Nevada County Citizens For Choice

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The Fall of Roe

June 12, 2022 By phylliso

The Supreme Court is likely soon to overturn Roe v. Wade.  With its fall, 49-year-old protections for abortion rights under our U.S. Constitution will end.  The imminent fall of Roe is shining a light on how central abortion rights are to women. Under Roe, abortion rights have been rooted in our Constitution and protected by our courts.  If people no longer have control over their own pregnancies, if they don’t have privacy rights preventing laws that criminalize or forbid their decisions, where does this rollback of rights take us?  Are there other ways to protect abortion access?

The answer in California is that our state must and will step in.  A 2002 state law provides protections similar to Roe’s.  Our courts have said that the right to privacy in our state Constitution protects abortion rights. And specific protection for abortion access in California is being proposed in a Constitutional Amendment that may go before voters this November.

So, if Roe is overruled, California will be among the states with their own abortion rights protections. And California is moving beyond legal protections.  Our state legislators are working on a raft of measures to expand abortion access.  Those measures are an outgrowth of the California Future of Abortion Council.  The Council was formed late last year in response to the risk that Roe would fall.  Citizens for Choice actively supports the Council’s recommendations.  To view the Council measures we are supporting, and our full advocacy agenda and successes, visit the Advocacy page on our website at https://citizensforchoice.org/advocacy/.

We are committed to pushing for California to be a haven for women living in states where they do not enjoy access to safe and legal abortion care.  If Roe falls, about 26 states are expected to have bans or restrictions on abortion in place soon afterward.  Such laws will place women’s health and lives at risk.  According to the Guttmacher Institute, 1.4 million women of reproductive age might find California to be the nearest state where they might access abortion care (currently 46,000).   Already, tragic stories are being told of pregnant women residing in Texas under a six-week abortion ban.  In one case, a woman whose pregnancy became unviable after 19 weeks had a harrowing experience, forced to travel to another state to terminate her pregnancy despite the extreme danger to her health.

We invite you, our supporters, to stand with us, to ensure that California becomes a safe-haven state. Because we believe that abortion access is a basic, fundamental human right.

Elaine Sierra

Public Policy Director

Filed Under: Reproductive History, Reproductive Rights

AND YOU THOUGHT THE FIGHT WAS OVER

June 12, 2022 By phylliso

By Lynn Wenzel

In 1972 I marched for the right to control my own body. We carried signs. We were loud. And we were angry. Then came Roe. And we relaxed, at least for a while. Folded as it was into the larger fight for women’s rights, we marched on to advocate for specific issues such as work equity, access to loans in our own names, the Equal Rights Amendment and so on. We took our eyes off the ball in the mistaken belief that Roe was “settled law.”

Yesterday, a young woman in her 30s said with a mystified expression on her face, “I just took it all for granted. It never occurred to me that things would change.” Those of us, battle-scarred and wary, had often warned young women to stay heads-up. And now, they are shocked. Well, the antis have not rested for those 50 years—they have plotted and planned to remove the human rights of all people (except white men) and to own only for themselves the right of bodily autonomy.

OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

The Fourth Amendment, protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

The Fifth Amendment guarantees that an individual cannot be compelled by the government to provide incriminating information about herself – the so-called “right to remain silent.”

The Ninth Amendment states that the federal government doesn’t own the rights that are not listed in the Constitution, but instead, they belong to citizens. This means the rights that are specified in the Constitution are not the only ones people should be limited to.

The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted after the Civil War,  prohibits the states from depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

All the rights and privileges guaranteed to citizens in the Constitution are covered by these amendments—and this includes women. According to the amendments, women should be protected from unreasonable seizures by the government, including the seizure of their own bodies; women may not be compelled to provide private information about themselves, including pregnancy or the termination thereof; the federal government does NOT own any rights not listed in the Constitution as they belong to the citizens, in this case the woman; and no woman may be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process (see the 1st and 4th amendments).

Now, I am no Constitutional scholar, but it seems to me that under our rights women’s bodily autonomy may not be violated in any way. Roe has been standing on these amendments, which have also protected the liberty and rights of Black, Indigenous and Native, People of Color and LGBTQIA+ people. So, as Roe goes, so go all the other rights and protections? Women’s rights are the pathway to liberation for everyone else. The termination of those rights may quite possibly be the beginning of the end of all others.

Alito’s leaked opinion that privacy and liberty must be rooted in ”this Nations Anglo-American history and tradition” is misogynistic and racist. Alito, as a privileged white man, obviously wants to return to early centuries when women were property and Black and Brown women were slaves. As Maureen Dowd wrote in The New York Times on May 8, “Alito is a familiar type in American literature; the holier-then-thou preacher, so overzealous in his attempts to rein in female sexuality and slap on a scarlet letter that one suspects he must be hiding some dark yearnings of his own.”

