Sign the Hyde Petition!

The following is a petition from the Hyde - 30 Years is Enough! Campaign, who is working to secure full reproductive access for low income women:

Dear Friend,

Abortion is still legal in the U.S., but every year thousands of women are denied this right because they don’t have the money to pay for abortion care.

Low-income women are often forced to use money they need for food and rent to cover the cost of an abortion. Many women cannot raise enough money and must continue the pregnancy and stay trapped in poverty. Women face this difficult situation because in 1976 Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, which excludes abortion from government-funded health care programs.

We urge you to join the more than 60 groups in the Hyde – 30 Years is Enough! Campaign demanding an end to this injustice! Sign our petition calling on Congress to repeal the Hyde Amendment and restore coverage of abortion for low-income women.
Women enrolled in Medicaid and similar programs receive coverage for all medically necessary health care services, including prenatal care, labor, and delivery. However, as a result of the Hyde Amendment, a woman enrolled in Medicaid is denied assistance in most circumstances if the care she needs is an abortion.

Sign the petition and make your voice heard! Our goal is to collect 20,000 signatures to deliver to Congress by January 22, 2008. With your help we can meet this goal! Please forward this email to your friends and colleagues and encourage them to sign.

By signing the petition, you join a strong, national effort called the Hyde – 30 Years is Enough! Campaign. The campaign is led by the National Network of Abortion Funds, a network of groups that raise money to help women cover the cost of abortions. A complete list of organizations participating in the campaign can be found here.

Please join us and sign the petition now!

Together, we can create a society in which all women have the power and resources necessary to make healthy decisions about their bodies and families.

Thank you,
The Hyde – 30 Years is Enough! Campaign

www.hyde30years.nnaf.org

After Happy Hour this Tuesday....

Jennifer Baumgardner, Kara Jesella, and Marisa Meltzer!

TUESDAY, October 30th * 8 PM* LAST EXIT BAR, 136 ATLANTIC AVENUE, DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN* $5 suggested donation

Please join us on Tuesday, October 30th, for our second reading of the season, as Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer (HOW SASSY CHANGED MY LIFE) and Jennifer Baumgardner (LOOK BOTH WAYS) read in support of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls.

Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer are the New York–based authors of HOW SASSY CHANGED MY LIFE: A LOVE LETTER TO THE GREATEST TEEN MAGAZINE OF ALL TIME. They have written and edited for publications such as The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Elle Girl, Bitch, Jane, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Nylon,Nerve, and Elle.

Jennifer Baumgardner is a Brooklyn-based magazine writer and author. She is the co-author of Manifesta and Grassroots, and the author of Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics. She has written for The Nation, Jane, Glamour, National Public Radio, and Out.

Founded in 2004, Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls is a non-profit summer day camp serving girls aged 8-18 in New York City. The program offers girls the chance to learn how to play musical instruments, write songs, perform, learn about different types of music, and generally “rock out” in a supportive environment that fosters self-confidence, self-esteem, creativity, tolerance, and collaboration. Rock camp is dedicated to youth empowerment through music. The program is founded on the proposition that music can serve as a powerful tool of self-expression and self-esteem-building for girls and young women, and can help combat racism and stereotypes by building bridges of communication and shared experience among girls from diverse communities.

THE HISTORY OF ABORTION IN AMERICA

DR. EDGAR MANDEVILLE, DIRECTOR, OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY, HARLEM HOSPITAL CENTER
INVITES YOU TO

GRAND ROUNDS: "THE HISTORY OF ABORTION IN AMERICA"
BY
KENNETH C. EDELIN, M.D.
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY, BOSTON UNIVERSITY
author of
BROKEN JUSTICE. A TRUE STORY OF RACE, SEX AND REVENGE IN A BOSTON COURTROOM

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9, 2007
4 - 5:30 PM
HERBERT CAVE AUDITORIUM
HARLEM HOSPITAL CENTER
506 LENOX AVENUE (AT 135TH STREET)
FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: WWW.BROKENJUSTICE.COM.
PLEASE RSVP TO: ROBIN@PONDVIEWPRESS.COM BY MONDAY NOVEMBER 5TH.
________________________________________
BROKEN JUSTICE is the true story about Dr. Ken Edelin, a young, black doctor who arrived in Boston in 1971 to do his residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston City Hospital. In January of 1975, he was put on trial for murder – the charge resulting from an abortion he had performed on a 17-year-old girl – before a jury that was all white, predominantly male, and overwhelmingly Catholic. The dynamic confluences of race, sex, and revenge played out in a Boston courtroom during the six-week trial. With recent Supreme Court decisions on abortion rights, BROKEN JUSTICE is important reading for pro-choicers and pro-lifers alike.

WORDS OF CHOICE EVENTS

Sunday, October 28
Two Exciting Events with
WORDS OF CHOICE

An Evening of New Works

Directed by Francesca Mantani Arkus
With: Patricia A. Chilsen, Christopher D. Burris, Esosa Edosomwan,
Carl H. Jaynes, Nairoby Otero

Words of Choice, a theater company devoted to artistic explorations of women's freedom and choice, presents new works about sex, pregnancy, abortion, contraception and activism. Reception follows.

