June 2022
NOW MORE THAN EVER
“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?”
– Joni Mitchell
“Death by a thousand cuts” has afflicted abortion rights for years. Now the right-wing Supreme Court seems poised to deliver the final blow, erasing 50 years of a constitutional right supported by a large majority of Americans. No doubt the SCOTUS leaked draft will be tidied up before its official release. But it’s impossible to mask the stench of this radical decision, which threatens not only the right to control one’s own body, but so many other fundamental rights.
Opponents of reproductive rights have fanatically pursued their agenda for decades. Alas, proponents have not matched their zeal–until now. SCOTUS’s expected evisceration of Roe v Wade is the wake-up call that’s finally mobilized millions of Americans who support the right to choose. There’s nothing like fear and anger to motivate voting.
Airlift donors are passionate about defending abortion rights, and so are our partners; they view it as integral to everything they’re fighting for. This does not mean that reproductive rights are necessarily the principal organizing issue in their communities among people who are more socially conservative, often financially overwhelmed, and generally disenchanted by politics. It is precisely because the groups Airlift funds understand this that they are so well positioned to defend reproductive and all other rights under threat. Our partners:
Are the trusted messengers in their communities
Mobilize people to vote
Focus on winning local and state elections on which these rights now rest
Activists who live and breathe politics know what’s at stake regarding abortion rights. but it’s not usually an issue that is top of mind for people struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. Sensitive to cultural and religious differences, organizers find common ground through shared values. They might frame this attack as a threat to bodily autonomy, denying essential healthcare, and just one of many rights the GOP wants to take away. Airlift partners effectively connect the dots between reproductive rights and all other rights important to people’s daily lives.
Our partners’ focus on local and statewide elections is crucial, especially since the Supreme Court’s expected opinion opens the door for any state legislature to engage in discrimination of all kinds. Electing state legislators, state supreme court justices, secretaries of state, attorneys general, DAs, and governors who will protect reproductive and all other threatened rights matters now more than ever.
All our partners will work tirelessly to turn out voters for local and statewide candidates as well as U.S. senators and representatives who are all in for reproductive rights.
We need to be all in, too. Your support has never been more critical.
Breaking News, Broken Hearts:
10 people massacred by a racist 18-year-old at a Buffalo grocery store.
19 children and 2 teachers murdered by another young gunman.
These are just the latest atrocities in gun-crazy America, enabled by the same people who protect firearms but not our other rights.
Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State, has it exactly right:
“The only thing that can stop a bad politician with a vote is
a good citizen with a vote.”
PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR RAGE IS!
“Power is organized people and organized money.”
- PASU Democracy Defense Fact Sheet
As MVP’s Billy Wimsatt reminds us, “It is the hardest times that test us and reveal our character. What are you planning to do?” Here’s something:
Donate by Check. Set up automatic payments to Airlift with the Bill Pay service at your bank, or send a check directly to: Airlift, PO Box 617, Corte Madera, CA 94976
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Help us meet our $1M goal by giving generously.
Thanks!
SAVE THE DATE FOR THIS AIRLIFT SPECIAL:
"Messaging the Abortion Issue to Ambivalent Voters: Research Results"
Jackie Payne of GALvanize
July 7, Thursday, 5 pm Pacific / 8 pm Eastern
YOUR CHANCE TO PLAY A PART IN
STRATEGIC DOWN-BALLOT RACES
OUR PARTNER GROUPS CARE ABOUT
The officials who will be in charge of the 2024 election are on the ballot now. The secretaries of state elected this year will be running the 2024 presidential election and will either be someone working for fair elections or a conspiracy theorist who believes in Trump’s Big Lie. The largely ignored state supreme court races will determine the balance of the courts making decisions about our democracy in key battleground states. And of course, state legislatures are critical.
Join our friends at Focus for Democracy for a special Zoom event co-sponsored with Airlift which will include the Michigan Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, and findings of their metrics-based research on individual states.
June 9, Thursday, 5 pm Pacific / 8 pm Eastern
FIELD NOTES
Pennsylvania Stands Up organized a successful campaign to urge Democratic Senator Bob Casey, who opposes abortion, to vote for the Women’s Health Protection Act.
PASU’s Lancaster and Lehigh Valley chapters participated in rallies immediately after the SCOTUS draft leak, as did Nevada’s PLAN. LIT, Dream Defenders, and many other partners promoted May 14’s nationwide “Bans Off Our Bodies” rallies.
Communities for a New California demands we codify Roe v Wade to protect human rights.
Read more...
New Georgia Project’s Reproductive Justice Team fights for our rights. Earlier, NGP helped defeat SB456, the Anti-Abortion Bill that would have banned the use of telehealth for medication abortion. And making Stacey Abrams their next governor will be a veto power over their state legislature.