Hi friends,
It matters how we tell a story. When we tell the story of restoring abortion rights in the US, we will be telling the story of finding common ground with other human beings. And this will be the story we tell when folks say that we’re too divided to take climate action or to protect Black lives.
The news from Kansas is a powerful reminder that the red state/blue state binary is not as informative as we have been led to believe.
Turnout was unexpectedly high and the no vote to defeat a state constitutional amendment that would have outlawed abortion approached 60 percent. Registered Republicans far outnumber registered Democrats in Kansas.
I can’t say how many of us called West Virginia legislators last week, but I didn’t make as many calls as I’d hoped. Still, abortion remains legal in West Virginia up to 20 weeks, for now.
West Virginia is one of two states that have reconvened a special session to consider restrictions on abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June, finding there was no longer a federal constitutional right to the procedure.
The House of Delegates passed a bill and then the Senate passed a different bill, and there are no plans yet to reconvene in order to agree on the text.
The sticking point is in the language of the exception for rape or incest:
the House-backed version included exceptions for rape and incest up until about 14 weeks of gestation and if a report was made to a "qualified law enforcement officer." The Senate changed the measure, scaling it back to allow for exceptions in cases of rape or incest until eight weeks.
Because children are always reporting rape and incest to law enforcement in a timely manner?! According to RAINN — Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network — most instances of sexual violence are never reported. The reasons for failing to report are pretty obvious to most of us, but apparently not to West Virginia lawmakers.
20% feared retaliation
13% believed the police would not do anything to help
13% believed it was a personal matter
8% reported to a different official
8% believed it was not important enough to report
7% did not want to get the perpetrator in trouble
2% believed the police could not do anything to help
30% gave another reason, or did not cite one reason
She asked some important questions:
If a man decides that I’m an object and does unspeakable and tragic things to me, am I, a child, supposed to carry and birth another child?
Am I to put my body through the physical trauma of pregnancy? Am I to suffer the mental implications, a child, who had no say in what was being done with my body?
Some here say they are pro-life. What about my life?
Does my life not matter to you?
This week, we’re going to email delegates in the West Virginia House of Delegates. This is a lot more efficient than calling, and since they are not currently scheduled for a conference committee, it’s a great way to send a more nuanced message.
The House of Delegates has 100 members 78 of whom are Republicans. They serve two-year terms.
Write to as many delegates as you can. I encourage you to personalize the message I drafted. This is a ready-made action.
There’s a special session scheduled in Indiana this weekend to take up an abortion ban there. There’s a lot of work yet to be done and it can be challenging to do state-level work from out of state.
The ACLU is hosting an abortion activist series and next week’s session is specifically geared for fighting state-level bans.
Reserve a spot on Thursday, August 9 to learn how you can fight for abortion access at the state level, no matter where you live.
The Abortion Access Front asked us to adopt independent abortion clinics in order to keep them running. Some of the clinics got every single item on their list of needed supplies! The needs are still great.
Support abortion clinics and patients directly!
Her spokesperson commented:
Michigan must remain a place where a woman’s ability to make her own medical decisions with her trusted health care provider is respected.
[The governor] cannot support aspects of a bill that sends millions in taxpayer dollars to fake health centers that intentionally withhold information from women about their health, bodies, and full reproductive freedom].
The spokesperson went on to discuss the fake clinics or “crisis pregnancy centers,” which frequently
use deceptive advertising that target young women and women with low incomes who are seeking abortion care, painting themselves as comprehensive, licensed health care clinics that provide all options, and then lie to women about medical facts.
If you live in a state where abortion is legal and fake clinics abound, here’s a great resource for exposing and protesting fake clinics.
We are still waiting on the Biden Administration to take action on student debt relief AND we are not just waiting.
Join the Debt Collective’s writing workshop on Tuesday, August 23 to tell your debt story.
Eleni Schirmer’s piece, “The Aging Student Debtors of America,” was a real eye-opener for me.
Americans aged sixty-two and older are the fastest-growing demographic of student borrowers. Of the forty-five million Americans who hold student debt, one in five are over fifty years old. Between 2004 and 2018, student-loan balances for borrowers over fifty increased by five hundred and twelve per cent.
The folks at the Debt Collective have an important lens for viewing the problem of debt:
Racial capitalism uses race, gender, class, sexuality, nationality, disability, and other differences to divide and conquer us. We can only overcome oppression with solidarity and coalition-building. . . .our struggles are connected.
Debt is not an equalizer; it intensifies pre-existing inequalities. Poor people, Indigenous and Black people, LGBTQI+ people, women, and other communities of color suffer disproportionately under the current system.
Register for one of the Debt Collective’s debtors’ assemblies to center the voices of folks most impacted by student debt: Older folks (and future older folks) and Black women (and their supporters).
Stories are powerful and it’s important for Biden to hear directly from Americans who are struggling under a broken system.
Call on the president to meet directly with people burdened by student loan debt. This action is from the Student Debt Crisis Center.
with love,
L