Urgent Action Needed
05/15/2006
Dear Friends,
This message is urgent, please consider how you can make a difference.
I have received some urgent messages and phone calls and have been asked to
let you know that it appears that Minnesota is close to allowing the passage of
abortion provisions that have been sought by MCCL.
We must not let that happen!
Contact Senator Dave Senjem, ESPECIALLY if you live in his district please call him or send him an e-mail.
(If you don’t live in his district, please contact him anyway.)
He is THE deciding vote.
It is a matter of only one or two votes from passage, if it is allowed to
come to a vote. Your action can make a difference.
Here are four things you can do:
1- Contact Senator Dave Senjem, and urge him not to vote for the MCCL amendments
Email: Sen.David.Senjem@senate.mn
Senate: 651-296-3903
Home: 282-7648.
He has been sending people in Rochester reassuring messages, but has
told the pro-choice lobbyists that he will be voting for the MCCL
amendments. Let him know that we expect him to represent all of us, not just
the radical right.
2- Contact Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson and tell him he leads
a pro-choice majority and WE WANT HIM TO KEEP THE MCCL AMENDMENTS FROM
REACHING THE FLOOR.
Email: Sen.Dean.Johnson@senate.mn
Senate phone: 652-296-3826
3- PLEASE COME TO THE CAPITOL ON MONDAY, MAY 15
Pro-choice people are being urged to show our strength
on Monday, the 15th, because Dean Johnson told reporters yesterday that he
expects it to come to a vote on Monday.
Pro-choice organizations would like to fill the Senate
galleries with pro-choice supporters all day on Monday.
Supporters to sign up for a 3-hour shift.
Shifts are:
10am-1pm
1pm-4pm
4pm-7pm
4- Please call or email all of your pro-choice friends, family and
co-workers and urge them to join us in these actions and the demonstration .
FYI: Senate decorum states that visual and audible disturbances are
prohibited in the Senate chamber, and so we will not be chanting or carrying
any signs. However, when the Senate recesses (at any point), we will exit
the gallery and stand in the foyer, where we can hold signs (with pride!).
Signs will be provided by Planned Parenthood, and you are free to wear any
clothing you choose.
If you are able to sign up for a shift, please let the organizers know ASAP
by emailing shassell@ppmns.org or calling directly at 612-821-6164!
I know this very short notice, but that’s just the way it goes at the
legislature sometimes!
Here is some additional information about the amendments:
The Minnesota Senate is poised to vote on the Health and Human Services bill
on Monday, May 15 th and the MCCL is pushing hard to amend it to include 2
radical anti-choice provisions.
Here’s what’s at stake:
1. Proposal to pass an unconstitutional law banning state funding of
abortion
* The MCCL Omnibus Bill conflicts with the Women of Minnesota by Doe vs.
Gomez decision. The Gomez decision is extremely significant because it found
that the Minnesota Constitution protects reproductive privacy as a
fundamental right and gave low-income, pregnant women access to all legal
reproductive health care options.
* The intent of this provision is to provoke a lawsuit by Planned
Parenthood that would put the 7 members of the State Supreme Court “on
record” on abortion.
* The MCCL needs to overturn the Gomez decision so that if/when Roe vs.
Wade is overturned, women would not have the right to a legal abortion in
Minnesota.
2. Proposal to require parental notification data reporting
* This component is an effort by the MCCL to investigate the actions of
Minnesota district court judges who grant confidential judicial bypasses to
young women who, for whatever reason, are unable to notify both of their
biological parents prior to terminating a pregnancy.
A call is going out to ALL pro-choice supporters and allied organizations to
come to the Capitol on Monday morning and let the Senate know that
Minnesotans believe in Equal Rights for Everyone-NO EXCEPTIONS by filling
the Senate gallery on Monday, May 15 th!!
REMEMBER—Please call or email all of your pro-choice friends, family and
co-workers and urge them to join us for this demonstration .
Thanks in advance!!!
Lynn