Dear friends,
Good news is thin on the ground this week, so I will need some additional time to deliver it. It helps to take a long view at such moments.
In 2020, I participated in Brooklyn Public Library’s 28th Amendment Project. It was a really interesting process to engage people in a discussion of the rights we need now, and it yielded an amendment I would happily support.
Read more about the project and the language of the proposed amendment.
If you care about justice, you can’t help but see room for improvement. Amending the US Constitution is not impossible, but very difficult.
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley has introduced a resolution to remove the arbitrary deadline for ratification in order to affirm the ratification and recognize the amendment as part of the Constitution. This is the third time such a resolution has been introduced, but the first time since people in 18 states lost access to abortion.
When you write to your Congressperson about abortion access (below), you can also ask them to support the affirmation of ratification of the ERA.
Our federal structure — for better and for worse — creates lots of opportunities for changing the system.
In New York, two consecutive legislatures must approve the text of an amendment before it goes to a public vote. The NYS legislature has just passed the Equal Rights Amendment to the state constitution for a second time, which means that the public will vote on ratification in the November 2024 general election. The amendment
[p]rovides that no person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state or any subdivision thereof; provides no person shall, because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed, religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive healthcare and autonomy, be subjected to any discrimination in their civil rights by any other person or by any firm, corporation, or institution, or by the state or any agency or subdivision of the state.
The bold is mine. The measure was first passed last June following the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
The work ahead is to educate voters about the importance of this amendment. I am starting with you.
Work the NY Equal Rights Amendment into conversation with friends, neighbors, the person who cuts your hair, and anyone else you talk to.
The state-level bills to regulate the lives of trans people that have proliferated in other states are a troubling portent. If we have learned nothing else from the Dobbs debacle, it is that we need to move quickly to protect human rights from the right-wing ‘culture warriors’.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, one of the co-sponsors of the EACH Act, highlighted the racism and classism implicit in the Hyde Amendment:
“For over 40 years, Hyde has forced poor women who are denied insurance coverage for abortions to carry pregnancies to term or pay for care when they’re already struggling to make ends meet. With extreme abortion laws in place in half the country, it is more critical than ever that we fight to make abortion accessible wherever possible. It is past time for our policies to ensure everyone can get the health care they need without shame, punishment, or financial ruin.”
Let your Congressional representative know that you’re expecting their support for the EACH Act and the ERA. I made it easy!
violating state law by noisily demonstrating and interfering with patient care.
The group had previously been ordered by the judge to permanently cease its loud demonstrations outside a Planned Parenthood Clinic, finding that they were intended
“to interfere with access to or safe and effective delivery of healthcare services.”
[The judge] said the demonstrations created increased increased pain and other psychiatric symptoms for patients receiving care inside the clinic.
As you know, democracy requires that citizens have the right to protest. The judge who set the civil penalty at $110,000 and required the church group to pay Planned Parenthood’s $850,000 in legal fees also made clear that the Church at Planned Parenthood may protest — or pray — across the street from the clinic.
They delivered petitions to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Michael Guest, the Republican chair of the Ethics Committee.
When the Concerned Citizens asked Santos’s Director of Operations if they could meet with their ‘representative’, he closed the office door on them.
I stand by my prediction that Santos will be out by spring. Please let me be right.
Hang in there, friends. I’m not watching the State of the Union and quietly hoping that Biden will leave his intention to run for reelection (or not) unclear. I know wishes and predictions aren’t good news. . . but there’s a supply chain issue.
with love,
L