Dear friends,
A dear friend went to a parent-teacher conference yesterday and came back with questions she didn’t have time to ask in her 20 minute time slot. And I was reminded of all the questions I had as a young parent.
And that was before the Columbine school shooting, COVID, and the burgeoning fascist movement. It’s getting harder to be a parent.
We’ll start close to home: schools, parks, and libraries are part of the toolkit for raising kids in NYC and probably anywhere.
Tell your Council member to stand up against cuts to essential services that hurt NYC families. This is a quick action.
Just becoming a parent in the US has become more dangerous. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) correctly anticipated that maternal mortality rates would increase during the pandemic. ACOG’s president said recently
“Provisional data released in late 2022 in a U.S. Government Accountability Office report indicated that maternal death rates in 2021 had spiked—in large part due to COVID-19. Still, confirmation of a roughly 40% increase in preventable deaths compared to a year prior is stunning news.”
Because pre-natal health care is threatened also by abortion bans and attacks on reproductive health providers, the outlook for pregnant people is worse.
North Carolina’s proposed abortion ban — in addition to denying choice to those who seek abortions — jeopardizes treatment for people having miscarriages, aka spontaneous abortions.
This sort of legislation has already endangered folks in other states with similar bans. Serious infections and sepsis can result while pregnant people are forced to wait for the complete cessation of the fetus’s heartbeat before getting care.
The penalties for doctors are no less than $100,000 in fines for each violation of the law, the revocation of their medical license, and up to life in prison.
I recently listened to a story of an ob-gyn in Idaho, who was wrestling with the question of whether she could still do her job in a state with restrictive abortion laws, knowing that she might end up behind bars for providing care to patients.
Listen to This American Life episode 792, When to Leave.
Today, House Democrats reintroduced the The Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify the protections of Roe v. Wade. The bill is unlikely to get a floor vote in McCarthy’s House, but is an important move, as the public support for abortion rights is strong.
Yesterday, Senate Democrats introduced the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act, a bill that would end the Hyde Amendment which prevents people who depend on Medicaid and other government-sponsored programs from accessing abortion care.
Recent polling data also show that 62% of voters support lifting federal abortion coverage restrictions and believe Medicaid should cover abortion.
Sign the petition to Congress in support of the EACH Act. This quick action is from Moms Rising.
Bowman, a strong advocate for an assault weapons ban, was interrupted by Republican Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, who suggested that arming teachers was the way to protect children. Bowman wasn’t having it.
Petition Congress to ban assault weapons now. This quick action is from Move On.
"Extreme MAGA Republicans don't want the children of America to learn about the Holocaust," accused House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. "They want to ban a book called ‘Melissa,’ a book describing, in very personal terms, the experience of a trans girl beginning to understand her identity."
"They want to ban books, they want to bully the LGBTQ+ community, they want to bring guns into classrooms, kindergarten and above. That’s their educational agenda," he added.
Sign the petition to Congress to oppose the so-called Parents’ Bill of Rights, also from Moms Rising.
The response by activists and a few outstanding legislators was powerful. Kentucky State Rep. Pamela Stevenson, in a rage-filled defense of human rights, said to the majority,
“You go after everybody’s kids but your own. You make hate the way to go, as long as it’s not applied to you.”
I am struggling to understand what is happening. Everyone is somebody’s baby. I don’t understand the callousness and cruelty.
Tortuguita’s death is at least the seventh violent killing of a transgender or gender non-conforming person in 2023, and the second in Georgia in six weeks. We say “at least” because too often these deaths go unreported — or misreported.
Police in Atlanta have stepped up their raids against the other activists defending the Weelaunee Forest. In a raid on Monday, they destroyed a memorial to Tortuguita.
The months-long occupation of the area by protesters is part of a campaign to block the construction of Cop City, a massive police training facility.
Stop Cop City. Tell the companies insuring the project not to provide insurance to the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Today is Trans Visibility Day. Biden’s statement, which decried the attacks on trans rights coming from state legislators, began by celebrating the
the joy, strength, and absolute courage of some of the bravest people I know — people who have too often had to put their jobs, relationships, and lives on the line just to be their true selves. Today, we show millions of transgender and nonbinary Americans that we see them, they belong, and they should be treated with dignity and respect. Their courage has given countless others strength, but no one should have to be brave just to be themselves. Every American deserves that freedom.
I genuinely appreciate the President’s words.
My own wonderful springling has encouraged me to move to a three-day week, so I will be publishing on Mondays, Tuesdays, and one day at the end of each week. Back on Monday.
with love,
L