For now, women who live in blue states as in ours, are safe. But, as the Washington Post recently reported, anti-abortion groups and their congressional allies are already planning for a nationwide abortion ban if Republicans take power. In an interview with USA Today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said a national abortion ban was “possible” and “worthy of debate.” And he suggested that most Senate Republicans would support a national ban. Thinking of getting around it by ordering abortion pills which now accounts for more than half of U. S. abortions? Think again. States have already been cracking down on mail-order. Last week, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a law that criminalizes mail-order abortion pills, fining anyone who sends pills “via courier, delivery or mail service up to $50,000.” Other states have already banned the use of telemedicine. Some GOP lawmakers are already beginning to reconsider access to contraceptives.

We cannot rest until all women and girls across the country are assured of their rights under the Constitution. We cannot let a small group of white men decide to take autonomy and freedom away from us. Vigilance requires us to recognize and call out the first steps of power erasure. Remember the poem by Martin Niemoller—“and then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak.”

 

Filed Under: Reproductive History, Reproductive Rights

What My Ancestors Might Think of This Moment in U.S. History

June 1, 2022 By info@citizensforchoice.org

MS. More Than A Magazine, A Movement, 5/27/2022, by Aletha Y, Akers

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 14: Abortion rights activists shout at Anti-Abortion activists during a Bans Off Our Bodies rally and march to the Supreme Court of the United States on Supreme Court of the United States on Saturday, May 14, 2022 in Washington, DC. Abortion rights supporters are holding rallies across the country urging lawmakers to codify abortion rights into law after a leaked draft from the Supreme Court revealed a potential decision to overturn the precedent set by landmark Roe v. Wade. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

 

I read the draft decision by the Supreme Court in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and wondered what my ancestors would think of us—the U.S.—at this moment. I knew immediately what one might think. Her name is Lillie and her story motivates my work as an obstetrician-gynecologist and as an advocate for sexual and reproductive rights globally. She would say that history is repeating itself after learning little from its past.

Click Here to Read More

Filed Under: Reproductive Rights

A Glimpse of a Potential Post-Roe Future Through Texas Women’s Stories – The Washington Post

May 23, 2022 By info@citizensforchoice.org

Great article by Sophie Novack in The Washington Post 5/15/22

Kathaleen Pittman, director of Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, La., is relishing what feels like a moment of quiet, despite the drilling outside her office. On this Friday afternoon in mid-March, workers are replacing some of the abortion clinic’s phones, leaving hers briefly disconnected. Since Texas implemented a near-total ban on abortions last fall, the lines have been flooded with calls. “Our phones are literally worn out,” Pittman says.

Before Texas’s ban, she tells me, patients could call Hope Medical and get an appointment the same week for the state-mandated first consultation, and often come back the next day for the procedure. Now, it’s typically a two-week wait just for a call back to schedule a first visit, and a couple more weeks before patients can have an abortion. Pittman showed me a red clipboard with the waiting list of people who have called in the past 10 days. The stack of pages with names; phone numbers; how far along they are in pregnancy, if known; age and parents’ contact information, if they are a minor, is an inch thick.

This spring, I drove to clinics in Louisiana and Arkansas, tracing paths that many of the thousands of Texans who have left the state for an abortion in recent months have traveled and speaking to patients about the obstacles they have faced along the way. The abortion clinic in Shreveport, a 5½-hour drive, is the closest to my home in Central Texas that still offers abortions past about six weeks, which is before most people even know they’re pregnant. Little Rock — home to the two abortion clinics in Arkansas — is an eight-hour drive one way. Both states require two in-person visits, 24 and 72 hours apart, respectively, which means many patients must make the journey twice.

The stories that follow are snapshots from this moment. Texas women shared them with me in interviews inside the clinic during first consultation visits in Shreveport, in a car on the way to the clinic for a procedure in Little Rock, over the phone after finally having an abortion following weeks or months of waiting.

They’re also a glimpse into what will likely be a far more common and widespread reality very soon. If a similar version of the draft opinion leaked in early May holds, and the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade as expected, access to legal abortion would disappear in much of the Midwest and across the South, from Texas to the eastern edge of the United States. About half of states would likely ban abortion in the ruling’s wake; Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and 10 other states, have “trigger” laws that would ban the procedure almost immediately. As a result, more patients would end up traveling farther and waiting longer. These stories explore what that means — for mental health, for family, for work, for daily life in innumerous, interconnected ways. These are patients’ experiences, in their own words. Some women requested partial anonymity to protect their privacy. In the case of the woman who requested full anonymity, her OB/GYN, Crystal Berry-Roberts, who does not perform elective abortions but treated the woman after her procedure, confirmed her story.

Interviews have been edited and condensed.

I found out I was pregnant when I was about five weeks, and it was around six weeks when I started calling and calling. By the time I got [scheduled], they told me I was too far [along] to get the appointment in Texas at all. I got put on a waiting list here [at Hope Medical Group in Shreveport]. It took longer than two weeks. I had to wait and look for the area code to call me. You can’t miss this call.

I’m 12½ or 13 weeks. The GPS told me I was going to run into a crash, and I was going to get here late. I start panicking, trying to call while I’m driving to the clinic. You feel like all your decisions are just based on this law that put you in this time crunch. It’s painful because it’s already a hard choice. Knowing the baby is growing, being forced to keep pushing it along, and going through all these obstacles — it’s a little traumatizing.

