To: Tom Perez, DNC Chair and Bernie Sanders, Senator/Party Spokesperson and Leader
Demand DNC put reproductive health, rights, and justice leaders in decision making leadership pos...
In the past few weeks, it's been disappointing to watch a host of people equivocate for and apologize for Democratic candidates with mixed/poor histories on voting to defend reproductive health, rights, and justice. Additionally, interviews with those in positions of leadership at the DNC have indicated a willingness to be "flexible" on this issue - and this couldn't come at a more terrifying time.
The Trump/Pence administration is waging war on access to safe, legal abortion and on abortion providers. People all across the country are fighting back - including passionate and brave supporters of safe, legal abortion and contraceptive equity in red states. These people deserve to know that party leadership is behind them and that the Democratic Party is centralizing this issue as holding core importance.
We are calling upon the DNC to appoint reproductive health, rights and justice leaders to positions of power and authority within the party immediately, and to clarify that the party's position is staunchly and unabashedly in support of reproductive health access including abortion. Now is not the time to move backward and we need to ensure that this position among Democratic candidates across the country isn't further devalued.
This isn't a call to just one person - sadly, there are a number of people who in the past few weeks have made discouraging and even frightening statements on this issue. We are writing to say that as people who want to be able to support candidates from this party, we NEED this issue to be central and to not be the bargaining chip moving forward.
We ask Tom Perez, Bernie Sanders, and the DNC to make public statements assuring that abortion access is a central issue to the party, not grounds for trade, and that they immediately appoint reproductive health, rights and justice leaders from the field to sit in positions of decision making authority on the DNC. We also ask that this be more than one person, and that this includes women of color reproductive justice leaders.
There is no economic justice without reproductive justice. This value must be central to the DNC moving forward - and we need this articulated and abided by to continue with our passionate support and work towards getting people in office.
The Trump/Pence administration is waging war on access to safe, legal abortion and on abortion providers. People all across the country are fighting back - including passionate and brave supporters of safe, legal abortion and contraceptive equity in red states. These people deserve to know that party leadership is behind them and that the Democratic Party is centralizing this issue as holding core importance.
We are calling upon the DNC to appoint reproductive health, rights and justice leaders to positions of power and authority within the party immediately, and to clarify that the party's position is staunchly and unabashedly in support of reproductive health access including abortion. Now is not the time to move backward and we need to ensure that this position among Democratic candidates across the country isn't further devalued.
This isn't a call to just one person - sadly, there are a number of people who in the past few weeks have made discouraging and even frightening statements on this issue. We are writing to say that as people who want to be able to support candidates from this party, we NEED this issue to be central and to not be the bargaining chip moving forward.
We ask Tom Perez, Bernie Sanders, and the DNC to make public statements assuring that abortion access is a central issue to the party, not grounds for trade, and that they immediately appoint reproductive health, rights and justice leaders from the field to sit in positions of decision making authority on the DNC. We also ask that this be more than one person, and that this includes women of color reproductive justice leaders.
There is no economic justice without reproductive justice. This value must be central to the DNC moving forward - and we need this articulated and abided by to continue with our passionate support and work towards getting people in office.
Why is this important?
To demand that DNC leadership immediately put leaders from the reproductive health, rights and justice field in positions of decision making authority at the DNC. We ask that this be more than one person and that women of color reproductive justice leaders be among these appointees. We also ask that the party recommit publicly to centralizing support of champions and candidates with stellar reproductive health voting records in the party priorities.