Tag: roe

TOGETHER WE DID THIS! Equality Amendment PASSES!

TOGETHER WE DID THIS! Equality Amendment PASSES!

YOU DID THIS! 

>The NYS Legislature heard you and at their Special Session they voted to pass the Equality Amendment. (Click here to read it.)

> Tell your legislators Thank You! They passed the Equality Amendment.

> Call them and say, “Thank You!” 

  • Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins – (518) 455-2585
  • Speaker Heastie – (518) 455-3791; AND
  • your own NYS Senator and Assembly representative. Find their contact information here: https://openstates.org/ny/legislators/

The Bill numbers are: (A10468A/S8797A)

Here is a Sample Script you can use:
“Hello, my name is __________ from zip code ________. I’m contacting {legislator’s name} to say THANK YOU for passing the Equality Amendment. With the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the protections it provides, we must protect abortion in our state constitution. New York State has taken one step closer. Thank you.”

DO IT TODAY. 

> What happens next: The Equality Amendment will now start the three year process needed to put Roe on the ballot in New York in 2024. Next year, the NYS legislature must again pass the Equality Amendment. Once that happens, it will be placed on the ballot.

> Summary of the Equality Amendment: “Provides that no person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state or any subdivision thereof; provides no person shall, because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed, religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive healthcare and autonomy, be subjected to any discrimination in their civil rights by any other person or by any firm, corporation, or institution, or by the state or any agency or subdivision of the state.”
Is Religious Freedom Dead in the US?

Is Religious Freedom Dead in the US?

By Matthew Bitterman

Since its independence, the United States has been a secular nation. The concept of separation of church and state is key, and written in our nation’s founding documents. Sadly, all three branches of the federal government have worked to erode this constitutional principle in recent years. Now, with an extremist majority in control, the US Supreme Court has taken a decisive step to completely do away with that cornerstone of governance.

Without uttering a single word, the leaked US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs Wade clearly links religion and government.  The decision cites the primary reason to overturn Roe as the absence of the recognition of a right to privacy anywhere in the Constitution. This has long been argued by extremists like Rick Santorum as the reason several decisions were incorrectly decided and must be overturned. The recognition to the right to privacy is the cornerstone of decisions recognizing the right to same-sex marriage, to interracial marriage and to contraception. All of these decisions are adamantly opposed by religious extremists, and now by the new US Supreme Court majority.

The right to privacy is the key principle in each of these decisions. It is not mentioned in the Constitution, but neither are many other accepted parts of our daily lives. Can the Supreme Court only issue decisions based on the precise words found in the Constitution? If so, how can it issue a single decision about 21st century concerns such as personal use of the internet.

Each of the justices voting to overturn Roe, thereby enabling all US states and commonwealths to outlaw abortion, has a personal agenda driven in great part by their own religious views. Their inability to separate their person religious worship from their position on the bench is extremely unethical and runs in direct opposition to the founding principle of separation of church and state. This raises the question, how long will it be before Americans are forced to adopt a singular religious view, one – like in Nazi Germany or Russia or China – is dictated by the government and not individual belief? People came to this country to worship freely, away from dictatorial controls.

Individual religions regard abortion and contraception differently, as they do same-sex marriage. Individual people do too. The value of individualism has always been one presented as a cherished aspect of our lives here in the United States. Unfortunately, it is not regarded as it once was. (The Buffalo shooting and its tie to the “great replacement conspiracy theory”  are frightening evidence of that.)

Essentially if Roe vs Wade is officially overturned, religious freedom in the United States will have taken another step in the wrong direction. Personal belief will no longer be “personal”. It will be increasingly state regulated and decided.

LGBTQ+ People are effected by the overturning of Roe v. Wade too!

LGBTQ+ People are effected by the overturning of Roe v. Wade too!

By Olivia Halligan

The first week of May was met with breaking news that the extremist majority of Supreme Court will most likely issue a decision overturning Roe v. Wade.  Roe established abortion as a constitutional right in the United States. Since the leaking of decision, protests have taken place around the Supreme Court, and NPR reporter Ayen Bior  with people about the effect this reversal would have on people in the LGBTQ+ community.

Alexis Rangel, a policy counselor at the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), stated, “Abortion rights and reproductive rights in this decision are about trans rights.” Rangel advocates for transgender rights by organizing in legislative offices at both the federal and state level. She points to the necessity of reproductive healthcare and abortion for transgender men and nonbinary people. Rangel was able to attend a midnight protest after the leaked decision was made public on the night of May 2nd, and she doesn’t plan on stopping there. LGBTQ+ activists warn of the dangers of overturning Roe v. Wade, specifically in vulnerable groups who could lose access to gender-affirming care.

Oneida, a senior national organizer for NCTE, feels attacks on other rights are just beginning. They said, “The tactics that we’re seeing on the attacks of abortion care, are the same tactics we’re seeing with gender-affirming care, and access to it. The attacks are on our health care providers, and then our vital body autonomy.” NCTE is discussing the impact of the reversal with lawmakers at the local, state, and federal levels. The organization is also pushing for the Senate to pass the Equality Act, which would expand protections for LGBTQ+ people.

