Where were you when you found out that the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade? Chances are you remember that moment this past June vividly because for many of us the action was previously thought unimaginable. Even for those who had been paying close attention and saw it coming, the news that the loss of federal protection over reproductive freedom had been confirmed was hard to digest. And in Georgia, the overturning of Roe opened the door for a 6-week abortion ban — which passed in 2019 but was previously blocked by a district court for being unconstitutional — to officially take effect across the state. 

Though devastation was felt by so many around the country after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, the truth is, in Georgia — the state with the highest maternal mortality rate in the country — reproductive rights have been under attack for years. Since 2005, Georgia politicians have passed 13 medically unnecessary and politically motivated abortion restrictions, like required waiting periods and insurance coverage regulations. On top of these restrictions, there are only 15 clinics that provide abortions in Georgia. Ninety-five percent of Georgia’s counties do not have an abortion clinic and 55% of Georgia women live in those counties, which means most Georgians must travel a significant distance to abortion providers. This travel can have a serious financial impact on those seeking abortion care, and not just because of transportation costs. Research shows that 60% of people who have an abortion are already parents to one or more child, so childcare costs must also be factored in for those who are forced to travel to obtain an abortion. 

Georgians who wish to end their pregnancies also have to contend with anti-abortion fake clinics (also known as anti-abortion centers, AACs, pregnancy resource centers, crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs), which aim to discourage people from obtaining abortions by posing as real clinics and providing medically inaccurate information. According to the Reproaction Education Fund: Anti-Abortion Fake Clinic Database, there are 99 anti-abortion fake clinics in the state. That means Georgia has over six times more fake clinics spreading false information and shame than real clinics offering safe abortions. Worse still, there is a history of state funds being funneled into these fake abortion clinics. Some anti-abortion fake clinics have financial relationships with state agencies, referred to as “Alternatives to Abortion” or “A2A” programs. According to Mapping Deception: A Closer Look at How States’ Anti-Abortion Center Programs Operate, a report by Equity Forward, Georgia has an A2A program that uses state funding to support fake clinics. Meanwhile, Medicaid does not cover abortions in Georgia. And, just so you’re clear on where hypocritical right-wing candidates in the upcoming Nov 8 election stand on anti-abortion clinics, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that last year, Herschel Walker was paid $20,000 to speak at a fake clinic in Hurst, Texas and $27,000 to speak at one in Augusta, both of which are AACs. 

Even with all of the pre-existing abortion restrictions forced on working Georgians, the overturning of Roe v. Wade makes matters even more dire. The Supreme Court decision highlighted a frustration that has been bubbling under the surface for so many citizens regarding an array of issues. High-profile politicians who were already in office inundated our email inboxes with alarming subject lines and messages with no real plan of action beyond “Keep voting Blue.” But how could we believe that continuing to do what we already have been would make any difference? Abortion is overwhelmingly popular across the country and 70% of Georgia voters support abortion access. So, of course, it’s the undemocratic nature of the courts, senate, and gerrymandering that is to blame for this situation, and not those of us who have been voting, election after election. How can we, as working Georgians, change anything? 

As Socialists, we are ultimately fighting for universal, free health care and free abortion at the point of service. However, there are some steps we can begin to take legislatively to reclaim and even improve abortion rights in Georgia. Right now, there are local pieces of legislation being proposed to curb the impact of the 6-week ban in Georgia, including county-level decriminalization resolutions and donations to regional abortion funds. Now, with the Georgia legislative session on the horizon, reproductive justice advocates are calling for a statewide Reproductive Freedom Act. 

What is the Reproductive Freedom Act (RFA)?

With the right to access abortion care under threat at both the state and national levels, it is past time for our elected representatives to enshrine the right to abortion access and reproductive health care in our state law. That’s where the Reproductive Freedom Act comes in. 

Ahead of the 2023 legislative session, reproductive justice advocates are preparing to introduce a Reproductive Freedom Act to the state legislature, with the goal of protecting and expanding access to abortion care across Georgia. With 27 sections, the RFA being proposed would be  comprehensive in its support and defense of any person seeking or providing timely, safe, legal, and affordable abortion care. The bill would also fight to remove shame, stigma, and punishment around abortion care, by repealing many current laws and restrictions passed previously by right-wing legislators.

