Women's March for Reproductive Rights

If you've ever marched for women and gender equality, whether in January 2017, many decades before that historic day, or in the years since, and are wondering when you need to show up again, the answer is TOMORROW AT 2 PM for the Utica Women's March.  This critical event is about reproductive freedom and justice, and everything is at stake.  We love children and families, women and wombs, and society prioritizing care for all of the above, but no one should be FORCED to bear children or give birth.  More than 500 marches are currently registered across the country.

Saturday, October 2 @ 2:00 pm
7 Rutger Park, Utica (YWCA Mohawk Valley) Welcome and kick off. (Safety marshals be there 1:15 pm).  We will march to Planned Parenthood & Nurses Candlelight Park on Genesee Street.  We have an amazing line up of powerful, brief speakers including elected officials and candidates, religious leaders and college students, medical and health care experts, and women's rights activists.  You do not want to miss this march!

Bring a rain poncho just in case.
Please wear a mask as there may not always be space for 6 ft social distancing.
Bring your signs!
Please no coat hangers on signs or Handmaid's tale costumes (triggering).

Here is an overview on what has been going on in Texas and how the Supreme Court supported their extremist law. Women and girls are already having to flee across borders for basic reproductive care. That means women and girls with the economic resources, job security, and other support to do so. What about those who don't have access to money and other resources, paid leave for trips out of state, and everything else required? And is Roe v Wade already lost? We can't let that happen!

A recent podcast from Ezra Klein provides a powerful overview of the WHY for our March, and a way to catch up on the background if TX and SCOTUS have caught you by surprise: "We may be on the precipice of a post-Roe world. But what does that actually mean? Leslie Reagan is the author of “When Abortion Was a Crime” and “Dangerous Pregnancies. She has done groundbreaking historical work to reveal what happened when U.S. states began criminalizing abortion in the early 19th century. There are lessons in our past that should inform our future, if we’ll listen." Here it is on Apple podcasts, but you can listen in your favorite podcast app or on the NY Times website.

See you tomorrow in Utica to March for Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Freedom.

Climate Crisis Calls You Can Make TODAY

The message of the recent UN Climate report is that we have reached "Code Red for humanity". The Climate Crisis Working Group is asking all of us to begin a weekly calling effort to demand that both our elected federal representatives and our elected state officials stand up and respond without delay to the urgency of the crisis. This week we're asking that you call President Biden, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and Congresswoman Tenney because the votes for the Infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better bill (containing the largest and strongest climate provisions) will be happening over the coming days.

Here are the scripts for you to make your four critical calls today or in the coming week. Please get these done asap, as there will be calls to NY state officials in the coming weeks. 

The Climate Crisis group also encourages everyone to check out this video made by students across New York begging their teachers to divest their NY State Teacher Pension Fund of fossil fuels.  Powerful!  Share this video on your social media and send it to your friends, especially if they are teachers or retired teachers!
 

Letters to the Editor

Thanks to all those awesome letter writers out there!  We continue to see excellent letters by IMVers published in local papers.  Here is a great example about Anthony Brindisi and Karen Stanislaus from Carole Gehrig. Keep them coming, everyone!

Most papers will cut off letters about candidates very soon, so be sure to send yours in right away.  Letters about critical issues are always good: voting rights, climate issues, the needed resources that President Biden and Dems in Congress are delivering, health care for all, and other issues that you care about.  Who will write a Letter to the Editor about the experience you had of participating in the Utica Women's March for Reproductive Rights?
 

IMV Knocking on Doors

IMV had another wonderful Sunday afternoon knocking on doors--this time for Joe Samson and the Town of Trenton Democrats.  IMVers who could not make the weekend event picked up a turf midweek and knocked doors then.  

No door knocking this Sunday because of the big march Saturday, but Celeste Friend is holding a special door knocking event Sunday, 1-3 pm in addition to her popular Tuesday evening canvass & dinner.  If you can knock doors Sunday for Celeste, email volunteer coordinator Nancy Ketz. 

We'll be back to work as a team to knock doors next weekend. Here is the schedule:

Saturday, 10/9  Caroline Reale for County New Hartford Canvass 10:30 am

Sunday 10/10  Sparkle Plenty for Utica Common Council At Large North Utica Canvass, 3-5 pm

Saturday 10/16  We expect to do a huge lit drop effort. Mark your calendar!
 

Solidarity is Our Strength

IMV emerged from the energy around the Women's March and anti-Trump activism following the 2016 election. Trump lost but we are still fighting his twisted, oppressive legacy most evident in extremist Republican state legislatures and the reactionary conservative SCOTUS majority.

Please don't take a pass now. Women and girls around the country are already terrified, already being forced to carry dangerous pregnancies to term, already being told their health, bodies, and lives don't matter AT ALL compared to a bunch of cells the size of a pea. What are you doing about it? March with us on Saturday. Call your legislators. Then elect people who will defend our rights to control our own reproductive lives.

March for rights, freedom, and justice. Sign up here on the Women's March page. Or here on Facebook. Then SHOW UP. We're all in this together!

Follow us on Twitter using @indivisiblemv and of course our Facebook page and IMV Activism Group.