Ever since Stupak hijacked the health care bill, we’ve been watching. So far, nothing looks like it has any chance of success of beating the Stupak amendment back. And Nancy Pelosi is quietly telling people she can’t pass the health care bill without it.
We can’t just sit back and let that happen without a fight.
Today we’re announcing “One Voice for Choice,” a national phone bank that will launch calls into the districts of the Representatives who voted for Stupak. We’ll be targeting likely Democratic voters who are pro-choice. We’ll be letting them know that Stupak goes WAY past Hyde. And we’ll be asking them to sign their names to a letter to their member of Congress, demanding that they not make Stupak the litmus test for their vote.
We hope that by reaching out to educate likely voters in their districts to the far-reaching implications of the Stupak language, we can help these wayward Democrats understand that having the Hyde language in the bill is sufficient to their needs.
One Voice for Choice is a targeted effort that doesn’t need big numbers to be successful. In 2008 for instance, Tom Perriello won his district by less than a thousand votes. Bobby Bright won by a margin of 1700 votes.
Making a few, carefully targeted people aware of what’s happening can have a big impact.
We actually think we’re doing these members a big favor in the process. Democratic turnout in Virginia was terribly depressed when Creigh Deeds started running from the right, and a Daily Kos poll indicates that there is a 3:1 “enthusiasm gap” in favor of Republicans for 2010. These members need reliable Democratic voters to turn out for them next fall. They need to start paying attention to them now.
We are asking people to host phone banks, or volunteer to take part in one, at One Voice For Choice. The program is being run by Marta Evry of Venice for Change, who ran phone banks in California for the Obama campaign in 2008. You can sign up here and Marta will get you everything you need.
This is an important step forward for FDL Action PAC and for our online activism. Just as we did during the public option whip count effort, we looked at the landscape, we analyzed what needed to be done, and isolated the way we could use the resources we were capable of leveraging in the most closely targeted and specific way to have the biggest impact. Mike Allen was on Morning Joe this morning talking about it, and I think you can tell from his response — it’s a big move. A real game changer.
But we can’t do it without your help. It will be pro-choice supporters working together who will make it happen. We’re simply giving women — and those who care about the rights of women — efficient tools to use to raise their voices and defend themselves from the Stupak pack who would hold health care hostage and take women’s rights away.
Sign up to volunteer here. And you can donate to help us keep this program going here.
Working together, we can raise our voices — in One Voice For Choice.




55 Comments

Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL Action
Jane,
I am so happy you’ve decided to take this step. Your work to keep the public option on the table has been phenomenal, and you’re right to argue now that “we can’t just sit back and let [Stupak hijack the health care bill] without a fight.”
Thank you!
can you also ask him to F.O.A.D.?
i hate these closet paedophile catholic bishops and their acolytes like stupak.
phew, that felt good.
Pro choice folks need to realize that there is no end game even after you’ve won, especially when dealing with a god-motivated opponent.
What do “us” pro-choice folks need to realize, exactly?
Jane,
Mike Allen of Politico mentioned you, FDL, and your latest push this morning when speaking about HCR on the morning joke. Called you and FDL “a powerfull new force in politics.” Pretty sure I got the quote right. He was not kidding.
Thank you.
Before yet another torrent of Catholic hate fills another thread, may I suggest that it makes much more sense to direct our anger at the members of the Progressive Caucus for not fighting as hard or as effectively for our values and principles as did others who have fought for theirs and have – so far – been winning?
The anger is fine. Just direct it more effectively.
i understand your concern about the impending “torrent of catholic hate”. while it makes sense to aim at the progressive caucus, i wonder why so many of these catholics are silent rather than ask stupak to STFU. why aren’t they on the streets?
Thanks! We’ll try to get it up soon.
Sadly, in America things generally have to get a lot worse before they start to get better. When the impact of Stupak and other anti-choice measures start to seriously put women faced with an unwanted pregnancy at risk, only then will resistance start becomming more and more organized.
There will be some terrible tragedy [perhaps involving a celebrity] in which a woman dies as a result of seeking an abortion “outside the law”. Think Rock Hudson in the fight to rally people around those with HIV.
Short of that the most effective argument in confronting those who are blind to the consequences of repealing Roe v. Wade, is just that: Confronting them with the consequences.
If the law of the land proscribes abortion…if it construes abortion to be premeditated murder…what will that mean?
It will mean this: That any woman who opts for a back alley abortion will not only put her life at risk, but will be seen [in the eyes of the law] as someone who can be charged, indicted, tried, convicted and sentenced for murder.
And if she does this in a state like Texas, she will be put on death row with all the other murderers.
And this will be so even if her pregnancy was the result of a rape or of incest. After all, that wasn’t the fetus’s fault, right? And if life is construed [again, legally] to start at the point of conception then those who work in fertility clinics or in the field of stem cell research may also be arrested for committing murderer.
