One theme of our "The Choice Is Yours" Roe V Wade event last weekend was lobbying. Politicians need to hear from pro-choice women. You can lobby by yourself or with a friend. Better yet, you can go with a large group and fan out! Women have many opportunities in the next few months to lobby with different groups, according to the issues that they feel are most important. You can do more than one of these!

- Feb 28, 2005 – Monday night - Raleigh NOW will join other NC NOW chapters at the legislature when we pass out our Pro-Choice Signature Ad to all the NC legislators. NOW passes these out every year, and we take this opportunity to talk to our representatives while we are there.

- March 16, 2005 – Wednesday – Adolescent Health Advocacy Day. Youth-serving professionals, young people, and advocates from around the state will meet in Raleigh to discuss adolescent health issues, including sex ed.
 Promotion of healthy weight
 Prevention of tobacco use
 Ensuring access to school-based/school-linked health centers
 Providing age-appropriate, medically accurate sexuality education

- March 30, 2005 – Wednesday - NCWU encourages women and men to participate in lobbying on Women’s Advocacy Day. Women are disproportionately affected by many large issues that we went over in the Women’s Agenda Assembly meeting last November. These are Access to Health Care, Aging, Employment Discrimination, Economic Self Sufficiency and Domestic Violence. To see more about these issues, go to www.ncwu.org and read the summaries in the Draft Women’s Agenda.

Lobbying can be fun, stimulating, and make you a participant in this business called democracy!

The Choice is Yours.

SAY "YES" TO PUBLIC CAMPAIGN FUND ON N.C. TAX FORM

You can do something very special when you fill out your tax return this year.

In many states, special-interest groups are spending millions to influence who gets elected as a judge. But in North Carolina, judges have another option.

In 2004, four of the five winning candidates for the N.C. Supreme Court and Court of Appeals received help from the Public Campaign Fund in exchange for accepting strict fundraising limits.

The Public Campaign Fund also sent four million Voter Guides across the state, with information about the courts and candidates.

Fair courts and fair elections go together. But this program needs your help.

Find the question about the Public Campaign Fund on your N.C. income-tax return and check it YES. Saying “Yes” doesn't change your tax bill and refund; it just transfers $3 to the new Public Campaign Financing Fund for each person who says "Yes."

For more information, call 1-888-OUR-VOTE or go to www.ncjudges.org.

Please go to the link below to print a membership application. Fill it out and mail it to:

Raleigh NOW
PO Box 25331
Raleigh, NC 27611

If you live in Raleigh, please affiliate with Raleigh NOW, chapter NC0350. By affiliating, you will get the Raleigh NOW bi-monthly newsletters, and postcards for some events. If you live in NC, but don't have a local active chapter, you can also choose to affiliate with Raleigh NOW. We would love to have you!

Thank you for your support!

http://www.now.org/membership/member-print.html

A terrible program with a misleading name was slipped into the final version of the omnibus appropriations bill in November 04. This legislation allows health care organizations to refuse to comply with existing federal, state or local laws pertaining to abortion.

This ‘Abortion Non-discrimination Act’, aka the “Federal Refusal Clause” or the “domestic gag rule” says that health care insurers like Medicare, HMOs, private insurance companies and hospitals can refuse to permit their doctors to provide, refer or even council their patients regarding abortion – even if their patients ask. This program disregards that abortion is legal and sometimes medically necessary. This program violates medical ethics to refuse to give a patient full information about her medical options.

Read about this in the last National NOW Times newsletter.

Upcoming events in Raleigh

I. March on Martin Luther King Day with Raleigh NOW
Monday, Jan 17 is Martin Luther King Day.

II. Jan 22, 10am - Honk for Choice event

III. Jan 22, 6-8pm, The Choice Is Yours Event

Click on the relevant item in the event column on the left side of this page for more information about these events. All events are free.

Please bring friends, family or coworkers to any of these events.

Saturday. January 22, 2005
Join the National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood Health Systems, and NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina, as we commemorate Roe v. Wade’s 32nd anniversary.

“Honk for Choice”
Planned Parenthood Health Center
100 South Boylan Avenue
10a.m. to make signs, 11a.m with homemade signs

Meet us at 10am at the Planned Parenthood Health Center to create a sign to carry during this demonstration, or meet us at 11 with a homemade sign. Materials and donuts will be provided at the health center. Groups of 6-10 activists will be formed and dispersed to highly trafficked intersections throughout Raleigh. We will display our “Honk for Choice” signs at 6 locations around Raleigh. Contact Gailya at 539-7702 or come to Planned Parenthood at 11am to find out which site to go to.

Join us again at 6pm for an indoor Roe V Wade event at Michael Deans in Raleigh. See Roe V Wade 1/22/05 item under events or the Dec 16 2004 announcement entry for details about this event.