Lois Herr has a message for all of you helping to defend reproductive choice by phone banking and spreading the word through One Voice For Choice,

“Don’t forget it’s Stupak/PITTS – I’m the one running against him in PA-16 and I want everyone to know that there’s a radical Republican co-sponsor who should lose his seat over this.”

She’s right. Most of us forget that the Stupak/Pitts amendment’s true author was Joe Pitts, who has one of the most radical, anti-choice records in congress.

Greetings from Mar Vista, in not-so-sunny Southern California! This afternoon we’re phone banking from the home of Kate Anderson, who’s a candidate for my assembly district in California, We need to do everything we can to get the Stupak amendment out of the health care bill.  I’m hosting a phone bank because it is one [...]

Yesterday, the NY Times ran self-serving op-ed from Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Coat Hanger), in which he claims his harmless little amendment was no worse than current law.Forget for a moment the logic disconnect here that Stupak and his coalition of anti-choice Democrats in the House would threaten to derail the entire health care reform bill just to maintain a status quo that wouldn’t have changed one iota if they had left well enough alone.

The one bright spot in yesterday’s firestorm of health care reform news was that Barbara Boxer drove a stake through the heart of Ben Nelson’s version of the anti-choice Stupak amendment. Her motion to permanently table it easily passed with 54 votes.

If anything, yesterday’s events puts a bright, shining spotlight to how this process really works. The cold, hard truth is Obama won’t lift a finger if it means losing even a few votes in the House for the final bill. And so far, One Voice For Choice is the only campaign going on out there that’s targeting the Stupak coalition of conservadems that says you can’t pass a final bill without gutting women’s reproductive rights.

“He did what?“ I take the phone away from my ear, surprised by both the volume and intensity. “He did WHAT?”, she says again, this time loud enough for the volunteer next to me to hear. She shoots me the evil eye, then moves farther down the couch to continue her own conversation with a [...]

This weekend scores of One Voice For Choice volunteers gathered in the homes of their friends and neighbors in Texas and California and began reaching out to thousands of pro-choice (and very likely) Democratic voters across the country.

Stupak, can you hear us now? It’s the sound of your bluff being called. Motivated voters will not allow you to hold health care reform hostage at the expense of a woman’s right to chose.