By now, you are probably getting used to headlines like Report: States Enacted 39 Abortion Restrictions So Far In 2012. Even though 2012 isn’t as bad as the record-breaking 2011, they’ve advanced from enacting waiting periods to working on personhood amendments and compulsory transvaginal ultrasounds, while teaming up with the Catholic bishops to restrict access to contraception.
A look at what they haven’t passed is even more frightening. They tried to strip all funding for Planned Parenthood from the federal budget. There was a bill in Congress that would have allowed hospitals to let women die rather than perform a life-saving abortion. In South Dakota, they introduced a bill legalizing the murder of abortion providers. In Georgia, they introduced a bill that redefined victims of rape as “accusers.” In Arizona, they tried to pass a bill that would allow doctors to withhold critical information about the health of a fetus if they thought that information might lead the woman to terminate her pregnancy. Apparently, nine states already have similar laws on their books.
The Republicans are undermining women’s health, ignoring their constitutional right to privacy, passing laws with the express purpose of causing mental anguish and humiliation for women, fighting and repealing equal pay laws, downplaying domestic violence, and eliminating funding for children’s education and health.
And they’re just getting started.
That’s why I was pretty excited when I learned about Democracy for America’s new effort to train women (and men) to get organized and fight back. I do consulting work for DFA, so I got an inside peek. To fully utilize their tools, you need to register, but you can get a look at their program here. What they’re doing is interactive webinars. Last night they had their first one, which was performed by Cecile Richards and Deirdre Schifeling of Planned Parenthood. It focused on teaching people how to organize a successful house party. The idea is to get concerned citizens talking to each other so that they can come together to create political action.
Next week, the Executive Director of the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence, Debby Tucker, will give a talk on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Future planned events will deal with economic disparity, women in media, women candidates, and women voters.
One nice part of the webinars is that you can ask questions and have them answered immediately. They also come with tool-kits to help you utilize the information you’ve learned.
If you’re interested, you should bookmark this link and give yourself a calendar reminder that the next webinar will air at 8pm (EST) on July 18th. If you register, you can also watch last night’s presentation, which is at the bottom of the page.
Give it a look. It’s time our side started fighting as hard to preserve women’s gains as the other side is fighting to take those gains away.