Hi friends,
I’m sure you know the expression that what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger. It is not always true. Sometimes, what doesn’t kill us leaves us badly harmed.
At the same time, when we mobilize to respond to attacks, we do build strength. I haven’t gone all Pollyanna on you. This is a call to action.
Jessica Valenti, of Abortion Every Day, has detailed the harm done in the two years since the Dobbs decision. The suffering of pregnant people denied abortions in their home states includes cancer patients, children who were raped, and people who have become septic while being forced to carry nonviable pregnancies.
That’s to say nothing of those simply denied the ability to decide their own lives and futures, their autonomy stolen overnight.
This week, Valenti wrote of the costs to families in Texas:
A new study has found that infant mortality in Texas has spiked significantly. Since the state banned abortion, it’s seen a nearly 13% overall jump in infant deaths and a 23% jump in infant deaths to due to congenital anomalies.
The Supreme Court accidentally leaked its own decision in a case involving EMTALA, a federal law that requires that hospitals examine any patient who shows up to the emergency department requesting care and prohibits them from denying stabilizing care in a medical emergency.
The ruling has been impatiently awaited, as it could have prevented the harm done to pregnant people denied care anywhere. Instead, the 6-3 decision, with Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch dissenting, is very narrow. It applies only to Idaho, where the Court will
prevent Idaho from enforcing its abortion ban when the termination of a pregnancy is needed to prevent serious harms to a woman’s health.
This is the first SCOTUS case about a state abortion ban since the Dobbs ruling in 2022. We only got a peek and we know that there is still trouble ahead.
The Vermont senator sent an angry letter to the Government Accountability Office to point out that even though the Affordable Care Act mandates insurance coverage for the “full range” of contraceptive options, insurance companies are still charging Americans for birth control that should be free.
[A]nd they were also denying appeals from consumers who were seeking to have their contraceptives covered. Some experts estimate that those practices could affect access to birth control for millions of women.
If you, like 1 in 4 people seeking birth control in the US, are charged for contraception — or services like the insertion of an IUD or birth control counseling — you should tell your doctor and your insurance company that you know what the Affordable Care Act says. If that doesn’t work,
Contact the National Women’s Law Center for help with an appeal.
We need to keep the pressure on every member of Congress to protect reproductive rights.
Tell Congress that Americans deserve better reproductive health care. This quick action is from Moms Rising.
Congressman Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) was defeated in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, one of the most expensive primaries in US history.
Pro-Israel groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent more than $20 million to elevate Bowman’s opponent, Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
Ben Davis, writing for The Guardian, called Latimer’s win
a pyrrhic victory. The movement for Palestinian rights has been dealt a severe blow at the ballot box. Elected officials will be far less willing to take a stand in the near term. But the result of this election masks a considerable shift in the balance of power within American politics away from unconditional support for Israel as an unquestioned political consensus.
Davis points out that the strategy to defeat Bowman would serve as an unsustainable model and that what we are witnessing is a “crumbling consensus,” like the one that delivered California’s 2008 gay marriage ban.
That said, it’s a good day to strongly defend Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush, another of the boldest voices on the left. Bush faces a tough primary this summer and has been a powerful voice for peace.
Support Cori Bush.
The MTA board voted 10-1 yesterday to affirm Governor Hochul’s abrupt pause of congestion pricing.
Streetsblog notes that the language of the resolution was measured, and is regarded by some in the know as teeing up a potential legal challenge to the governor. The resolution indicates that the pause will extend until the signing of the Value Pricing Pilot Program agreement by state, city, and federal authorities.
While the resolution itself extends the start date of congestion pricing, it doesn't undo the March resolution to approve the congestion pricing tolls. And the staff summary of the resolution suggests the whole thing is not an endorsement of the pause itself but a recognition of reality.
Perhaps, most egregiously, accessibility upgrades to 23 train stations so that riders with disabilities can use them are also not happening.
Many of the upgrades that will be cut are
the ones that actually make the trains run better and faster.
Those projects include new electronic signals that allow more trains to run closer together on the B, D, F, M, A, C, E, F, and G lines.
Flex your citizenship muscles in the face of this setback. Here’s a DIY action:
Tell the governor exactly how these cuts are going to affect you.
I’m heading up to Vermont to see my favorite human being, do some kayaking, and recharge my batteries. Back next week with more action!
with love,
L