Senators Franken & Klobuchar need to hear from you, NOW

Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Washington, DC Office: 1-888-224-9043

Minneapolis Office: 612-727-5220

Sen. Al Franken

Washington, DC Office: (202) 224-5641

St. Paul Office: (651) 221-1016

 

Here’s what you can say:

I’m a member of the Minnesota chapter of the National Organization for Women, and I’m calling on behalf of millions of women to let you know just how disgusted we by the health reform bill that passed the House.

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment was brought to the floor after a late-night, backroom deal with religious zealots, and as a result, women could be facing the most serious challenge ever to our constitutionally protected reproductive rights.

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment was unnecessary: The Hyde Amendment already ensures that no federal funds will be used to pay for abortion –regardless of whatever health care bill becomes law.

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment would, for the first time, make it difficult or impossible for women spending even 100% of their own money to cover abortion through private insurance plans … if they happen to have purchased insurance through a health insurance exchange.

This is unconscionable and I urge the Senator to take a strong stand against any similar measures. NOW will not support health reform that harms women. I will be watching your actions closely in the coming weeks.

Ask when your Senators will be in town, and request meetings with each of them. If you are unable to meet in person with a Senator, ask to meet with a staff person dealing with health insurance reform. Bring several NOW members with you if you can.

We must hold our elected officials accountable.  TAKE ACTION NOW!

 

Welcome to a new definition of Stupak….

…courtesy of Urban Dictionary.com:

A medical condition (subset of sepsis) resulting from unsafe -unnecessarily so – back alley abortions as a result of the “Stupak Amendment” to the 2009 Health Care Reform Bill.

Doctor: Unfortunately, while this would have been covered under private insurance carriers, public plans were barred from including women’s health measures. I’m sorry, you’ll have to see “Dr. Julio” in the alley behind 7-11.

(Three weeks later.)

Doctor: I believe you’ve developed Stupak, a form of sepsis, a severe illness in which the bloodstream is overwhelmed by bacteria.

Stay tuned for information about how YOU can take action to stop the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the Health Care Reform Act.

 

Happy Love Your Body Day!

In honor of today’s Love Your Body day, NOW has put together a quiz challenging what you may or may not know about body image.

NOW’s Love Your Body Quiz!

I only got a score of 70%….looks like I have some reading to do.

 

Pro-Choice Costume Party & Trivia Event!

…brought to you by the Minnesota Choice Coalition, of which Minnesota NOW is a proud founding member.

From their website:

You’ve heard of wearing your politics on your sleeve, but what about wearing your pro-choice politics on your entire body? Well, get excited because now you can do just that at the Minnesota Choice Coalition’s Pro-Choice Costume Party and Trivia Night at the Kitty Cat Klub on Thursday October 29th!

Now you’re probably thinking, “Whoa, that sounds really fun— but what should I wear?” Get creative! Get 27 of your friends together and come as a pack of birth control pills!Or grab a hula-hoop and a cape and come as everyone’s favorite super-hero, THE RING! Or maybe you’re more interested in sex education—come as something really scary: abstinence-only Annie!

(a brief Google search turned up this pre-made condom costume for those who aren’t crafty.)

Costumes are encouraged, but certainly not required—what’s more important is that you are there!

Here are the details:

Where: Kitty Cat Klub; 315 14th Ave SE, Minneapolis; http://www.kittycatklub.net/index.html

When: Thursday, October 29th; 6-8pm

Who: Any pro-choicers aged 21 and up

Why: Because the idea of losing our right to choose is terrifying!!! And because costumes are fun!

Cost: FREE! Happy hour drink specials from 6-7pm
Prizes will be awarded for best costume and highest trivia score. This is going to be a one-of-a-kind gathering, to be sure—hope to see you there!

 

Listen to Minnesota NOW President Shannon Drury….

…on local radio program Quick on the UpTake!  She spoke on October 9, 2009, about Minnesota NOW’s support for a recently passed amendment to the Defense Apropriations Bill that would bar military contractors from settling sexual assault, sexual harrassment, and other civil rights cases in binding (and secret) arbitration.

To listen, click this link: http://the-uptake.groups.theuptake.org/en/videogalleryView/id/2467/

To learn more about the amendment, why U.S. Sen. Al Franken introduced it, and what other Minnesota groups supported it: Franken Amendment to Support Victims of Sexual Assault Passes (Minnesota Independent)

 

Minnesota NOW in Fargo? You betcha

I am proud to announce that our recently elected State Vice-President, Barbra Peterson, will represent Minnesota NOW at the Red River Clinic in Fargo, ND, to support the clinic staff and their patients who are being targeted for harassment in a nationally orchestrated campaign called “40 Days for Life.”  Barbra and four carloads of Minnesota allies will travel to Fargo this Wednesday, September 23rd, for the first day of this campaign.

Why does Minnesota NOW need to support Fargo?

Fargo’s Red River Women’s Clinic is the only facility in all of North Dakota that provides abortion care, and its location on the border of Minnesota makes it the closest clinic for women in western Minnesota, who would otherwise have to travel to the Twin Cities to obtain an abortion. In fact, 30% of all the procedures performed at the clinic are for residents of Minnesota.

