February 8, 2008
Honaker the Horrifying has a Hearing
Sharon Breitweiser, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wyoming
As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, the horrifying Honaker – Richard Honaker, that is – has unfortunately received his hearing date… Tuesday, February 12. Activists across the country have already sent more than 66,000 emails to the Senate opposing Honaker… So, now that he has a hearing date, we have to redouble our efforts.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a strong pro-choice leader, will chair the hearing. We need you to urge her to ask the tough questions that will put Richard Honaker’s anti-choice views into the spotlight.
Click here to urge Sen. Feinstein to help expose the extreme nature of this Bush nominee.
I know there’s a lot of competing news – with the elections and everything – but stopping Honaker is critical. So let me back up and refresh your memory of the horror that is Honaker.
As I wrote in March 2007, with the blessings of two solidly anti-choice lawmakers, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and the now-late Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY), President Bush nominated Rock Springs lawyer Richard Honaker for a federal judgeship in Wyoming. When an Associated Press reporter called for a quote, I really didn’t quite know where to start. From my March 2007 entry:
Should I start with the list of anti-choice legislation he championed in the state legislature – such as the “Human Life Protection Act,” a bill he authored that would have outlawed almost all abortion? Maybe I should highlight the major role Americans United for Life played in developing his “Human Life Protection Act?” The group even paid for his trip to Chicago, where they advised him on how to advance this legislation! Or maybe it would be better to focus on his role with the “Unseen Hands of Prayer Circle PAC” – the group that was formed to try to push an abortion ban through the ballot process after it failed in the legislature? Honaker even represented the extreme anti-choice group before the State Supreme Court and succeeded in getting the measure on the 1994 statewide ballot – but fortunately, Wyoming voters overwhelmingly rejected the Honaker abortion ban by a 61-39 percent margin.
And that’s not even all of it. You can read more about Honaker here .
So remember: the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on Honaker this Tuesday, February 12. Please take a moment to urge Sen. Feinstein to help expose the extreme nature of this Bush nominee.
And don't forget that after you contact Sen. Feinstein, please click here to ask your friends and family to help us make sure Richard Honaker’s nomination is rejected.
Posted by Blog for Choice at 3:33 PM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2007
FOCA reaches its 100th congressional cosponsor
Promising news for a rainy Friday... but first, a recap:
The anti-choice movement has been slowly but surely chipping away at a woman's right to choose. In fact, more than 500 anti-choice measures have been enacted in the states since 1995. The most recent and devastating of these attacks on choice was the Supreme Court's closely divided and bitter decision upholding the Federal Abortion Ban.
In response, the pro-choice community is working to guarantee the right to choose through the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) – a measure that will codify Roe v. Wade and guarantee the right to choose for future generations of women.
We're excited to announce that FOCA recently reached its 100th congressional cosponsor. To see if your member of congress is one of the cosponsors, click here.
If not, click here to urge them to become a sponsor.
Make no mistake—a woman's right to choose is being actively attacked and is very vulnerable. Now is the time to stand up for what you believe in—by getting active, speaking out, and helping to elect pro-choice candidates this year and a pro-choice president in 2008!
Posted by Molly at 3:56 PM | Comments (1)
July 16, 2007
Surgeon General's warning: Anti-choice president is hazardous to your health
Take action now! Make sure that parents and their children are getting accurate information about sex, contraception and abortion.
President Bush and the Department of Health and Human Services isn't about to lend a helping hand, either. Recently the Bush administration added politically biased and misleading anti-choice claims to a website called www.4parents.gov. The site now includes the following statement: "Abortions can have complications. There may be emotional consequences, as well: some women say they feel sad and some use more alcohol or drugs than before."This is no surprise coming from the same administration that was forced to remove medically inaccurate claims linking abortion to breast cancer from the National Institute of Health's website. and whose former Surgeon General Richard Carmona told Congress that, "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried." [Associated Press, 7/11/2007]
Please don't let this attack go unanswered. Click here to take action.
Posted by Jessica at 9:33 AM | Comments (0)
May 2, 2007
Take action for teens!
Our teens deserve better: As your representatives to help prevent teen pregnancy by supporting the Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Responsibility, and Opportunity Act (S.1137/H.R.2097). This bill would help schools set up programs that encourage teens to delay sexual activity and help parents communicate with their children about sex.
Click here to action.
Posted by Jessica at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2007
Get calling!
Feeling down about the Supreme Court decision? Well do something!
NARAL Pro-Choice America has started an all-out campaign to support the Freedom of Choice Act. The Freedom of Choice Act would effectively repeal the Federal Abortion Ban by codifying Roe v. Wade into law, guaranteeing women's right to choose.
So here's what you can do:
Join us in our National Call-In Day to Support the Freedom of Choice Act--today!
Call 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to both of your senators and your representative. Use the following script:
“Please cosponsor the Freedom of Choice Act (H.R.1964/S.1173) to codify Roe v. Wade and guarantee the right to choose for future generations of women.”
