News Round-up: Friday, April 10, 2009

I wrote a news round up for a different audience today, but since it was a good re-cap of the week's events, I thought I'd repurpose it for the blog. I hope you enjoy!

North Dakota's "Personhood" Decision: Late last week, mere hours after we sent out the Liberty Lowdown, the North Dakota state Senate, anti-choice majority and all, rejected a dangerous so-called "personhood" bill that would have outlawed abortion and could have led to bans on birth control, stem-cell research, and in-vitro fertilization.

• Fighting this dangerous bill was a top priority for NARAL Pro-Choice America:
  We contacted our members in North Dakota with email alerts and volunteer phone banks that reached 542 supporters in the state.
• In addition, nearly 20,000 national activists sent messages to North Dakota's anti-choice Gov. John Hoeven, urging him to veto any abortion-ban legislation that reaches his desk.

Thanks for all your help in making this happen.

Pro-Choice Activists Speak Up, Leave Comments: A month ago, the Obama administration moved to repeal the Bush-era Federal Refusal Rule and pro-choice Americans everywhere commented on the HHS website to ensure their support of this action was recognized. April 9 (yesterday) was the deadline for comments. We'll keep you posted as to the next move by the Obama administration, but that leads us to the next item...

... Donna Crane, policy director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, takes her act on the road: Anti-choicers say "conscience clause," we say "Federal Refusal Rule," but no matter what you call it, Donna Crane had the issue covered on Wednesday. On Cox broadcasting (airing in Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas and California), Donna clarified the dangerous affects of this unnecessary rule. Then, she hopped on over to CNN, where she did it all over again, this time for the Lou Dobbs show:  

To watch the segment, visit the Lou Dobbs website.

Rep. Paul Hodes Does New Hampshire Proud: This week, we praised pro-choice Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) for working to eliminate funding for dangerous and deceptive "abstinence-only" programs in the FY'10 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill. Other pro-choice lawmakers aiding this specific effort include Reps. Lois Capps (D-CA), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Jane Harman (D-CA), and Diana DeGette (D-CO).

We never tire of pro-choice lawmakers taking the lead on policies that prevent unintended pregnancy and therefore reduce the need for abortion. Thanks Rep. Hodes!

Three-for-Three: in name and in coverage: While we're still in the early stages of our Three-for-Three campaign (to ensure the confirmation of three key Obama nominees: Judge David Hamilton, Prof. Dawn Johnsen, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius), we've still managed to go three-for-three in the media coverage of our campaign. Check out two great posts: one in Talking Points Memo DC and one shout-out in Politico. In a piece titled "NARAL Targeting Moderate Republicans, Conservative Democrats," reporter Brian Beutler spoke with our policy director Donna Crane:

Today, I spoke with NARAL's policy director Donna Crane, who gave me a bit more detail about the nature of their campaign. "We have emails going out [to members of Congress] almost every day," Crane said, "[and] we're doing phone banking for targeted senators."

Those targets won't come as much surprise. Crane says, "in general the senators we look at for these kinds of issues are the two senators from Maine, [Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins] pulled one way by their party and another by their values." She adds that "Sen. Specter...is somebody we're looking at very closely."

Stay tuned for more information.

Meet the new Rahm Emanuel, Representative-elect Mike Quigley: Another day, another seat safe in the pro-choice column! On Tuesday, Mike Quigley easily defeated his anti-choice opponent with 69 percent of the vote. Representative-elect Quigley has been a strong supporter of the right to choose as a county commissioner and we look forward to working with him in Congress. NARAL Pro-Choice America mobilized its volunteers and activists in the final weeks of the campaign to keep IL-05 in the pro-choice column by sending email alerts to NARAL Pro-Choice America's 1800+ activists in the district urging them to vote for Quigley.

While the pro-choice world collectively holds their breath for a Scott Murphy win in NY-20, there still hasn't been a final ruling. Last counts have Murphy in an eight-vote lead, but nothing has been certified. We'll keep you posted.