It’s amazing how many anti-choice folks never really think it through to this. Point it out to them. Note how, in desparation, their daugther, sister, mother, aunt etc. may opt for an abortion in some subterranean office in some subterranean part of town. Note how, should they get caught, they may well be convicted of murder and end up sitting on death row.
For all too many people, the abortion debate is an abstraction. Abortion is deemed “immoral”, a “sin against God”. But put them in an actual circumstantial context in which a woman they love [or even they themselves] are faced with the existential reality of being charged with murder.
Only when both sides begin to empathize with each other [in this ever complex and uncertain world] can they start working together towards accomplishing the one thing they can all share in common. The need make abortion both extremely safe and extremely rare.
I have to say, Obama’s announcement of escalation in Afghanistan (aka, graveyard of empires) really has taken the wind out of my sails.
Today, I officially have lost all hope. I’ve been unsubscribing from mailing lists and am considering dropping out of the local Democratic Party.
Maybe I need some ice cream or something.
Pelosi selling us out again? Boy, there’s a surprise. This is just another reason why progressives should oppose this godawful sham healthcare bill.
This is great news/action. Thank you Jane and all who helped make this possible!
I received an email yeasterday:
t.
And couldn’t bring myself to support anyone aligned with NARAL.. couldn’t trust them.
Finally a place/ group (FDL) I can trust and act and contribute with on this so very important issue.
Did we crash a server? http://onevoiceforchoice.com/ is not opening for me?
We have some server issues. It should be up soon.
I really don’t know how you enter the comments section of an effort to fight Stupak and say that nobody will fight.
Thank you so much for your support.
Wanna volunteer?
http://www.onevoiceforchoice.com/
Speaking of the far-reaching implications of the Stupak language, there’s an important new two-part analysis by Priscilla Smith of the House bill’s language, and its implications if passed, posted at Balkinization.
Here’re some excerpts from Part One:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2009/12/stupak-pitts-amendment-to-health-care.html
Part Two is here.
So tell me again why we are fighting them over there to protect their women, but won’t protect women’s rights over here?
Count me in for a little later this afternoon. You better believe I’m in!
That is a really important post, pow wow.
Awesome! If you sign up, we’ll start driving people to join your phone bank. It can be any time in the next few weeks. We’ll promote them — it’ll be a lot of fun.
I’m not Catholic and don’t know any of the secret Catholic handshakes or whatever, so I don’t know where they are or how to get them protesting in the streets. Patrick Kennedy recently got booted from communion for refusing to use his position in Congress to get the government to impose Catholic beliefs on the country. I’m usually good for a link, but right now I really have to run.
i hear ya.
what i don’t get is a lot of bandwidth about “you must understand where stupak is coming from. he’s catholic and so are many of his constituents” – i’ve read it here and on dailykos.
no, i don’t understand why i “must understand” that.
Jane, you are wonderful! Just left some $$ in the kitty. Wish I had time to volunteer, but too busy.
PS Too bad you can’t get PP or NARAL to send some of their money your way :-) ….
I’m in on the phone bank action.
Jane, I don’t know how much you can influence Aravosis, but he should drive some of this activity too. I’ve thought for the longest time that gay equality is directly connected to women’s equal rights.
When it’s bad for women, it gets worse for gay people.
Don’t forget. The Catholics have 6 Supreme Court Justices.
The principle is even in this case bigger than the particular.
Thanks, Kelly. I’ll reach out to John and Joe on this, just haven’t had the chance yet. They’ve been very supportive.
Planned Parenthood decided to advertise on Kos today and pass us by. I guess we know what they think of us.
You can count on me , my Rep. Richard Neal D-MA voted yea for Stupak. I’ve already sent an e-mail expressing my opposition to the Stupak amendment ,I have yet to receive a reply from Rep Neal.
Since abortion is such a highly charged subject to the religious folks, what about an end run. What about free birth control pills (or IUD) for low income people? Would that have a chance? Would it really be that expensive in the overall scheme of things?
Where did I suggest that? We all fight in different ways. And we all have different vantage points from which to observe the struggle. There is not just one fight. Nor one way to go about it conducting it. On the contrary, it is this reductive mentality that propels so many on the other side to demonize those who advocate a pro-choice stance; such that virtually any means is applauded if it will help to achieve their destruction.
My point is to expose this by grounding their self-righteous agenda out in the real world of actual fleah and blood women, struggling to cope with a world that can be overwhelmingly ambiguous and uncertain.
My point is to focus as much on why we think as we do as on what we think we know about this world.
can’t phone bank, but i will DEFINITELY give you a contribution.
I will also try to include the new group in upcoming philly weekly articles.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way!
Grab a shovel, folks. If it is to be, then it is up to thee and me.
DFHs, no doubt. If only their brains matched their pocketbooks…
Without hope there is only despair. Don’t forget to change your voter registration. In closed primary states that just means you can’t vote in the Dem primary. You can always change back to Dem for the primary and back to Independent or whatever afterwards. Some states have a time period you have to wait to so do, however. The DNC and local parties do take notice of the drop in registered Dems.
Join a peace group. If so inclined, march and demonstrate with them.
