Red Cloaks Radio

On July 29, 2022 Massachusetts enacted new laws to protect patients and providers who offer or require reproductive healthcare - including abortion - and also to secure and protect gender affirming care. This historic legislation was hard work and required compromise. Senator Cindy Friedman was lead negotiator for the Senate as their proposed legislation was reconciled in conference committee with similar bills from the House. Learn more about the process, the benefits, and the limits of this vital legislative effort.

Listen in to a powerful conversation with Namita Luthra, women's rights advocate. We spoke one week after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. Ms. Luthra encourages us to be undeterred, and draws strength from generations of women who advocated to advance women's suffrage. Suffragists faced daunting challenges and tremendous setbacks, but continued undeterred.

Ms. Luthra serves on the Board of Directors of Monumental Women, the President’s Council of the New York Hall of Science, and the Advisory Board of LexSeeHer, a Lexington, MA nonprofit. She served on the Board of Directors of Sakhi for South Asian Women. For years, Ms. Luthra was a senior staff attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project working on litigation, advocacy, and public education to advance the rights of women and girls. There, she co-authored a book called The Rights of Women and successfully litigated gender discrimination jury trials in federal court. Before that Ms. Luthra was a staff attorney at the Office of the Appellate Defender representing indigent clients and a Fellow at the ACLU National Legal Department.

Action due: 6/29/22: Listen + Advocate

In the days immediately following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, legislators and residents of Massachusetts are engaging in intense dialogue about expanding access. State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa has been championing a law that would expand access to medication abortion on college campuses. Learn more and then contact your MA State Reps. and Senators to demand passage of the law. The vote about medication abortion in MA will be TOMORROW: Wednesday June 29!

Call or email your MA state representative

(find here https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator)

and tell them to include Amendment 5 to H.4930 -- to Ensure Safe, Equitable, and Affordable Access to Medication Abortion Through Public College and University Health Services.

Also contact the following:

Speaker of the House, Ron Mariano

Phone:(617) 722-2500

Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Aaron Michlewitz

Phone:(617) 722-2990

Activate your members, friends, family, and neighbors -- we need all hands on deck to get this across the finish line and ensure that college students can access medication abortion on their campuses.

Listen in to powerful voices recorded on Decision Day from Arlington, Beverly, Concord and Swampscott, MA, where organizers created public spaces that brought people together to protest the United States Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade and strip from women their human rights and constitutional rights.

Guests: State Representative Dr. Tami Gouveia (also a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of MA) described the gathering in Concord where she was the keynote speaker; Keiko Zoll (Director of Communications for Boston Schools Fund, Creator of Free Formula Exchange) reported on the Swampscott demonstration she organized; Sonya Coleman, Organizer with Stop Handgun Violence, Board Chair of States United to Prevent Gun Violence, shared the scene from the Arlington gathering; AmyLeigh Galvin (Food Service Manager for Beth Israel) brought in the experiences in Beverly where she helped organize a same day response to the SCOTUS decision. Each event had around 100 people or more.

Learn about Ms. Coleman's advocacy to reduce gun violence: www.SUPGV.org. They have affiliate members in 32 states.

Learn about Dr. Gouveia's campaign: www.tamigouveia.com

Listen in! Dr. Anu Kumar, CEO and President of Ipas provides insight and global perspective about sustainable abortion ecosystems & how to realize them! Since the 1990s many countries have moved forward (40 countries!). A handful - including the United States, Poland, and El Salvador - are moving backwards. Take a closer look at what is happening & learn empowering strategies to promote safety for women, girls, and people who need abortion. Taking a small step makes a difference, and Dr. Kumar explains why (and how) each of us can be part of the global trend towards creating conditions that will help women and girls at the local, national and global level!

Listen in as Dr. Anu Kumar, President and CEO of Ipas, provides global perspective on the collective progress people are making to improve access to safe abortions. Looking at the global picture, Ipas notes that 37 countries have moved forward - while America seems to be turning back the clock on human rights. Learn more about sustainable abortion ecosystems, and how you can help!

Ipas began advocacy work in 1973 and is coming up on their 50th anniversary.

