion, and they came to us needing a safe abortion. They found it all at Preterm and told us they had no regrets.

We know firsthand that the decision of whether or when to become a parent and how many children to have are some of the most important life decisions we make. When people can make decisions that are best for their lives, families thrive, and we build communities where each of us can participate with dignity and respect.

Politicians make it nearly impossible for women and people who can become pregnant in Ohio to make personal, healthy decisions about their pregnancies. When care is unavailable, the harm falls hardest on those struggling financially or those who already face significant barriers to health care — young people, people of color, people in poverty, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and people of varying immigration status.

Like when a young woman from a rural county in Ohio came to us needing abortion care. She was alone, with only her car and a few dollars. Our volunteers were there to help her past the protesters. Our staff was there to help her navigate paperwork and legal hurdles. Our staff was there to help her get the financial help she needed for her care.

And when our staff left the building that night and noticed her sitting alone in her car, they were there to help her find a safe place to stay and to help her pay for it. The next day, they held her hand and gave her the safe abortion she asked for.

Patients often thank us for treating them like human beings, for seeing their whole lives — their struggles, their successes, their vulnerabilities, and their triumphs. Ohio politicians do not see whole people’s lives. They do not understand the hurdles, the complexities, and the deep decisionmaking that each of our patients faces. And if some do, they simply don’t care.

This abortion ban was passed despite opposition from expert physicians who provide abortion care and comprehensive OBGYN services. Politicians ignored the testimony of nurses, social workers, and other medical experts who know that abortion is safe and that access to abortion care is critical to public health. Ohio politicians ignored the voices of the people who are closest to the issue, including the voices of those who have received abortions. But they cannot ignore us in the courtroom.

Women and people who can become pregnant in Ohio need access to abortion care. They need it in whatever way they see fit. They need it to be affordable. They need it without crossing state lines. They need it from healthcare providers in their community whom they trust. That is why, with our friends at the ACLU, we are taking on this unconscionable, dangerous abortion ban. We are, now and always, committed to fighting to keep abortion legal, available, and free of shame and judgment.

Chrisse France is the executive director of Preterm, an independent, nonprofit abortion and sexual health clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

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