Never. Give. Up.
Good move, Jane. Thank you.
As has been said here many times by various commenters we can work with the local chapters of PP and NARAL and others. Fine with me if the national orgs cut their nose off to spite their face.
Jane I just sent off e-mails to both my US senators Kirk and Kerry , asking them to oppose any attempts to include anti abortion language in the senate bill.
I can’t wait to see their replies
It should be pointed out to voters that Lincoln, Lieberman, Landrieu, and Nelson represent only about 13 million people and the population of the US is 304 million. It’s absurd that they would be in control of the entire population and I wrote Reid about that fact.
That’s 4.2%.
Scarecrow has a fresh cross-post already in progress: “James Galbraith on How Government Deficits Saved Us and Are Still Needed”
hear,hear
fantastic!
This HC reform effort is getting to be like whack-a-mole. We try to beat back Stupak today just in time to hear that Harry Reid is getting ready to throw the public option under the bus.
It is time for the progressive caucus to quit compromising and getting nothing in return.
The same folks who use religion to oppose abortion are the same folks who use religion to block teaching of anything other than abstinence only education in schools and are the same folks who believe that using any type of contraception is a sin.
It is as much or more about controlling women than it ever is about religion. Their whole point is that sex is bad and should only be used for procreation.
Anything that would actually recognize a reality other than what they want to see almost by definition will be opposed by them.
Which is why they need to be fought on every front.
I was considering dropping out of the Dem party even though I’m not an registered dem. Then Jane posted this great program and I realized we’re probably going to need the local Dem headquarters. We’re also going to need the Young Democrats.
We have dial-up at home so I’m no help to phone banking. Other than as a private constituent.I’m starting calls this afternoon.
How much time is there to fight this fight? Can’t be much.
The same folks who use religion to control women are the first in line to sign their pregnant teens up for government assistance programs. Also.
Their whole point is about the purity of their women.
They really could care less about the costs of botched abortions or even the children who are born into despicable circumstances because birth control and abortion arr not available. That’s why those are not arguments.likely to persuade the anti-abortion/sex education/contraceptive crowd.
FYI, an article regarding our rep and any anti abortion amendment. She is usually a solid vote for equality/choice issues – but this was a strange article for this community. She will get a lot of backlash from the religious folks here, which makes me wonder if that is why they printed this:
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2009/12/02/news/kauai_news/doc4b161a0e48fa4732327960.txt
This is great news, as is the piece at Balkinization.
Very late last night I read a fight at TPM (I think) between 2 women over whether the left should quit fighting about Stupak because it just tracks Hyde and won’t affect women’s ability to get abortions!!!!!!!
The woman arguing that positiion cited what she kknew about the bill from WaPo and NPR, from which she disbelieved what the other woman (and other posters supporting her) was saying.
OTOH, the anti-Stupak woman didn’t have the full story, or wasn’t able to articulate why the outcome of ins. co. behavior and market behavior along with the bill’s limitations would end up meaning virtuallly no coverage.
I’d have jumped in, but (it was really really late, when I don’t do my clearest thinking), but also tech issues at TPM keep me from signing on or changing my pw. Not sure what happened. never get any response to requests for help, so I’m effectively barred from TPM for good.
Anybody who could respond would probably reach a lot of people who are at least reasonably active, and help them articulate position to their friends.
I’ll go search out a link.
Well, I’ve been searching, but can’t find the link. Weird. Pretty sure I didn’t dream it…may not have been TPM, but can’t find what it was.
Oh well, plenty of debate gong on around the web, much of it even less innformed.
Anyway the project is a great idea. Hope I can volunteer – but it will be a few days, a lot going on, and phones are not my best area.
What we all need to realize is that political gains are not permanent, they’ve got to be constantly tended. Whether Roe v. Wade or electing folks to office, the only way that gains are maintained over time is with mobilized political power, the only way that electeds are kept in line is with pressure from the base.
We’ve seen a constant erosion of Roe v. Wade over the past 20 years in the courts and legislatures, and that erosion has almost paralleled the atrophy of the pro choice veal pen. Public opinion has shifted slightly against Roe v. Wade in the past year, and that has been a failing of a permanent campaign needed to remind upcoming generations of women, of everyone, the importance of choice, what things were like before, and how we need to stand vigilant against a determined opponent.
Sweetie, I have neither a uterus nor heterosex, but since the clinic defense days of the 1980s and 1990s, abortion rights have been a priority.
“Their whole point is that sex is bad and should only be used for procreation…”
Which is why Vitter, Ensign and so many other’s can’t seem to keep their peter in their pants.
Hi Jane!
Trying to get this passed around… good luck!!!
I get error messages for the sign up linky and the main site, http://www.onevoiceforchoice.com
Lil help? The site don’t seem to woik . . . . .
Three and a half hours later and the server is still down?!?
http://onevoiceforchoice.comvolunteer.html/
Adding a slash to the link URL doesn’t help either…
Either someone is f-ing with you or you guys need to get your shit together!