Protect Access to Birth Control

In August, the Obama Administration listened to women's rights advocates and made an historic advancement for women's health with new regulations that require insurance coverage for birth control with no co-pays.

But President Obama may be poised to cave on this tremendous step forward for women's health.

Extreme anti-woman forces who literally oppose contraceptives are lobbying President Obama to overturn these new regulations and block access to birth control for millions of women.

Tell President Obama: Take a stand against extreme anti-woman activists and ensure all women have access to no-cost birth control. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

If President Obama caves to the demands of the radical anti-contraception activists, certain employers like religiously affiliated universities and hospitals will be allowed to prevent their female employees from having access to the same health care as every other woman in America.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the medical community agree that providing no-cost birth control is an essential part of preventive health care for women. And Kathleen Sebelius, the director of HHS, said that providing birth control at no cost to women should be like "covering flu shots."¹

President Obama needs to hear that women's access to critically important health care shouldn't be determined by who they work for.

Tell President Obama: Take a stand against extreme anti-woman activists and ensure all women have access to no-cost birth control. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

The anti-woman lobby is small but incredibly powerful. We know that President Obama has had private meetings with influential leaders from U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops who have been publicly pressuring him to restrict access to birth control. There is already a religious exemption that covers churches and other places of worship from offering birth control as part of health insurance. This new push to radically broaden that exemption is nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on contraception.

Now, President Obama needs to hear from the millions of women who use birth control and depend on it to keep them healthy. He should listen to the medical community and women in the U.S., not the extreme anti-woman forces lobbying him behind closed doors.

Tell President Obama: Take a stand against extreme anti-woman activists and ensure all women have access to no-cost birth control. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Thank you for working to protect women's health.

Ali Rozell, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. "New U.S. rules require insurance coverage for contraception," N.C. Aizenman, The Washington Post, 8-1-2011.

Internet Censorship Vote Coming Up

A message from MoveOn.org:

Congress is debating whether to give the government the power to turn off parts of the Internet. If that sounds like a terrible recipe for abuse of power, that's because it is.

If enacted, a new law would make it so a simple allegation of copyright infringement—with no review process—could lead to the shutdown of sites from YouTube to Wikipedia to MoveOn.org.¹ Any website, foreign or U.S.-based, could be wiped out on suspicion and made unavailable to everyone in the world.

For example, if you (or Justin Bieber) wanted to post a video to YouTube of yourself singing a Beatles song, a record company could force the Department of Justice to shut down YouTube. Really.²

But as you may have guessed, Congress didn't come up with this tragically terrible idea on their own. Lobbyists representing Comcast, Pfizer, record and movie companies, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce³ have been pushing Democrats and Republicans to pass bills to allow this new kind of Internet censorship. And they're close to getting their way.

But a small number of Democrats are standing strong and saying "No" to these powerful special interest groups. They need our help.

Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon is one of our champions. He has promised to start a historic filibuster of the Internet Censorship Act where he'll read the names of every person that signs a petition against Internet censorship.⁴ It's the perfect opportunity for 5 million Internet-connected progressives to visibly add their voice to a Senate debate. The more of us that sign, the stronger this effort to block this terrible law will be.

We know that the Internet's openness, freedom, and lack of censorship are what make it a bastion of infinite possibility, continued innovation, and job creation. Innovative companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, and Yahoo have spoken out against this law, saying: 

We should not jeopardize a foundational structure that has worked for content owners and Internet companies alike and provides certainty to innovators with new ideas for how people create, find, discuss, and share information lawfully online.⁵

Internet venture capitalists say that the legislation is "ripe for abuse,"⁶ and leading law professors reject it because it will "allow the government to block Internet access to websites."⁷

We condemn censorship overseas when it happens in China or Iran. But today, we need to stand up for freedom of speech on the Internet here at home.

Click here to add your name and say NO to Internet Censorship.

Thanks for all you do.

–Daniel, Garlin, Elena, Stefanie, and the rest of the MoveOn team

Sources:

1. "House Version of Rogue Websites Bill Adds DMCA Bypass, Penalties for DNS Workarounds," Public Knowledge, October 26, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268060&id=33343-18623853-yT_Ff_x&t=5

2. "Why Is Justin Bieber So Hackin Mad?" SaveTheInternet.com, November 2, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268061&id=33343-18623853-yT_Ff_x&t=6

3. "Five things to know about SOPA," The Washington Post, November 16, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268062&id=33343-18623853-yT_Ff_x&t=7

4. "Wyden to read petition names during copyright filibuster," The Hill, November 21, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268065&id=33343-18623853-yT_Ff_x&t=8

5. "SOPA opposition from tech heavyweights Google, Facebook," CBS News, November 17, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268063&id=33343-18623853-yT_Ff_x&t=9

6. "The PROTECT IP Act Will Slow Startup Innovation," Union Square Ventures, June 23, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268064&id=33343-18623853-yT_Ff_x&t=10

7. "Law Professors' Letter on SOPA," Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 15, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268067&id=33343-18623853-yT_Ff_x&t=11

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 5 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

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PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. 

