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PRO-CHOICE VICTORY IN MISSISSIPPI
On November 8, 2011 one of the most radical anti-choice bills ever introduced went down to overwhelming defeat after months of rallying pro-choice voters to stand up for women's right to choose.
The so called “Personhood Initiative” is the newest organized anti-choice assault on women. But with many groups working together the pro-choice movement kept its record intact of defeating EVERY single anti-choice initiative our opposition has come up with.
RFC Chair, Ann Stone, spent weeks on the phone calling independents, RFC donors, moderate voters and any names of individuals who claimed they were undecided on this controversial bill.
RFC sent out thousands of letters urging not only pro-choice and mixed -hoice voters to make sure they got to the polls -- but also sounded the alarm that if this bill passed -- it would set a very dangerous precedent that other anti-choice states would soon follow.
"Just because we won the fight here doesn't mean the antis will give up. Their real goal is to pass a law in one of the states that they know will be immediately challenged and taken all the way up to the Supreme Court. The ultimate goal isn't saving lives -- they don't care if the mother's life is in jeopardy or if a girl or woman was raped -- this bill called for NO exceptions. The antis want Roe overturned -- and they will use any method they can to do it -- no matter who gets hurt in the meantime," stated Ann Stone National Chair of RFC.
In state after state, the antis keep introducing outrageous bills hoping we aren't watching or that we'll run out of money fighting to protect a woman's Constitutional right to choose. RFC supporters have repeatedly indicated this is where they want their money spent -- not on candidates -- but on killing these horrendous anti-choice bills before they can gain any real momentum.
RFC has several new plans of attack for 2012. Funds permitting, RFC will start exposing why the antis need this issue so badly versus what they claim they are trying to do.
If the antis really cared about stopping abortion then they would support sex education programs in schools. How many abused children in foster homes have been adopted by antis? How many unwanted children die each year like in Washington, DC where several children were found in freezers who had been murdered by adults who didn't care or really want them or couldn't afford to support them.
Perhaps it is time the antis started picking up the tab for all the welfare children taxpayers support each year!
It is very easy for people to sit back and judge what someone should do but until you walk in that woman’s shoes, you truly can’t fairly judge her circumstance or reason for her very difficult, personal decision. And let’s not forget that more than 60% of abortions come from failed contraception.
Mississippi's Governor Haley Barbour, who has always been vocally anti-choice, even felt that the proposed state law banning ALL abortions by invoking “Personhood” went too far and said so. He got a great deal of criticism from the antis over his words of caution – and is still feeling the heat.
Mississippi is one of the most anti-choice states in the country. That RFC and other pro-choice groups defeated this bill is no small feat. Some say "Oh, it never would have passed." But the numbers going into Election Day were close -- no one really knew what the outcome would be -- it all depended on voter turnout.
This is a major victory for the pro-choice movement. But no sooner did the bill go down in overwhelming defeat than the antis introduced the same exact bill in 6 other states!
They underestimate pro-choice voters’ determination and conviction. Although this fight is far from over -- as long as RFC is around -- we will fight the good fight to preserve a woman's right to choose.
The Victoria Principle
I have coined a new term...we will call it the "Victoria principle" in honor of the first woman to run for President, Victoria Woodhull. This principle simply stated is: No journalist should ask a question or do an article on a female Presidential contender or any woman running for office that would not be asked of, or done on, a male candidate.Is that too much to ask?? Ann Stone
ABORTION IN THE US -- THE MOST RECENT STATISTICS
Who are the women who obtain abortions in the United States? Why do they decide to end a pregnancy? What are their social and economic circumstances? This video was created by the Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and policy organization on sexual and reproductive health.
SPECIAL CONDOLENCES TO
THE FORD FAMILY...
Thank you Betty!
Our condolences go out to the Ford family, Michael, Jack, Steven and Susan, on the passing of their mother, former First Lady, Betty Ford, age 93.
Some historians think she had a greater impact
on our country than her husband, the late President
Gerald Ford, through her many charitable works
and the program she created in founding the
Betty Ford Center.
She was a strong supporter of Republicans For Choice and our work. At the
1992 and 1996 Conventions, she actually helped lobby Delegates on our behalf. We will always cherish our memories of her and her commitment to preserving
a woman's right to choose.