That's all! So please, take the time to ensure that women's rights are protected; make that call!
Posted by Jessica at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2007
Wal-Mart pharmacist laughs at woman who asks for Plan B
Here’s a lovely story.
Last month, Tashina Byrd and her boyfriend went to a Wal-Mart pharmacy to purchase Plan B after their condom broke. Not only did the pharmacist refuse to give them emergency contraception—he laughed in their faces.
"We have it on hand, but there's no one here who can dispense it,” he said.
NARAL Pro-Choice America is asking folks to send Wal-Mart President & CEO H. Lee Scott, Jr. a message urging him to “require Wal-Mart pharmacies to fulfill requests for Plan B without intimidation, humiliation, or delay.” Take action here.
Posted by Jessica at 11:48 AM | Comments (2)
January 31, 2007
Take action for rape survivor in Florida
Planned Parenthood has an action item concerning the young woman who was put in jail and denied emergency contraception after being raped. Take action here.
Posted by Jessica at 3:31 PM | Comments (0)
January 5, 2007
Resect yourself, protect yourself.
Remember the folks that brought you the Respect Yourself. Protect Yourself. condom campaign? Well Advocates for Youth are at it again.
Go join their campaign by designing your own ad touting condom-use and you could win $500 and see your design distributed across the United States!
Posted by Jessica at 1:21 PM | Comments (1)
December 19, 2006
Vote for your Hero and Zero of 2006!
Sweet. It's been a heck of a year for choice, and now you can tell NARAL Pro-Choice America who deserves kudos, and who deserves a good kick in the ass. Vote for the Hero and Zero of the Year award!
Your Zero of 2006...will it be anti-choice candidates; South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds; Colorado Gov. Bill Owens; or Eric Keroack?
You can check out a full list here of why these folks (all of them zeros, imho) made the cut.
For your Hero of 2006?
Pro-Choice freshman class in Congress; NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts; South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families; or Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath.
Again, for a full explanation of their hero-ness, click here.
And get voting!
Posted by Jessica at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
December 8, 2006
Georgia: One Step Closer to Outlawing Abortion
By Dionne Vann, executive director, NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia
You must be kidding me!
Not even a month after South Dakota voters repealed a ban on abortion, and voters across the country put more pro-choice voices in Congress, anti-choice legislator Rep. Bobby Franklin (HD 43) introduced a similar ban to outlaw abortion in Georgia. Can you believe it? A BAN THAT WOULD OUTLAW ABORTION!
With pre-filed HB1, Georgia’s anti-choice politicians are, once again, interfering in women’s personal, private decisions. This bill would make providing abortion care in the state of Georgia a felony, even to protect a woman’s health. What’s more, the punishment is LIFE IN PRISON or the DEATH PENALTY. This ban is not only dangerous, it’s unconstitutional.
What anti-choice legislators fail to realize is that Georgians are tired of government interference in Washington and at the state house. They’re also tired of hypocrisy. If the legislators were really serious about reducing the need for abortion, they would stop writing bills that harm women and their families and focus on ideas that help prevent unintended pregnancy.
Georgians are tired of politicians overstepping and interfering in personal, private decisions that should be between women, their doctors, their families, and their God.
We must prepare to fight back against this attack on the Roe v. Wade case, which saved many women from “back-alley abortions”. That’s why NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia is raising funds now to hire a full-time lobbyist to make sure Georgia’s pro-choice majority is represented in the state capitol.
For more information, please click here. To take action, click here.
Posted by Blog for Choice at 11:36 AM | Comments (3)
November 21, 2006
Take action againt Bush's latest anti-choicer!
Take action against Dr. Erick Keroack, an anti-choicer that President Bush appointed to head up family planning in the the Department of Health and Human Services.
Keroack has dedicated his career to telling women that birth control and abortion are wrong. He most recently was the medical director for A Woman's Concern, a network of six anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers” in Massachusetts that maintains a policy that states: “the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness.”
Help block Keroack; send a message to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, urging him to reject Keroack’s appointment.
Posted by Jessica at 10:55 AM | Comments (1)
November 16, 2006
Plan B hits shelves this week—will your pharmacy have it?
This week (finally!) women will be able to obtain Plan B without a prescription. But will your local pharmacy stock emergency contraception?
Click here to tell national pharmacy chains - CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens - to adopt a policy requiring all of their stores to stock Plan B.
Take action now!
Posted by Jessica at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)
November 8, 2006
Woo hoo!
There was a ton of pro-choice victories last night and I for one, am elated.
Take a minute to welcome the new pro-choice voices of Congress!
Posted by Jessica at 11:57 AM | Comments (5)
November 7, 2006
Don't forget...
To keep track of the status of choice in your state--especially today!
Posted by Jessica at 3:59 PM | Comments (0)
Have you voted today?
Tell us your voting stories in comments!
