Tag Archives: NARAL Pro-Choice America

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Birth control makes you “sterile or dead”?


 

NARAL Pro-Choice America

 

Katelyn Campbell deserves our respect and encouragement for speaking out against failed “abstinence-only” programs.

Tell her county’s Board of Education to censure her principal for threatening her.

High school principal George Aulenbacher should be ashamed of himself.

First, Aulenbacher and his school district decided to subject his students to a misleading “abstinence-only” program. And then he threatened student Katelyn Campbell when she spoke out against it. To make matters even worse, right now the Kanawha County Board of Education is siding with Principal Aulenbacher.1

This is no way to treat a brave young woman who’s speaking out for what’s right.

Help us put pressure on the Board of Education to censure Aulenbacher, and tell them that students need comprehensive sex education. Your message today will go directly to the Kanawha County Board of Education and superintendent of schools, where it can make a big impact.

Aulenbacher’s school recently brought in an “abstinence educator” who says taking birth control can lead to becoming “sterile or dead.”2

Katelyn fought back against these outrageous lies. She talked with the local newspaper, and even went on CNN.

How did Aulenbacher respond? He tried to shut her down. Katelyn says Aulenbacher called her into his office to berate her, even threatening to call her future college to tell them she has “bad character” and is a “backstabber.”3

At a Board of Education committee meeting last night, it’s been reported that members of the board stuck up for Aulenbacher and the misleading “abstinence-only” program.

It’s ridiculous that a principal would threaten a student like this, and absurd that the Board of Education would stand for it. Tell the Board of Education to censure Aulenbacher and provide students with comprehensive sex education.

Katelyn knows, like we do, that teens need accurate information about abstinence and birth control so that they can make responsible decisions that are right for them. One in four teen girls has an STD, and one third of young women will become pregnant before they’re 20 years old. These young women need information that will keep them healthy.

I applaud Katelyn for speaking out for what she knows is right. She deserves our respect and encouragement, not threats and intimidation.

Thanks for standing up for Katelyn and helping make choice real for young people like her.

Ilyse Hogue
Ilyse G. Hogue
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America
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Affordable Safe and Accessible Health care


I hope you saw this important message. Join me and stand with the women of Mississippi to keep the last abortion provider open in the state. We can’t let back-door bans take away women’s rights.

Thanks,

Ilyse.

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Anti-choice politicians in Mississippi are trying to close the state’s last remaining abortion provider.

If we don’t stop them, the last clinic in that state could shut its doors for good.

Stop the bans big

Contact the state health officer to say that Mississippi women and families deserve access to abortion care.

Your help is needed to take a stand for choice right now. As states like North Dakota and Kansas pass unconstitutional bills directly aimed at banning abortion, others are using a sneakier approach. We call them “back-door bans” and they use regulations clearly designed to block women’s access to abortion in their states.

Next week is the culmination of a relentless campaign by lawmakers in Mississippi to put the Jackson Women’s Health Organization out of business. It’s the one remaining abortion provider in that state. Send a message that you won’t stand for these back-door abortion bans.

We call these back-door bans TRAP laws, short for “Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers.” Like all medical professionals, abortion providers already comply with important health and safety regulations. But TRAP laws are something different: they create a costly and confusing mine-field of additional requirements and regulations not imposed on other medical providers. Anti-choice politicians pretend that TRAP laws are about protecting women’s health, but their real goal is to close down clinics.

And that’s just what’s happening next week in Mississippi. For more than a year, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization has fought for survival in the face of 35 pages of new requirements designed to shut it down. On April 18, the state health department will hold what may be the final hearing on the future of the clinic. Send a message now that Mississippi women and families should be able to make their own reproductive choices without the interference of these burdensome and unnecessary regulations.

In many cases, providers targeted by back-door abortion bans are the sole resource for women in their communities or even their entire state. And yet, they come under extraordinary scrutiny from politicians whose only goal is to deny services to women.

