Saying hello to Genocide Awareness Project #ucf #educationoverignorance #prochoice
UCF Students Speak Out Against Amendment 6!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Nicole Elinoff
Email:nelinoff@knight.ucf.edu
Phone: 561-715-5770
UCF student groups speak out against Amendment 6
November 2, 2012, Orlando, Fla.— The National Organization for Women at the University of Central Florida (NOW) and VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood at UCF will be hosting a speak-out, urging student voters to vote ‘no’ on Amendment 6 on the Florida ballot. The rally will take place outside of the UCF Student Union on November 5th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Amendment 6 is maliciously worded to propose the prohibition of public funding for abortions in the state of Florida, but would, in fact, interfere with a woman’s right to privacy. However, non-partisan organizations such as NOW, VOX, the Feminist Majority Foundation and the Vote No on 6 campaign have been informing voters of the real consequences of Amendment 6.
The speak-out will engage students with interactive activities and speeches students as well as community leaders to inform them about the amendment before Election Day.
The Amendment intrudes on women’s right to privacy and would directly impose the state legislature into personal medical decisions that should be left to women, their families, their faith and their doctors. The proposed amendment would put government officials where they don’t belong – the doctor’s office and impose the ideas of a few onto the lives of many.
Because UCF is in one of the most pivotal districts and makes up a huge part of the district’s population, these organizations plan to urge its students to act in order to keep the right to private reproductive rights in Florida available for women.
In OSI with a lot of wild progressive SWAG. Come out to our Sex Ed Week of Action and get some of your own! #prochoice (Taken with Instagram at Office of Student Involvement (OSI))
This Isn’t a War on Religion, It’s a War on Women.
by Ida V. Eskamani
I have a usual routine on my way to school. Almost always running late, I grab a coffee and sit in traffic, hoping I’ll get to class on time. The plus-side to this routine is that I get my daily dose of National Public Radio. Well, on this morning it wasn’t such a plus-side. On this morning, I tuned in to the Diane Rehm Show to find an interesting topic of discussion: the Obama Administration’s recent decision requiring that all employers, including religious ones, to provide health insurance that covers contraceptives.
Like any good, healthy debate, this segment including individuals for and against this move by the Obama Administration.
And like every typical discussion regarding our accessibility to contraceptives, I got really pissed. The individual representing religious institutions was, as expected, a male. He described this new policy as an attack on religious institutions and a violation of their First Amendment religious freedom. He also stated that religious institutions believe that the “morning-after” pill is the equivalent to the “abortion pill.”
Fortunately, the two women on this panel, and the host, were much more intelligent than this individual. They stated that the morning-after pill is NOT the “abortion pill,” and that employees should not be forced to follow the beliefs of their employers. And since when did “beliefs” make laws? Employees and students at religious institutions should be educated on their options and given a choice. That is the basic principle in this nation and the only way our First Amendment rights cannot be violated.
No one is forcing those that practice any religious faith to use contraceptives. This policy just ensures that everyone working for religious institutions, no matter their faith, have access to birth control.
To say the least, I was pretty livid after listening to the Diane Rehm Show. I was also reminded why we always have to defend our right to choice. Later that week, I was at an event with Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius. An older woman in the audience asked a question: “Secretary, I would be remised if I did not ask you to reconsider your stance on the Catholic Church.”
After the event concluded, I immediately walked up to the Secretary and thanked her for that stance – “Thank you for your latest stance on contraceptives, and on behalf of young women everywhere, I hope you continue to make contraceptives more accessible.”
Religious institutions should not be allowed to withhold access to contraceptives, or any other form of knowledge. Contrary to what the panelist on the Dian Rehm show states, this isn’t an attack on religion. This is an attack on women. And we’re already ready to fight.
"I asked [the anti-choice protester] what he would do to provide care and food and shelter to all of the babies who would be born to mothers who couldn’t take care of them if they couldn’t get abortions. His response was to fall silent. Then, after a pause, he retorted that there would always be poverty and nothing could be done about it. In other words, it wasn’t his problem: his interest in protecting fetuses only lasted until they were born. I told him he should call himself “pro-birth” instead of “pro-life,” since he clearly wasn’t concerned with the actual lived reality of the babies he believed he was trying to “protect” through his activism."
—
Angie Young of the Coat Hanger Project
from Abortion, Ideology, and the Murder of George Tiller in Feminist Studies volume 35, number 2
Today we had some anti-choice demonstrators try to tell us the problems in our world arise from killing babies. Well, I laughed that off, to say the least.
This is an awesome picture! This is the same man that came up during the free speech portion and attributed “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to the Constitution. Nope, that was the Deceleration of Independence. Nope. Stop it.
Rep. DeGette in Strong Opposition to H.R. 358
^^ This to infinity. “I will not yield!”
A Quick Note on H.R. 358
Since this is called “The Protect Life Act” and it would endanger the lives of thousands of women, we must rework the House’s definition of “life:” fetuses and those who can afford to pay out of pocket for a life-saving procedure.
All this does is keep reproductive rights in the hands of the privileged few.
This is class warfare as well as a war on women. The people who work in the House know what passing this bill would mean for the legion of women who rely on federal funds for affordable health care. They know and they refuse to care. They would rather let a poor, pregnant women die than care for the people they have chosen to govern.
Here’s is the breakdown of votes, thanks to govtrack.us
Yeah, and some Dems crossed the aisle, too. Know your enemy. Call. Send letters. Bombard them. They work for us. Make a fuss.