Posted by Jessica at 3:57 PM | Comments (2)
June 16, 2006
Take the Pro-Choice pledge
NARAL is asking people to take a pro-choice pledge for the 2006 elections. With the scary abortion ban trend that taking the states by storm, we really can’t afford not to do something.
Your challenge – and mine, and every person who stands with us – is to fight the battle at the source by electing pro-choice candidates at every level across the country.
Please click here now to pledge to vote pro-choice on November 7.
Posted by Jessica at 9:40 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 7, 2006
Take Action against extremist pharmacists!
It should be simple: a woman walks into a pharmacy with her prescription and walks out with her medicine. Right?If only it were that easy.
Rogue anti-choice pharmacists across the country are refusing to fill women's prescriptions for birth control. To make matters worse, so far this year anti-choice lawmakers in 18 states are trying to legalize this blatant discrimination.
NARAL Pro-Choice America is letting folks know how they can stop the madness. And they’re even putting it list form.
Ask your members of Congress to support legislation to ensure that women can get their prescriptions filled in any pharmacy.
Tell 5 friends about NARAL Pro-Choice America's work to stop pharmacy refusals and get a free magnet.
Download and print our "Who Invited the Pharmacist?" ad that NARAL Pro-Choice America has been running in magazines and newspapers across the country to get the word out about these pharmacy refusals.
Today is the 41st anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut, so think about it as a birthday gift to your privacy rights.
Posted by Jessica at 10:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 27, 2006
Take Action: Help repeal the SD abortion ban
NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota is working with other pro-choice activists
to repeal the state’s abortion ban--last week they filed a petition to
get a measure on the November ballot so that South Dakotans can vote out the ban.
But to get the measure on the ballot, they need to collect 17,000 signatures from voters in in the state.
Here are some ways you can help:
Volunteer: Sign up to collect petition signatures in South Dakota. We are organizing volunteers for the coming weeks – sign up today!Spread the word: There are 12 other states considering abortion bans right now. Help us spread the word to people in your community about these outright attempts to end a woman's right to choose by writing a letter to the editor. Click here for a list of newspapers in your state to contact.
Contact your governor: With 12 other states considering abortion bans, it's up to pro-choice Americans to send a message to their governors urging them to veto any anti-choice legislation this session.
Learn more: Read NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota's press release about the ballot referendum, and click here to learn more about the ban.
Donate: Together with a state-based coalition of doctors, nurses, clergy, and other pro-choice groups, we can collect enough signatures, but we need the resources necessary to do it. Click here to support our organizing efforts in South Dakota!
Posted by Jessica at 9:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 8, 2006
USA Today Ad calls for Prevention First
NARAL’s Prevention First campaign kicked off yesterday with state and national activities, including an advertisement in USA Today calling on lawmakers to back measures to prevent unwanted pregnancies. (Click here to see the ad.)
The ad says:
NARAL also organized a Capitol Hill event yesterday, bringing together pro-choice members of Congress to learn more about Prevention First.
Nancy Keenan said, “I am proud to join these leaders in calling on Congress to focus on legislation that would make birth control, including the 'morning-after' pill, more affordable and accessible, ensure that our young people get honest, realistic sex education, and improve access to family-planning services...We are urging Speaker Hastert to put aside the divisive politics of the past and to allow votes on these commonsense measures, all of which enjoy broad public support from on both sides of the abortion debate. It's time for votes on the floor.”
Posted by Jessica at 9:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 7, 2006
Prevention First!
NARAL Pro-Choice America is launching their Prevention First campaign today; make sure to check it out and spread the word.
98% of American women have used a form of birth control during their reproductive lives--preventing unwanted pregnancies is something most of us can agree on.
The Prevention First Challenge for Common Ground
calls on federal, state, and local leaders to support women's access to
birth control. The campaign is pushing for commonsense policies like
insurance coverage for birth control; family-planning services;
stopping pharmacists from refusing to fill birth control prescriptions;
improving access to emergency contraception; honest, comprehensive,
age-appropriate sex education; and teen-pregnancy prevention.
Get involved through one of NARAL’s state affiliates, share why you think access to birth control is so important, or send one of NARAL’s hysterical e-cards (my fave above) to help spread the word.
Frog spitting...who knew?
Posted by Jessica at 10:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 9, 2006
Take Action: Tell Wal-Mart to stock EC!
Three women in Massachusetts are suing Wal-Mart for refusing to stock emergency contraception--now you can take action too.
Sign NARAL’s petition or call Wal-Mart at 1-800-WAL-MART (1-800-925-6278).
Posted by Jessica at 4:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 22, 2005
Tell the FDA you want emergency contraception over-the-counter
Take Action!
As you probably already know, the FDA is supposed to decide on the over-the-counter status of EC by September 1. They haven’t exactly had the best track record, so let them know how you feel. Send this petition to FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford.
Posted by Jessica at 4:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack