The 70 Best Walk For Choice Signs From Across The Country
A collection of awesome protest signs from Saturday’s pro-choice rallies
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-best-walk-for-choice-signs-from-around-the-cou
Here’s what the Walk for Choice looked like in Oakland on Feb. 26: https://picasaweb.google.com/117112844015109646967/BayAreaWalkForChoice04#
6,000 in NY
http://gothamist.com/2011/02/27/6000_rally_to_stop_war_on_womens_he.php#photo-10
and in over 40 cities around the country including DC, Boston, Denver:
http://walkforchoice.tumblr.com/participating
(Oklahoma City has an inspiring You Tube clip.)
The issues – disastrous budget bill heads to the Senate, after 2-week minor reprieve, as the related fight in Madison unfolds:
WOMEN’S RIGHTS ~ HUMAN RIGHTS ~ WORKERS’ RIGHTS
UNDER SIEGE IN CONGRESS AND THE STATES
The House’s Continuing Budget Resolution (H.R. 1) now goes to the Senate. It would:
· Defund implementation of the landmark health care reform law.
· Eliminate the Title X Family Planning Program that provides contraceptives and preventive care to five million people each year, ALL federal funds to Planned Parenthood, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
· Slash Head Start and child care assistance, Pell grants to low-income people for college, prenatal care and maternal and child health, community health centers, job training, assistance for the elderly, Social Security offices, housing, food safety, environmental protection, and more.
· Re-impose the Global Gag Rule (Mexico City Policy)
The savings would be achieved by gutting these core programs are less than half the cost of the two-year extension of tax breaks that benefit only the wealthiest Americans
The Smith Bill (H.R. 3): Would expand and make permanent the already unfair restrictions on federal funding of abortion for low-income women, and would use personal and business tax policy changes to effectively bar any insurance policy (including those paid for with personal funds) from covering abortion, even to protect a woman’s health when threatened by complications with later-term, wanted pregnancies.
The “Protect Life Act” (H.R. 358): Would allow hospitals that receive federal funds to refuse to provide abortions, even when an abortion is necessary to save a woman’s life.
Nebraska and South Dakota are considering laws that consider “protecting the life of a fetus” to be justifiable homicide.
“HR 1 and HR 3 are the equivalent of a bully’s snigger. They would force more unintended pregnancies on the most vulnerable women, and then deny access to abortions. They have come to push us around and take our money for their own binges, while bellowing about freedom and fiscal responsibility.” http://huff.to/gFMS7Y
In Madison: Working people did not create the recession or the budgetary crisis facing federal, state and local governments. Corporate profits jumped 28% in 2010 (3rd quarter) to $1.6 trillion, the biggest one-year jump in history. Wages fell for all but the wealthiest Americans whose income grew 5-fold. In U.S. states facing a budget shortfall, revenues from corporate taxes declined $2.5 billion in the last year. In Wisconsin, 2/3 of corporations pay no taxes. Nationally 72% of all foreign corporations and about 57% of U.S. companies doing business in the U.S. paid no federal income taxes for at least a year between 1998 and 2005. State workers typically earn 11% less, local public workers 12% less than private employees with comparable education and experience. Cutting the federal payroll in half would reduce spending by less than 3%. While demanding major cuts in public pensions, the right also wants to make sweeping cuts in Social Security, even though Social Security is in sound economic shape. The goal is to break unions and silence the voice of all working people to fight for better working conditions and improved standards for all.
Be visible – Wear a Silver Ribbon to show you Trust Women ~ Contact legislators ~ Tell your friends and families ~ Letters to the Editor ~ Stay informed and Tell Your Stories: www.oursilverribbon.org silverribbonmonth@gmail.com