FAR RIGHT STILL LYING ABOUT SCIENCE OF FETAL DEVELOPMENT
For decades, the Far Right anti-choice movement has been lying to Americans about the science of fetal development. Now they are formulating and introducing legislation to try and undermine Roe using the myth of fetal pain. They have frightened women and their families with stories of the fetus (unborn baby) in agony, feeling pain from abortion.
FINALLY, independent and real science to put that myth to rest.
Please visit this link:http://www.newser.com/story/93767/fetus-feels-no-pain-before-24-weeks-study.html?utm_source=9at9&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20100625
In recognition of the recent anniversary of his assassination, and the resultant misinformation spread about him, we wanted to set the record straight…
DR. GEORGE TILLER WAS NOT AN EVIL MANDr. Tiller was an early supporter and donor to Republicans For Choice. In 1991, he invited Ann Stone, RFC National Chair, to join him and his family for dinner after she attended and spoke at a rally in Wichita, Kansas during the so-called Summer of Mercy demonstrations.
Those demonstrations were marked by sporadic bursts of violence by so-called anti-choice demonstrators. Dr. Tiller, and his clinic, was among the targets.
Ann tells us that they had the dinner at a private club wince they needed to go somewhere that had security. Dr. Tiller hold her how his family was, and had been, personally harassed. As one example, his daughter had to change her wedding plans multiple times to find a secure location.
She asked him why he continued his practice of providing late-term abortion services. He was one of only three in the country at that time that did so.
His answer was swift and unconditional, "They had no where else to turn, I was their last hope...how could I turn away from them?" He then proceeded to lay out stacks of notes he had received over the years from former patients and their families. They praised him for his courage and for being there for them when no one else would help. Some went on to tell him how their lives had improved as a result.
Dr. Tiller was emotional as he talked about the agony these families had gone through in making these painful decisions. It angered him that anyone thought this was ever an easy decision. He wanted Ann to understand why this right remained so important to women and their families.
Dr. Tiller left the GOP years later due to increasing pressure and antagonism from those on the Far Right in the GOP. But he had told us that Republicans For Choice (RFC) had a special part to play. Working within the GOP, to promote greater understanding of what this issue really means to women and their families, is no small task.
Great tragedies like the brutal murder of this brave man (while he was serving as an usher in his church) underlines how more needs to be done to bring the two sides together to make sure this kind of violence is stomped out once and for all.
Dr. Tiller was not an evil man. He was not a baby killer. He was a dedicated physician who trusted women and their families to make the decision about this procedure. He simply remained steadfast and ready to provide this service to them if they so chose.
Many of the women who came to him faced it as a life or death decision; for others it was a mental health question. Ann recalled one note from the mother of a pre-teen whose life had nearly been destroyed by her pregnancy. She wrote with great emotion of how he had saved her child when no one else would.
There are two sides to the stories in the abortion wars. And both sides are quick to demonize and make examples of the most extreme cases. This is no way to find solutions or dramatically affect the abortion rate. Both sides need to think again about how the decimal level of this debate can be reduced and women and their families can benefit instead of being pawns in a public relations war.
Maybe this killing of a prominent figure who was so often demonized... a killing in his house of worship...can serve as a wake up call. Maybe some good can come of it...
and that Dr. Tiller will not have died in vain. We can only hope.
NOTE: Interestingly, Ann Stone and Dr. Tiller both belong to the same denomination, the Lutheran Church, ELCA. Their church recognizes a woman's right to choose but advocates it as a measure of last resort. Dr. Tiller also saw it in that light.
This point is important for those who claim the moral high road and invoke religion on this issue. Many of the most mainstream religions in the US today also support this as the
woman's right to decide.
You would never know this from the mainstream media's coverage of this debate.More on Ann Stone's Views On Dr. Tiller --
http://www.womensradio.com/content/templates/?a=3729&z=62
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Republicans for Choice | 3213 Duke Street, # 808 | Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 508-5897 | info@republicansforchoice.com"This Republicans For Choice committee is a political action group and is not a part of,
or affiliated with, Planned Parenthood."