Sunday October 28, 2007, 7 pm
The TACT Studio, 900 Broadway (at 20th St.), Suite 905

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Creativity Workshop: Artistic Investigations of Reproductive Rights

Led by Francesca Mantani Arkus, Cindy Cooper, Suzanne Grossman

An afternoon of creative exercises to jump start artistic writings and performances related to choice, sponsored by Words of Choice.

Sunday October 28 2007, 2-5 pm
The TACT Studio, 900 Broadway (at 20th St.), Suite 905

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Tickets for each event: Voluntary donation -- $5-$15
Advance purchase: www.brownpapertickets.com

Information: 212-560-2616, www.wordsofchoice.org
wordsofchoice@mindspring.com

"Politics and the F Word: Does Feminism Matter?"

"Politics and the F Word: Does Feminism Matter?" is featuring panelists Hillary Clinton Strategist Ann Lewis, Us Weekly Editor Janice Min, Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten, NYU Public Affairs SVP Lynne Brown and Community Board 1 Chair Julie Menin to talk about a number of issues surrounding the issue of women and politics. The discussion is much-needed. Yes, we have a female Speaker of the House and leading presidential candidate, but let's not forget that women still hold less than 25% of all elected offices in the U.S.

So if you're in town and want to come by and check out the (free!) feminist fun, here are the details:

Date: Tuesday, October 23
Location: NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service,
The Puck Building, 2nd Floor, 295 Lafayette Street
Time: 8:30 a.m. breakfast, program 9 – 10 a.m.

RSVP online or by phone at 212-981-5285

Co-Sponsors:

NARAL Pro-Choice New York
National Organization for Women (NOW) – NYC
Planned Parenthood of NYC

The Abortion Controversies

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

The Wolfson Center for National Affairs at The New School presents a panel discussion focusing on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Gonzalez v. Carhart, which has thrown the status of Roe v. Wade into doubt and suggests that the controversy may be reaching a new level of intensity. Majorie Heins, founder and coordinator of the Free Expression Policy Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU's School of Law will moderate a discussion of this historic decision with Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, Daniel C. Maguire, professor of moral theological ethics, Marquette University, and author of Sacred Rights, and Caitlin Borgmann, assistant professor, CUNY School of Law and editor of the Reproductive Rights Prof Blog.

Location:

The New School, Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th Street, 5th floor (enter at 66 West 12th Street)

Admission:
$8; free to all students and New School faculty, staff, and alumni with ID

Box Office Information:

In person purchases can be made at The New School Box Office at 66 West 12th Street, main floor, Monday- Friday 1:00-7:00 p.m. The box office opens the first day of classes and closes after the last paid event of each semester.

For events scheduled during the summer term, the box office will open one hour before each event. During this period only, reservations and inquiries can be made by emailing boxoffice@newschool.edu or calling 212.229.5488.

For more information go here

Save the Date: Repro Health Happy Hour - 10/30

The next Repro Health Happy Hour will be on Tuesday, October 30th from 6-9pm.. We are currently looking for a place to hold it, so please post or email us with any suggestions!

See you soon!

Bronx Community Forum on Latino Reproductive Health Disparities-10/19

Bronx Community Forum on Latino Reproductive Health Disparities-10/19

The Latino Reproductive Rights Project, a joint collaboration of the Hispanic Federation and the National Institute for Reproductive Health invites you, your staff, activists and community members to a community forum on Latino reproductive health disparities.

With the support of Councilwomen Maria del Carmen Arroyo-Bronx, and Assembly woman Naomi Rivera we will discuss Latina adolescent pregnancy, access to emergency contraception, and HIV/AIDS/STIs, HPV and Cervical Cancer and the work that needs to be accomplished in order to address these issues in the Latino Community.

Bronx- Friday, October 19th from 12pm to 2pm

Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center (Lobby Auditorium)

234 East 149th Street

Bronx, New York 10451,

(b/t Morris and Park Avenues)

RSVP Nancy Conde at nconde@hispanicfederation.org October 16th for the Bronx. Lunch will be served.

We look forward to your support in ensuring that the health disparities facing our communities are addressed.

The End of Abstinence? event

The End of Abstinence?
The current status of abstinence-only education and its effects on the lives of young people

Wednesday, October 10, 2007
6:30 - 8:30PM
LGBT Community Center
208 West 13th Street (btwn 7th/8th aves.), NYC

Free ~ Open to the public ~ Refreshments provided

Last month, NY State Governor Spitzer's administration announced that New York is ending abstinence-only-until-marriage programs funded by the state. But does that mean the end of these programs and their negative impact on young people?

Come celebrate this rare victory with us, and find out what still needs to be done so that our youth can receive comprehensive sex education in our public schools in New York City, throughout the state, and nationwide.


Speakers Include:
Maxwell Ciardullo - SIECUS
Lee Che P. Leong - Teen Health Initiative - New York Civil Liberties Union
Jelani Addams Rosa - Senior at Millennium High School
Dawn Young - Center for Women & HIV Advocacy

Moderated by: Magali Romero, CHAMP

Co-sponsored by:
CitiWide Harm Reduction, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), HIV Law Project - Center for Women & HIV Advocacy, LGBT Center, NYC AIDS Housing Network, New York Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood of New York City, Pro-Choice Public Education Project, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)