Tag Archives: Raul Grijalva

Abortion: 1 in 3 Speakout

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Here we stood, a score of women at the U.S. Capitol, there to share our personal abortion stories privately with lawmakers and online with the public on March 21, 2017. We were storytellers in the fifth annual “1 in 3 Speakout: Stories from the Resistance.” Our goal — to put a human face on abortion; said in another less ladylike way, to get in our representatives’ grills. We were all darned tired of being characterized by ignorant anti-abortion advocates as shadowy, irresponsible, hypothetical women.

“Hey, talk to us,” we demand of our lawmakers. “We’re real people.”

First, we took our rally to the Capitol steps. Just as crowds began to gather, no doubt curious about our megaphone and pointing to our “I HAD AN ABORTION” and “I STAND WITH 1 IN 3” signs, we were shooed away by police to the more distant location shown in the above photo. We had been in the path of — you guessed it — President Trump’s motorcade. He was making his last-gasp attempts to salvage the Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. How appropriate to see, just days later, his plan aborted. Continue reading →

Post-Election News Rundown

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Victories:

  • BIG4DEMNot many good things happened for the progressives, liberals, and Democrats here in AZ, but a few of our strongest reproductive-justice superstars are still standing. Congrats to U.S. representatives Ann Kirkpatrick, Ruben Gallego, Kyrsten Sinema, and Raul Grijalva! (Phoenix New Times)
  • Kyrsten Sinema’s victory in particular is quite a sweet one. Not only for the pro-choice crowd but also for the LGBTQ community. (LGBTQ Nation)
  • The Gilbert Public Schools governing board voted on October 28 to remove pages from an honors biology textbook because it does not give preference to childbirth or adoption over abortion. This is a prime reason why voting in school board elections is so important. (AZ Central)
  • Gilbert did just that on Tuesday when voters elected two school board members who will shift its balance in January — for the better! (AZ Central)

Counting Ballots:

  • The Ron Barber/Martha McSally race has taken an odd turn. Now that her lead over Barber has shrunk to 341 votes, Republican Martha McSally is attempting to get ballots in Pima County tossed out. Obviously we’re #TeamBarber. (Tucson Weekly)
  • Another Pima County nail-biter: It looks like Rep. Victoria Steele (D-Tucson) will continue to represent her constituents, but will she be joined by Dr. Randall Friese (also D-Tucson) or Republican incumbent Ethan Orr, who, as of this weekend, trails Friese by 199 votes? (Tucson Weekly)
  • Pima County spent the weekend counting ballots. (Tucson.com)
  • Yuma County, on the other hand, took a break over the weekend and will resume counting ballots today. At last count, Charlene Fernandez (D-Yuma) was a mere 65 votes ahead of her Republican challenger. (Tucson Sentinel)
  • Democrat Demion Clinco (the House’s only openly gay representative) appears to have been ousted by his Republican opponent, Chris Ackerley, in the Legislative District 2 House race — a surprise upset in this heavily Democratic district. As of Friday evening, Ackerley was 2,304 votes ahead of incumbent Clinco. The district’s newly reelected senator, women’s health champion Andrea Dalessandro, doesn’t predict the GOP newcomer will last long. (Green Valley News and Sun)

Beyond Arizona:

  • Personhood has failed to pass the sniff test with Colorado voters for the third time. The law, which would grant legal “personhood” rights to zygotes, has failed to pass in every state that has been ridiculous enough to put it on the ballot. Next stop? Georgia. (Slate Double XX)
  • Tennessee women are about to suffer grave consequences due to an extreme anti-abortion measure voted into law Tuesday. (Salon)
  • Old white guys are the main reason the election went GOP. (Slate)
  • White women basically cost Wendy Davis in Texas. (RH Reality Check)
  • Women of color are among the major losers now that the Senate is under GOP control. (RH Reality Check)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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Raul Grijalva

Raúl Grijalva

  • Tea Party wingnut and congressional candidate Gabby Saucedo Mercer is accusing her opponent Raúl Grijalva of infanticide because he supports abortion rights. Cue up Ozzy Osbourne singing about the crazy train. (Arizona Daily Star)
  • Seventy percent of the people polled by Reason Magazine think birth control pills should be available over the counter. (Bustle)
  • We at Planned Parenthood also support the concept of OTC birth control. As long as the mandate included in the Affordable Care Act that requires insurers to offer it free of charge stays in place. (Forbes)
  • A rebuttal to the imbeciles who believe adoption is a universal alternative to abortion. (RH Reality Check)
  • Stellar piece on what getting an abortion was like in 1959. (BuzzFeed)
  • While we’re all immensely thankful for birth control, we must admit it’s got quite the peculiar history!! (Vox)
  • Republicans are trying to pretend as if there’s a distinction between being anti-abortion (which they are) and what they like to call “pro-life.” Informed voters will hopefully be wise to the fact that the only life they value is one in which one person hasn’t been born. (Slate)
  • Abortion is not a wrong, bad, or tragic choice for most women. Hannah Rosin explains why it should be embraced as a social good. (Slate Double X)
  • North Dakota may become the first state to pass a wretched “personhood” amendment. Similar measures have been added to ballots in numerous other states but have always lost by not-small margins. (Think Progress)

PPAA Volunteers Visit Washington

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PPAA volunteer with Rep. Raul Grijalva

PPAA volunteer with Rep. Raul Grijalva

This summer I had the awesome opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., with Emily Herrell, PPAZ advocacy coordinator, and three other students for the annual Planned Parenthood Youth Conference. We spent three days in the city going to workshops, meeting other activists and listening to speakers like Cecile Richards and Jon Lewis.

The experience was especially valuable to me as the newly elected University of Arizona VOX chapter president. In one workshop I got to meet other VOX leaders and we bounced event ideas and strategies to increase membership off of each other. While there are some pro-choice groups on my campus, it’s rare for us as activists to be able to connect with other than Planned Parenthood student volunteers. I was relieved to find that most VOX leaders struggled with the same problems (i.e. membership) that we do at the UA. Continue reading →

Fight Anti-Choice Extremism in Southern AZ

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Opponents of choice and reproductive rights are always ready with inflammatory statements and divisive rhetoric, but there’s one candidate who’s taking her extremism to a new level. Ruth McClung, who’s challenging long-time progressive champion Congressman Raúl Grijalva, told a community forum a few weeks ago that she can’t support a local job training program because it has “extensive ties” to Planned Parenthood, and as someone who’s “extremely pro-life,” she just has too many concerns. Click here to watch a video of Ruth McClung in her own words.

The program is called JobPath, and it’s modeled on the extremely successful Project Quest in San Antonio. JobPath has been training workers for the Pima County area for more than 20 years, and it’s roundly hailed as a boon to the local economy. Ruth McClung is opposing job training in Southern Arizona because she’s too anti-choice. (No wonder Sarah Palin endorsed McClung a few days ago.) It’s a strange position, even in this strange election year.   Continue reading →