Additionally, because there is not one physician in North Dakota who provides abortion care, the clinic’s doctors must travel from elsewhere, primarily from the Twin Cities, to see patients once a week. The first day of the anti-choice campaign is a clinic day, so volunteer escorts will be present to ensure patients’ emotional and physical safety as they access the clinic.

A Red River Clinic spokesperson told us that, in general, protests at the clinic have intensified since the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and that this is the third year that the national organization has mobilized in Fargo.

For more information on the “40 Days” campaign:

• North Dakota campaign site: http://www.40daysforlifend.com/
• National organization site: http://40daysforlife.com/ (includes a countdown clock to the event)

For more information on why reproductive freedom is essential for all women, no matter where they live:

http://www.now.org/issues/abortion/

Please consider a donation to Minnesota NOW to show your support for Barbra Peterson and the volunteers who are standing up for women’s civil rights.  Your support makes actions like this possible!

 

Today in Herstory: 9/14 birthday of Margaret Sanger

Today September 14th is the birthday of the woman who caused science fiction writer H.G. Wells to say: “The movement she started will grow to be, a hundred years from now, the most influential of all time.” That woman is Margaret Sanger, (books by this author) born in Corning, New York (1879). She coined the term “birth control,” she was its most famous advocate in the United States, and she founded Planned Parenthood.

Margaret Sanger was born into a working-class Irish family. Her mother died when she was 50, after 18 pregnancies. Margaret went to New York City, became a nurse, got married, and gave birth to three kids. As a nurse, she worked in the maternity ward on the Lower East Side, and many of her patients were poor, some of them living on the streets. They seemed old to her by the time they were 35, and many of them ended up in the hospital from self-induced abortions, which often killed them. Margaret nursed one mother back to health after she gave herself an abortion, and heard the woman beg the doctor for some protection against another pregnancy; the doctor told the woman to make her husband sleep outside. That woman died six months later, after a botched abortion, and Margaret Sanger gave up nursing, convinced that she needed to work for a more systematic change.

At the time, contraceptives were illegal in the United States, and it was illegal even to send information about contraception through the U.S. Postal Service. The information and products were out there, but a privilege only of the wealthy, who knew how to work the system.

Margaret Sanger wrote a series of articles called “What Every Girl Should Know,” and published a radical newspaper, Woman Rebel, with information about contraception. In 1914, she was indicted for sending information about birth control through the mail. She fled to Europe, where she observed birth control clinics, and eventually came back to face charges. But after her five-year-old daughter died of pneumonia, the sympathetic public was on her side, and the charges were dropped.

But Sanger kept going. In 1916, she and her sister, who was also a nurse, opened a birth control clinic in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, modeled after the clinics that Sanger had seen in Holland. Neighborhood residents, mostly Italian and Jewish immigrants, flocked to the clinic for information. Nine days later, the police closed it down and arrested Sanger, her sister, and the clinic’s interpreter. Sanger went to prison and her sister went on a hunger strike.

The publicity worked: Soon birth control became a matter of public discourse. In 1921, Sanger founded the American Birth Control League, which in 1946 became Planned Parenthood Federation of America. And she funded research to create a contraceptive pill.

She died at age 87, a few months after the landmark Supreme Court decision Griswold vs. Connecticut finally made birth control legal for married couples

 

National Feminists Speak Out!

Straight outta Washington DC–it’s the new blog from our national office!

Keep up to date and join the conversation here:

Say it Sister! NOW’s Blog for Equality

 

The Right To Bare Legs?

So I ran across this piece on Huffington Post about Michelle Obama. It seems that our First Lady has taken it upon herself to — *gasp* — wear shorts! Obviously Huffington Post was concerned that this scandalous leg-baring may have horrified the American populous, posted a poll for their readers. Generously, it seems, 59% of HufPo readers said that the First Lady “Absolutely” had the right to wear shorts. 25% said that while her clothing choice was not ideal, the would survive provided she didn’t do it again. And 16% said it was simply inappropriate. 

Wow. By the way if you look at the shorts in question they cover a lot more than the shorts you see on your average physically fit woman. But more important, what is this, 1800? Good God, did we see her knees? Will the American public even handle the shock of knowing that the wife of their President is a woman with kneecaps and legs and everything? Oh I know, let’s post a poll and and make sure. And then, when a full 59% of readers say they’re not alarmed, let’s make it a headline.

How, in this day and age, can we questions a woman’s right to wear shorts?

 

Reminder: MN CAFE Coalition Kickoff Event!

Minnesota NOW is a founding member of the MN CAFE (Minnesota Constitutional Amendment For Equality) Coalition. We invite you to join us on Wednesday, August 26 as we celebrate Women’s Equality Day by kicking off the coalition’s campaign to put an Equal Rights Amendment on Minnesota’s state constitution.

NOW is the time for gender equality!

Where: Fabulous Fern’s Bar & Grill
400 Selby Ave, St. Paul

When: 5-8 p.m, Wednesday, August 26