“There’s a level of violence that comes from forcing people to be pregnant. There’s another layer when you’re trans, you know, issues of gender dysphoria,” says Oneida.

Cathryn Oakley, senior counsel at the Human Right Campaign declared, “The court is opening the door to having things like contraception be put at risk…What we really need now is outrage, anger and action for those among our community who are about to see the most destructive attack on our civil rights in a generation”

The harm that the reversal of Roe v. Wade will cause won’t stop at women’s rights. As Sarah Epperson (@sarah.epperson on instagram) states, “people of all gender identities need and have abortions”.

But what can you do to protect our reproductive rights?

Most importantly, vote. Get active. Join our email list to receive our voting guide, showing which candidates are pro-choice and which are anti-choice. You can also show your support by volunteering with and donating to Choice Matters.

 

Breaking: Supreme Court denies emergency request to block Texas’ 6-week abortion ban

Breaking: Supreme Court denies emergency request to block Texas’ 6-week abortion ban

In a 5-4 vote the U.S. Supreme Court has denied the request to block Texas’ Senate Bill 8 extreme abortion ban. S.B. 8 takes effect immediately and forces almost all legal abortion in Texas to stop.

The law bans abortion after just six weeks of pregnancy—before most women even know they’re pregnant, with no exception for rape or incest.

S.B. 8 is clearly unconstitutional. It effectively eliminates the guarantee in Roe v. Wade and subsequent Supreme Court decisions that women have a right to end their pregnancies before viability, and that states may not impose undue burdens on that decision.

S.B. 8 also effectively deputizing private citizens to enforce this law. “Any private citizen — even if they don’t live in the state — can sue anyone they suspect of “aiding or abetting” abortion care in Texas and be rewarded with at least $10,000 if they win, with all their legal fees paid for by the other side.”* The law allows for anyone to be sued, including doctors, nurses, a friend or family member — or even an Uber driver. Already extremist groups have mounted a web campaign recruiting vigilantes to sue.

This is a full-scale assault on privacy and reproductive health care. Bodily autonomy is a fundamental human right.

Choice Matters is pushing back against this massive assault and we are asking you to join us.

Together we can win passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) and the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act (EACH Woman) in Congress ensuring that all women across the country have full unimpeded access to abortion;

And

Together we will make New York State the Reproductive Rights Sanctuary we know it can be – making sure that all persons have full, equal and unimpeded access to comprehensive reproductive health care throughout the state regardless of their ability to pay or geographic location. We must make sexual education a part of our academic curriculum; medication abortion available on SUNY campuses; and emergency contraception available free of charge.

People’s fundamental freedoms depend on our strength and persistence. Thank you for your passionate support for reproductive freedom.

January 22nd – A Day to Say Thank You

Forty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision, Roe v. Wade. That decision declared that women have the constitutional right to have an abortion. This single court decision has saved the lives of many, many women.

Before you do anything else today, turn to your mother, your grandmother, your aunt, and say, “Thank you. Thank you for fighting so that I may make my own decisions, so that I may have a healthy family if and when I choose to have one.”

Without these brave women and men — the women of J.A.N.E., the clinic escorts, the Dr. Tillers, and so many more — we would not be here to fight another day.

I wish I could tell you we have won and our rights are secure but the fact is that Roe v. Wade only fueled anti-choice extremists in their war against women’s reproductive freedom. These attacks on our rights are frightening: Clinics being bombed; abortion providers disappearing in 87% of the counties in the U.S.; anti-choice legislators fighting to make Kansas the first “abortion-free” state in the nation. Simply watch this video from the Rachel Maddow Show to catch a glimpse of what is playing out on the national stage.

Your support today shows that you understand we must keep fighting.

In New York State we have the opportunity to make history as we did in 1970. In his State of the State address, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the Women’s Equality Act, a 10-point plan that would break down barriers to a woman’s full participation in society and advance her health and well-being. A hallmark of this agenda is a state law protecting every woman’s right to choose safe, legal abortion care here in New York, especially if her health is in danger.

But Westchester is not Albany. Right here in Westchester County, we face anti-choice extremist County Executive Astorino who opposes abortion even in cases of rape, incest or to save a woman’s life. He even vetoed a law which would have provided women the most basic of rights – safe access to reproductive health facilities. Surrounding himself with seven anti-choice legislators, all of whom voted against safe clinic access, Rob Astorino has brought the War on Women and our Families home to Westchester–and his seven allies are helping him target the most vulnerable. They have cut funding for childcare and afterschool programs that would have enabled women to work; and four of them even voted to cut transportation for seniors. Astorino’s 2013 budget cuts $3 million in county funding to three neighborhood health centers.

Unless we change the make-up of Westchester’s county government their laws and budgets will be the ones we live by. Remember these are the people who do not think women deserve safe access to reproductive health care.