Visit Ipas: https://www.ipas.org/

Resources, including iformation on the Helms amendment: https://www.ipas.org/our-work/reducing-the-harm-of-u-s-foreign-policies/

On March 17, 2022, Carol Deanow and Pam Yingling -- from the Bad Old Days Posse -- returned to Red Cloaks Radio to share their perspective on the sweeping anti-abortion legislation rolling out across America. Both advocates joined the Boston Red Cloaks on the State House steps on May 7, 2022. Pam had just published a piece in the Boston Globe noting that it has been more than a generation since medical providers (and legislators) saw firsthand the impact on women's bodies when they had to obtain illegal abortions. Carol and Pam work with a team of people who share their stories to empower today's decision-makers to take these lived experiences into account when setting laws in place that will impact the current and future generations.

Kayla and Liz return from Listen in as Liz and Kayla from Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund (www.ppnhaf.org) talk us through the origin and impacts of the recently implemented state-wide abortion ban. The ban criminalizes providers. This ban and other restrictive legislation are in conflict with traditional Granite State values. Residents in the state have taken pride in the motto "live free or die." Now, they question how a shift in the legislature yields laws that violate patient privacy and diminish personal freedom.

April 29, 2022 update: This interview took place when advocates hoped House Bill 1609 might reduce the harms of the abortion ban by allowing abortions in cases of rape, incest or fatal fetal anomaly. However, while 1609 made some progress, it was only on the matter of fatal fetal anomalies. The abortion ban remains without any exceptions for people who were forcibly made pregnant because they were raped or the victims of incest.

Advocates ask for people to help by: contacting their NH legislators. Reaching out to friends, family, co-workers in NH to alert them to the abortion ban, as well as other restrictive measures. Consider donating to organizations who advocate for reproductive freedom, reproductivehealth, and reproductive justice.

House Bill 1080 would make it more difficult to access contraception because it would allow people who "don't believe in contraception" due to their personal religion to refuse to sell someone contraceptives - this includes items traditionally purchased out in the open, like condoms.

House Bill 1625 would make it more difficult for patients to access reproductive healthcare because it would repeal the NH Buffer Zone law. The buffer law keeps some space clear around clinics and healthcare facilities so that patients can come and go privately and without being verbally harassed by strangers.

House Bill 1609 is an effort to lesson the harms of the New Hampshire abortion harms, but reproductive healthcare advocates do not believe it goes far enough. It would be better to allow all pregnant people to access abortioncare, and there should always be access for people who are victims of rape or incest.

Listen in as Liz and Kayla from Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund (www.ppnhaf.org) talk us through the origin and impacts of the recently implemented state-wide abortion ban. The ban criminalizes providers. This ban and other restrictive legislation are in conflict with traditional Granite State values. Residents in the state have taken pride in the motto "live free or die." Now, they question how a shift in the legislature yields laws that violate patient privacy and diminish personal freedom.

April 29, 2022 update: This interview took place when advocates hoped House Bill 1609 might reduce the harms of the abortion ban by allowing abortions in cases of rape, incest or fatal fetal anomaly. However, while 1609 made some progress, it was only on the matter of fatal fetal anomalies. The abortion ban remains without any exceptions for people who were forcibly made pregnant because they were raped or the victims of incest.

Advocates ask for people to help by: contacting their NH legislators. Reaching out to friends, family, co-workers in NH to alert them to the abortion ban, as well as other restrictive measures. Consider donating to organizations who advocate for reproductive freedom, reproductive health, and reproductive justice.

House Bill 1080 would make it more difficult to access contraception because it would allow people who "don't believe in contraception" due to their personal religion to refuse to sell someone contraceptives - this includes items traditionally purchased out in the open, like condoms.

House Bill 1625 would make it more difficult for patients to access reproductive healthcare because it would repeal the NH Buffer Zone law. The buffer law keeps some space clear around clinics and healthcare facilities so that patients can come and go privately and without being verbally harassed by strangers.

House Bill 1609 is an effort to lesson the harms of the New Hampshire abortion harms, but reproductive healthcare advocates do not believe it goes far enough. It would be better to allow all pregnant people to access abortioncare, and there should always be access for people who are victims of rape or incest.

Listen in as Margaret shares her reasons for taking action as an advocate for abortion access and women's health. Red Cloaks Radio continues our series where people are invited to share their personal experiences with abortion. What keeps someone silent about her experience? What breaks the silence? What happens next, after the silence is broken? After ROE was passed, why did people still need to travel from Michigan to New York for abortioncare?