I have five kids. My youngest is 4. Since I had her, I’ve been going through a custody case. I’m just trying to not make any more decisions, especially something financially, that’s going to hurt them.

I had an abortion about three years ago. But it was different because I didn’t have to be forced to get attached to the baby. I was able to make a decision and have it done. It wasn’t like being backed into a corner, feeling nervous and scared every day.

It’s affected my time with my kids. I can’t explain it to them, but they know something is going on. At times I think they’re scared that I’m sick or something. I keep making up all these excuses why I don’t have the energy or don’t eat with them, because I feel so nauseous. Going through the longer process and being depressed at times, ’cause you got to think about it for longer and longer — just trying to hide all of that from everybody who I care about, so they don’t take on those feelings. Especially my kids.

I found out that I was pregnant in the beginning of February. I knew [an abortion] was going to be expensive, that I was going to have to jump through all these hoops and hurdles. I was worried, you know: Am I going to get in trouble because of this abortion law? Am I going to get sued?

I was on a wait list [at Hope Medical Group] for like two weeks, and they finally set my appointment for March 4th. We drove four hours, booked a hotel. Friday morning, I had my consultation appointment. Then they tell me that I have to come back for the surgery. So we had to drive four hours back home, wait till the next Saturday to drive all the way back. It was a little hectic and stressful.

Thankfully, I’d just gotten my tax returns, so we were able to take care of everything financially. It was at least $1,000. If we hadn’t gotten our taxes, or if this was a later time in the year, we may not have even been able to do this. I don’t have health insurance. I couldn’t go to a real OB/GYN. Our Planned Parenthood is actually shut down. [My hometown] has one of those [crisis pregnancy centers] where you walk in and they try to tell you that abortion is bad, you know, God made this choice for you, and all that stuff. But they were able to give me an ultrasound and tell me how far along I was before we went all the way to Louisiana.

I was waking up every morning throwing up, couldn’t really eat, just dealing with all this stuff, while trying to take care of my [3-year-old son]. I dreaded every day, just waiting for that phone call [to get off the wait list]. It was awful. Like, please call me, please call me. Because the longer I wait, every day that goes by, I lose another day of my chance of getting an abortion.

To read more click here

Filed Under: Reproductive Rights

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

October 1, 2020 By phylliso

Nevada County Citizens for Choice joins with the country in grieving the loss of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was a trailblazer for women, of course, but also for all people in this country. As a student, a professor, a lawyer and a judge, Ginsburg was a pioneer for women in the legal field and beyond. She was one of the only women in her law school class at Columbia and during this time she cared for her young children and her seriously ill husband while excelling in her coursework. Ginsburg graduated first in her class at Columbia Law and went on to found the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project where she argued five sex discrimination cases before the Supreme Court.

Ginsburg was not a fancy woman and she asked little for herself alone. So, it is incumbent upon all of us to ask for ourselves and our posterity what she mirrored by her work on the Court—to commit to the fight against injustice and to value and respect all human lives; to be brave and to stand for reproductive justice; to continue to work to remove barriers to reproductive health care; to support women’s and family’s rights to decide when and how to have children and to treat family’s with dignity and respect in those decisions; to protect the rights of all people—women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities; and to mirror Ginsburg’s kindness and compassion by attempting to understand the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves and to work for their betterment.

Such decisions as Reed v. Reed which challenged the automatic preference of men over women as administrators of estates, resulting in the first time that sex discrimination was viewed as a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment; as the Virginia Military Institute decision in the 7-1 opinion that the Institute could no longer remain an all-male institution; and as the Lily Ledbetter Dissent in Ledbetter v. Goodyear that spurred the creation of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act were norm-setting.

Nevada County Citizens for Choice (C4C) supports the right of all people to make their own informed choices about reproductive health. The free/low cost Clinic C4C supports and that is staffed by Women’s Health Specialist’s professional medical staff, provides a full line of reproductive services, including STI testing and treatment, HIV testing, pregnancy testing, contraception and emergency contraception, breast, gynecological and testicular exams and health care referrals. Ginsburg blazed many of the trails that we follow now and will continue to follow. The laws she championed are the legal backbone of what we do. She once said, “I wasn’t going to sit in the corner and cry.” We, too, are finished crying. We owe it to her to rise up, to give little girls today role models for strength and justice. Joe Hill said as he walked to the gallows, “Don’t mourn. Organize!” In honor of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, let us go forward with even more resolve, unafraid, secure in the rightness of our work for gender equity and reproductive justice.

For information on Nevada County Citizens for Choice or to donate, go to www.citizensforchoice.org or www.facebook.com/CitizensforChoiceNevadaCounty. . For an appointment or to speak with a medical professional call 530-891-1911 or 800-714-8151 ~ 24/7. And don’t forget to VOTE!

Filed Under: Reproductive History, Reproductive Rights

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