Tag Archives: Girl Scouts

Meet Our Candidates: Athena Salman for State Representative, LD 26

Posted on by

The Arizona general election will be held on November 8, 2016. Reproductive health care access has been under attack, both nationally and statewide, but Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who have shown strong commitment to reproductive justice. To acquaint you with our endorsed candidates, we are running a series called “Meet Our Candidates.” In order to vote in the election, you must have been registered to vote by October 10. Make your voice heard in 2016!

athena-salman-scaled[L]egislative District 26, which includes Tempe, Mesa, Phoenix, and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, is the home of Arizona State University, where Athena Salman got her start in student government. She now seeks a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives, where she hopes to continue LD 26’s tradition of fighting for such important causes as education, reproductive justice, LGBTQ equality, and immigrants’ rights.

“Sex education empowers young people to make informed decisions and leads to healthier communities.”

Some might say that Athena Salman was destined to dedicate her life to serving her community: Her mother named her after the Greek goddess because “the world needed more heroines.” Her activism began in childhood, blossomed in college when she organized fellow students to protest budget cuts to universities, and continues to this day. Her recent work has centered around increasing voter engagement among Latinos — campaigns that ultimately increased Latino voter registration by 500 percent — as well as empowering girls and young women through her involvement with Girl Scouts. Once in the House of Representatives, she will continue to fight for women’s rights, voting rights, and keeping education accessible to all Arizonans — “from cradle to career,” as she says on her website.

In LD 26, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona recommends casting your two votes for House of Representatives for Athena Salman and Isela Blanc, candidates dedicated to social justice and making Arizona a better place for everyone. Ms. Salman generously took the time to answer our questions on October 21, 2016.

Tell us a little about your background.

I am a native Arizonan and community leader. I have worked tirelessly to strengthen the fabric of our communities. This year, I was presented with Tempe’s MLK Diversity Award for my experience advocating for women, education, working families, and immigrants. In light of severe budget cuts to education I organized hundreds of students to protest and pass state legislation. I have worked on several successful campaigns to expand Latino voter engagement, served as a union shop steward, empowered women and girls through Girl Scouts, built community support for early childhood development through First Things First, and authored national health care and higher education policy. I graduated magna cum laude from Arizona State University with degrees in economics and political science. Continue reading →

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

Posted on by
  • tmp_MikeHuckabee-1529227793Dufus du jour, Mike Huckabee, has publicly aired his belief that women are poor, vulnerable souls who can’t think for themselves and are slaves to their libidos for accessing preventive reproductive health care. (WaPo)
  • He’s also a total hypocrite on the issue of the birth control mandate. (Politics USA)
  • If you thought the state of Arizona could usher in the new year without trying to further hinder the reproductive rights of women — you, my friend, were mistaken. (Tucson Weekly)
  • Oh, and now “conscience clauses” are becoming a thing. You know, having someone use their religious beliefs to trample upon your civil and, at times, human rights. This means that perhaps you’ll walk into a pharmacy one day, only to discover that the person doling out prescriptions doesn’t agree with you taking birth control, and thus can refuse to fulfill your PHYSICIAN-ORDERED PRESCRIPTION. As much as I hate being a pessimist, I could see this going in an even worse direction. How about if one’s life is at stake? Is it not entirely impossible that a gay man, suffering from HIV or AIDS, could attempt to fill a prescription related to his condition and be turned away by a pharmacist whose religious beliefs state that homosexuality is a “sin”? It would be assumed that your illness is related to your engaging in an activity regarded as “sinful” to some pill-dispensing bigot, and he or she could very well turn you away on that basis. What would prevent this from happening if such an asinine law were enacted? This trend of allowing the religious beliefs of a third party to dictate what one can or cannot have in their personal life is one of the most oppressively un-American things we’ve seen in this country during the last 50 years. It’s rich that the perpetrators of such oppression are those who proclaim to care the most about personal freedom and liberties. (Sierra Vista Herald)
  • Are we being fear-mongered over the safety of our birth control? (Slate)
  • Missouri is trying to become the third state to implement a three-day waiting period for women seeking abortion. You see, the female brain is not capable of making sound decisions before approximately 72 hours have passed (and even then, it’s iffy ’cause, ya know, we have vaginas). This is all science, folks. Not medical science. Republican, anti-choice science. (Think Progress)
  • Girl Scout cookies. The choice new dessert of abortion lovers everywhere. Yum. (Mother Jones)
  • “Miscarriage manager” will likely be the new title for more and more doctors seeking to help women terminate unwanted pregnancies. (New Republic)