You’re following the drama surrounding federal health care reform, so you know about the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, what Rachel Maddow called the “biggest restriction on abortion access in this country in a generation.”  Our National NOW President Terry O’Neill told ABC News that “it’s not acceptable” to achieve health care reform “by pushing women back into the back alleys to die.”

Minnesota NOW, with leadership provided by our former chapter President and current National NOW Action Vice President Erin Matson, wants to coordinate Minnesota’s response.

BUT WE CAN’T.

Since 1971, Minnesota NOW members have been able to count on us to bring feminist issues to the legislature and the general public.  In the last two years alone we have:

• Founded the MN CAFE (Minnesota Constitutional Amendment for Equality) Coalition to add and Equal Rights Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution
• In 2009, hosted “Feminist Stimulus NOW,” examining how the Great Recession disproportionately affects women and a workshop on finance for women
• Produced “V-Day Prior Lake 2008,” raising funds for the Southern Valley Alliance for Battered Women
• Hosted our 2008 State Conference, “Women Immigrants: Then and NOW,” in Fergus Falls to discuss anti-immigrant bias in rural Minnesota communities

 

We want to do more….BUT WE CAN’T.

Without your immediate support Minnesota NOW will be forced to close its St. Paul office and lay off its sole employee, our Office Coordinator, who has run every aspect of MN NOW for the last 12 years (I may be President, but I’m definitely not the brains around here—Mary Ann is).

If Minnesota NOW disappears, who will speak the truth that reproductive freedom is a civil right?  Who will lobby the Legislature for constitutional gender equality?  Who will offer support to a diverse group of allies like the Minnesota Choice Coalition, Marry Me Minnesota (suing to win marriage equality for same-sex couples), the Women Candidate Development Coalition, and many others?

Or will people like Bart Stupak feel increasingly empowered to restrict women’s right to self-determination?  Will we lose the rights that generations upon generations of women fought like hell for?

WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION TODAY.

You can contribute securely online when you go to www.mnnow.org and click on GIVE NOW.

THANK YOU.