Happy Christmas Eve! Today is the last day of my 2016 Advent Activism Red State project and we’ve got six wonderful organizations to round out the holiday season. Sorry for the short descriptions here, gotta get to the nog and family time. I’ll likely put up a wrap up post in the coming days, as well as some more interviews with the folks doing so much important work. Sincere thanks to all of you who followed along with this project and sent your encouragement.
NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota
Red State: South Dakota
Focus: Abortion Rights
Why?
The need for accurate information concerning women’s reproductive health care continues to be critical in South Dakota. The NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota Foundation has maintained the same mission since its inception, to be an information and referral source for women seeking abortion services, while offering reproductive freedom education and skills training opportunities through workshops, speakers and film screenings.
South Dakota started off its 2016 by banning abortion after 20 weeks and with more troubling, unchecked legislation likely to happen in 2016, it’s time to support the local NARAL chapter there.
What you can do:
Join me in making a donation today.
SisterReach
Red State: Tennessee
Focus: Reproductive Rights
Why?
SisterReach, founded October 2011, is a Memphis, TN based grassroots 501c3 non-profit supporting the reproductive autonomy of women and girls of color, poor women, rural women and their families through the framework of Reproductive Justice. Our mission is to empower women and girls to lead healthy lives, raise healthy families and live in healthy communities. We provide comprehensive reproductive and sexual health education to women and teens, and advocate on local and state levels for public policies which support the reproductive health and rights of all women and youth. We utilize community dialogues, civic engagement and faith community engagement strategies to expand new relationships among stakeholders.
Tennessee’s doubling down on restrictive legislation and pressing criminal charges against women has awakened a new generation to fight for their rights.
What you can do:
Join me in making a donation today.
Lilith Fund
Red State: Texas
Focus: Reproductive Rights
Why?
We envision a society in which equal access to abortion is guaranteed for all, regardless of economic situation. The Lilith Fund believes in reproductive equity. The right to choose an abortion is meaningless without access to abortion services. Restrictions on abortion access and funding are discriminatory because they especially burden low-income patients. We oppose all efforts to restrict abortion rights and are committed to fighting for access to abortion.
When Texas legislators want you to bury your fetus, you can imagine that getting an abortion when you’re economically distressed in nearly impossible.
What you can do:
Join me in making a donation today.
Equality Utah
Red State: Utah
Focus: LGBTQ Rights
Why?
Equality Utah works to build a community where every Utahn is valued for being who they are regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. We believe everyone in our state deserves to be treated with respect and understanding and to be afforded the same basic freedoms and opportunities as everyone else.
America’s favorite theocracy is looking for legal loopholes to discriminate against LGBTQ students in its public schools. Let’s support the folks fighting for equal rights, or y’know, the basic human right to not be discriminated against.
What you can do:
Join me in making a donation today.
West Virginia Focus: Reproductive Education & Equality
Red State: West Virginia
Focus: Reproductive Rights
Why?
Founded in 1989, WV FREE is a reproductive health, rights, and justice organization that works every day for West Virginia women and families to improve education on reproductive options, increase access to affordable birth control, reduce teen pregnancy, improve adolescent health, and protect personal decision-making, including the decision of whether or when to have a child.
Despite the Democratic governor’s best attempt, the legislature passed an abortion ban last year by overriding a veto.
What you can do:
Join me in making a donation today.
Women for Women
Red State: Wyoming
Focus: Reproductive Rights
Why?
We firmly believe that a woman’s ability to make and implement these critical decisions about her own body, her own life, and her physical, emotional and financial health should not depend on whether she has the financial resources to instantly pay this unexpected and significant expense. Having sufficient funds should not be the determining factor whether to carry a pregnancy to term. Women for Women is here to help bring reproductive justice to the women of Wyoming and make sure that children are wanted, intentional, and not a result of lacking sufficient money.
While Wyoming legislators have taken refreshingly hands off approach to abortion restrictions, the state still limits public funding and has literally ONE provider.
What you can do:
Join me in making a donation today.
Advent Activism 