Help us fight for this clinic and the women in Mississippi who depend on its services. Send a message now that these back-door bans are wrong. Tell leaders in Mississippi that the women of their state must have the right to control their futures. For the sake of women’s health and women’s rights – let’s keep the Jackson Women’s Health Organization open for business.

Thank you for helping make choice real for all women.

Ilyse Hogue Ilyse G. Hogue President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

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Losing a pro-choice vote in the Senate


NARAL Pro-Choice America
Help us raise $50,000 by March 31 to keep this U.S. Senate seat pro-choice!

 

DONATE NOW

I’m writing with an urgent request for support.

With John Kerry’s appointment as secretary of State, his U.S. Senate seat hangs in the balance with a special election in Massachusetts. The Democratic primary is just weeks away and there is only one candidate — Rep. Ed Markey — with a solid record of protecting reproductive freedom.

Please help make a difference in this critical Senate race and in our ongoing work to protect choice at all levels by making an urgent donation today.

Special elections are fast and costly.  Every dollar we spend mobilizing volunteers, canvassing, distributing door hangers, and phone banking in Massachusetts is over and above our budget.  That’s why we need your support today to help us raise an additional $50,000 by March 31 to make a difference in this race and to continue our work to protect choice at all levels of government.

As you know, Sen. John Kerry had a strong pro-choice voting record. This special election puts this critical seat at risk — and could weaken our needed firewall against the extreme anti-choice agenda in Congress.

So please donate today. If Rep. Markey’s opponent, anti-choice Rep. Stephen Lynch, wins the Democratic primary, it could prove disastrous for women across the country.

In seven out of the last 11 years, Rep. Lynch received a 50-percent or less rating in our Congressional Record on Choice.  In 2004 and 2006, Lynch’s votes were so bad, he scored a ZERO rating. He even voted to give legal rights to a pregnancy!

 please donate today to help us reach our goal of raising $50,000 by March 31.

With your urgent donation today, NARAL Pro-Choice America can invest much-needed resources into spreading the word to Massachusetts voters that Rep. Ed Markey is the only candidate in this primary who women can trust to defend their reproductive rights.

Thank you for helping to make choice real for all women,

Ilyse G. Hogue President, NARAL Pro-Choice America
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Opposed to birth control ?


 

NARAL Pro-Choice America

 

President Obama is leading our nation one step closer to near-universal contraceptive coverage!Now we need to get his proposal adopted.Add your support to a critical 60-day comment period.

Say Yes to Birth Control

Last Friday, President Obama took an important next step to make sure that most American women can get their birth-control coverage at no personal cost.

The Department of Health and Human Services released a draft regulation that ensures that women who work for faith-based organizations don’t lose rights guaranteed to the rest of us under Obamacare.

The President went to extra lengths to protect these women while taking into consideration concerns of religious leaders. Still, there are some opponents to women having contraception at all who just can’t take yes for an answer.

Just yesterday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said they oppose the regulation and will use a mandated comment period to try to stop these protections from moving forward.1 

So, it’s up to us to help secure this big win for women and families and make near-universal birth-control coverage a reality.

A 60-day comment period just started. If enough of us weigh in, we’ll drown out the anti-women, anti-choice forces. Will you add your comment in support of the regulation?

By improving access to birth control, the Obama administration is working to give women the tools they need to prevent unintended pregnancy – a goal on which both pro-choice and anti-choice people ought to agree.

The Catholic Bishops are not alone in mobilizing to stop this rule from taking effect. Susan B. Anthony List called it “unacceptable.”2

Please add your comment supporting this important policy today. Make sure the Obama administration hears loud and clear from people who support birth-control coverage.

Thanks. Together, we can get to a world where choice is real for all women.

Ilyse Hogue

Ilyse Hogue
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

1 – “Catholic Bishops oppose revisions to contraception mandate,” The Hill, February 7, 2013
2 – “On contraception, White House tries to balance the rights of access and of conscience,” MSNBC, February 1, 2013