Stop Stupak -- The Reinforcements

"The reinforcements have arrived!" exclaimed one legislator in response to the hundreds of women’s health advocates who poured into Washington, DC on December 2. More than 500 advocates from 30 states across the country demanded that the final version of health care reform legislation not include language further restricting women’s access to abortion coverage.

Ms. Foundation grantees were a visible, powerful presence during last Wednesday’s “Rally and Lobby Day.” Notably, representatives of grantee partners National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective took to the stage to speak to the need to connect the fight for women’s reproductive health, rights and justice to other social justice movements, including immigrants’ rights and environmental justice. They joined our other health care grantees we reported on last week.

Ms. Foundation grantee organizations are leaders in the growing reproductive justice movement, which responds directly to the impact of low-income women’s lack of economic, social and political power on the full-range of reproductive health decisions. Read here for further examples of the reproductive justice work supported by the Ms. Foundation. To partner with us in this important work, make a gift; your contribution will be worth twice as much, thanks to a generous $100,000 challenge grant.

This afternoon, debate begins on the Nelson Amendment, the Senate version of Stupak Amendment. Read Ms. Foundation grantee partner Raising Women’s Voices coverage and analysis of the deliberations.

Reinforcements, indeed.