Go to
Or come to the next Raleigh NOW Monthly Meeting on Dec 5, 2006 to get a form.
Roe v Wade events planned for Tuesday, Jan 16, 2007. (Note: date was changed) More information to follow.
And read the next 2 announcements as well - about Bush dissing women and about the real controversy with Emergency Contraception.
Support Choice
This year, North Carolina NOW once again will sponsor a pro-choice signature ad to observe the anniversary of the Roe V Wade Supreme Court decision. As in previous years, the exact text of the ad will read:
"We, the undersigned, support a woman’s right to safe, legal, and accessible birth control and abortion. We condemn the acts of violence and intimidation directed at women and their health care providers. We agree that these rights extend to all women regardless of economic status, and, as taxpayers, affirm our support of the State Abortion Fund for indigent women."
The two page ad will run in the centerfold of the January 17 edition of the Independent, a weekly newspaper serving the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. The ad commemorates Roe v. Wade, and also raises money for our lobbyist here in North Carolina. Not only is the ad visible to the triangle community and beyond, but the ad is distributed to every NC House Representative and NC Senator so it covers everyone that lives in N.C. The pro-choice community comes through loud and clear with this ad.
Won't you join us in taking a stand for women's reproductive rights by adding your name to the ad? For a $35 donation ($10 minimum donation) your name (and only your name - not your address or hometown) will be listed as a supporter of reproductive rights.
Showing your support for a women's right to choose is especially crucial.
Please fill out and return the form today, along with your contribution, and mail by January 5, 2007. You can use the basic form below or email president@raleighnow.org to ask for a form. If you do not want your name to appear in the ad, please indicate your wish on the form. Your extra donation can cover others that want to put their name in the ad. Please be as generous as you can.
For NOW,
Gailya Paliga
Raleigh NOW President
Sign Up for Choice! NC NOW’s Pro-Choice Signature Ad
____ Yes, I want my name in the ad (print name as it should appear):
____ No, I don’t want my name to appear, but I want to help.
PLEASE PRINT:
Name______________________________________________________________
Address____________________________________________________________
City__________________________________________State_____ Zip_________
Phone_____________________________
E-mail_____________________________
Enclosed is my donation $100 ____ $75 ____ $50____ $25____ $15____ Other ____
Total $____
Make all checks payable to NC NOW and mail to:
Raleigh NOW, PO Box 25331, Raleigh NC 27611
But we can do something about it. Read about the latest dangerous appointment, the anti-family planning guy Eric Keroack, and then take action at http://www.now.org/lists/now-action-list/msg00272.html
Sack Keroack!
In November of 2006, after pledging to bring the country together after his electoral losses, President Bush appointed anti-contraception doctor Eric Keroack to lead the Department of Health and Human Services' family-planning program - which helps more than five million people annually at 4,600 clinics nationwide.
Keroack has dedicated his career to telling women that birth control and abortion are wrong. He most recently was the medical director for A Woman's Concern, a network of six anti-choice "crisis pregnancy centers" in Massachusetts that maintains a policy that states: "the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness."
The family planning program provides birth control and other prevention services to underserved communities.
Misuse of 'emergency' appointment powers
1/6/06 - George W. Bush used the holiday recess to fill 17 key government posts, misusing his "emergency" appointment powers to bypass congressional hearings—and bypass lawmakers' constitutional role in confirming presidential nominations.
Several of the appointees had run into opposition from members of Congress for nepotism or cronyism, or during previous nomination or political campaigns, including Ellen Sauerbrey, a staunch abortion rights opponent who had used her previous political appointment with the U.N. to advance that agenda. Sauerbrey was appointed assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, which could put allow her to do even more damage to women's rights.
One nominee, Tracy Henke, in her former post at the Justice Department, tried to prevent information about disparities in police treatment of blacks and whites from appearing in a study report, according to the Washington Post. Henke was appointed executive director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness. This is a particularly troubling appointment because of the racial dimension to the government's lack of preparedness to deal with Hurricane Katrina.
Emailed to the N&O 11/20/06 but not printed. An important point, though.
The N&O completely missed the real Emergency Contraception (EC) controversy in the "Morning after pill in stores" article from 11/17/06. The article said the drug 'stirred controversy in August when federal regulators decided to make it available to women without a prescription." The real controversy was the 3 year saga of the Food and Drug Administration ignoring its scientists in refusing to make EC available for over the counter purchase. The real controversy is about the credibility of the entire agency and its ability to make its decisions based on science.
Susan Wood, the assistant commissioner for women’s health and director of the office of women’s health at the Food and Drug Administration from 2000 to August 2005, resigned in protest of the FDA’s decision to delay granting over-the-counter status to Plan B emergency contraception. "Although the FDA’s scientists have approved over-the-counter status for Plan B, it has been delayed since 2003", Wood says.
The FDA also disregarded studies establishing that easy access to EC did not increase sexual activity in young women, and did not decrease the use of other forms of contraception.
The FDA's decision to allow EC to be sold without prescription (over-the-counter) to women age 18 and older is a step in the right direction for women's rights and reproductive health, but it is an incomplete victory. It is not available for some teens. And in keeping it away from teens, pharmacists have it behind the counter. These days, placement "behind the counter" means that even an adult woman may have to contend with a moralizing lecture from the cashier or pharmacy clerk, and deal with the same kinds of refusals that now face women trying to fill a prescription (called pharmacist refusal).
-Gailya Paliga
President of Raleigh NOW (National Organization for Women)