Affordable Birth Control: AAUW's 2-Minute Activist Link

Are YOU the 99 Percent (of Women Who Have Used Birth Control)?
Tell President Obama that All Women Should Have Access to Affordable Birth Control!

It's a fact that nearly every sexually active American woman will use some form of birth control in her life. Whether they use it to prevent pregnancy or whether they're among the 1.5 million women who are prescribed birth control for other medical needs, contraceptives are a real and critical part of women's reproductive health.

Incredibly, some powerful opponents of women’s health want to make it harder for you and other American women to access birth control and other contraceptives.

Call the White House TODAY and tell the administration that all women should have coverage for contraceptive needs under the new health care law!

Here are the basics: A few months ago, AAUW cheered the Department of Health and Human Services' recommendation that new insurance plans cover women's preventive health care without copay. But right away, opponents started undermining this decision with exemptions for certain religiously affiliated employers. This exemption is an obvious intrusion on the patient-doctor relationship, and also discriminates against women on the basis of sex.

So we need YOU to raise your voices for the millions of women who work for religiously affiliated schools, hospitals, charities and nonprofits -- AND their dependents -- and ask the administration to oppose these attempts.

Call right now and tell the White House: Oppose attempts to exempt employers from covering women's preventive care -- all women should have coverage of contraception without copays or cost-sharing.

You can call by visiting AAUW's Two-Minute Activist.
Remember: You can always help strengthen AAUW’s efforts to support women's health by making a tax-deductible donation to AAUW’s Public Policy Fund!
Double your impact! Tweet, Facebook, and forward this action alert to friends and family. 

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Follow AAUW on Twitter, and read our award-winning AAUW Dialog Blog for discussion, information, and advocacy for women and girls! 

General AAUW questions? Please contact connect@aauw.org or call 800/326-2289 between 10 am and 5 pm Eastern, Monday through Friday.

Democracy, NOT Corporatocracy

A message from PFAW:

The movement to amend the U.S. Constitution to get corporate money out of elections is picking up some serious steam.

Tens of thousands of activists across the country have already signed PFAW's petition calling for an amendment ... and on November 9, thousands of Americans attended one of more than 200 house parties nationwide -- organized by PFAW, Public Citizen, Move To Amend and other allies, and joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders -- to mobilize and plan for a day of action on the upcoming January 21st second anniversary of Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court decision that unleashed unlimited corporate spending in our elections.

Please take a moment to add your name to the petition now and help restore Government By the PEOPLE!

SEVEN bills proposing a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision have been introduced in the current Congress -- FOUR just this month, including one introduced last Friday by Rep. Ted Deutch to expressly exclude for-profit corporations from the rights given to natural persons by the Constitution, prohibit corporate spending in all elections, and affirm the authority of Congress and the States to regulate corporations and to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures.

Here's just a glimpse of the growing national movement!

• In Colorado, the Jamestown Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment establishing that only human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights and that the First Amendment does not protect unlimited political spending as free speech. And voters in Boulder City passed a ballot measure calling for an amendment to the US Constitution that would state that corporations are not people and reject the legal status of money as free speech.
  
• In California, the city councils of Fort Bragg and Richmond passed resolutions this year supporting an amendment to ban “corporate personhood.”
  
• Missoula, Montana voters approved a local ballot referendum urging Congress to propose a constitutional amendment that clearly states that corporations are not people and do not have the same rights as citizens by a three to one margin.
  
• Residents of Monroe, Maine passed a Local Self-Governance Ordinance stating that "no corporation doing business within the Town of Monroe shall be recognized as a ‘natural person’ under the United States or Maine Constitutions or laws of the United States or Maine."

And many more resolutions have been introduced in state and local legislative bodies across the country. 

Add your name to PFAW's petition to Congress calling for constitutional amendment now and help us DOUBLE our current number of signers and get to 100K!

Generations of Americans have come together to force much-needed change by amending the U.S. Constitution to expand democracy and protect fundamental rights. With the voice of the voter being increasingly drowned out by unlimited corporate spending in elections, the need has arisen again. Now, it's our generation's turn.

Please speak out now.

Thank you for standing up against corporate power run amok and for Government By the People -- the American Way.

-- Ben Betz, Online Strategy Manager

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