If passed, what would the RFA do?

Based on the current proposal, each section of the RFA pinpoints a specific piece of the puzzle that is achieving reproductive justice for all Georgians. Here is, at a glance, everything the Reproductive Freedom Act would do:

• Ensure that all Georgians have the right to choose or refuse contraception and sterilization, and that those who have the capacity to become pregnant can choose whether to carry a pregnancy to term, give birth, or have an abortion.
• Ensure that no Georgian who ends their own pregnancy will be subjected to investigation and prosecution.
• Repeal a set of laws that criminalize some or all abortion care.
• Repeal the 2019 law that establishes each fetus as a “person,” which gives a fetus rights separate from the pregnant person.
• Repeal law requiring any young person who needs an abortion to notify their parents.
• Repeal a law that requires physicians who care for pregnant patients later in pregnancy to provide a specific type of resuscitative care regardless of the circumstances.
• Repeal medically unnecessary TRAP (targeted restrictions on abortion provision) laws that make abortion more difficult to provide and obtain, under threat of criminal penalties.
• Repeal a criminal law prohibiting qualified physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and trained certified nurse midwives from providing abortion care, and a second law prohibiting physician assistants specifically from providing medication abortion.  
• Repeal state-mandated counseling and delay law, which requires abortion patients to receive medically unnecessary and inaccurate information and then wait 24 hours before being allowed to obtain an abortion.  
• Repeal laws that prohibit insurers from offering coverage for abortion care in state benefit health plans, and require Medicaid to offer coverage for abortion.

Why is it important to pass the RFA?

Georgia’s current abortion bans and restrictions are based on anti-abortion ideology, not medical science, and are opposed by the AMA and other leading medical authorities. The current laws ignore the fundamental fact that abortion is health care and therefore should be regulated as such. Just like with any other medical procedure, decisions about abortion — as well as contraception, sterilization, and fertility issues — should be made by a patient and their doctor. 

Giving a fetus rights separate from the pregnant person is one specific way that anti-abortion lawmakers are taking the ability to make these important decisions out of the hands of patients and providers, and it has serious consequences. For example, it could impact anyone using in-vitro fertilization, people accessing medical care that poses a risk to a fetus (such as chemotherapy), the use of birth control pills or IUDs (despite science stating otherwise), and could open pregnant people and doctors up to criminal investigation for actions during pregnancy. 

Even the threat of criminalization can discourage someone from accessing critical health care during the prenatal, birthing, or postpartum period, which can have damaging effects on their physical and mental well-being and a negative impact on their lives and futures. This piece is especially hairy for young people, who are still in the early stages of building their lives. Just because a person is under 18 doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to make important decisions about what is best for their health and future. In an ideal situation, a young person can seek the advice of a parent, but of course, not everyone lives in ideal circumstances. Studies have also shown that anti-abortion fake clinics target young people. So, it is critical that the barriers be removed in order to allow every person, regardless of age or reason, to access health care and information.

How to Support the RFA

Don’t allow that hopelessness you felt when Roe was overturned to take hold. There is still a path forward for reproductive freedom in the state of Georgia, but it requires a fight. While the right wing is doing everything it can to suppress our rights and our bodily autonomy, it’s essential that working people fight back on all fronts possible, including the electoral and legislative fronts. Again, as Socialists, our end goal is free health care, including free abortion, for all people. On the way there, we need to advocate for our local representatives to use all their power to protect our right to abortion and commit to voting yes and pushing the RFA through. 

To help us do that, sign and share the existing petition to pass the RFA in Georgia. Email your representatives and let them know you support the RFA. Attend canvassing events with DSA and follow along for updates on other pieces of local legislation to protect abortion. Together, we can win!

The post Georgia Needs a Reproductive Freedom Act appeared first on Red Clay Comrade.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

For decades, America’s water infrastructure has rusted under the negligent eye of politicians who have put politics and dollar signs above their constituents. The water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi reminds us of how racism and capitalist greed can threaten the supply of even the most basic human necessity.

Central New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America calls upon the Biden administration, the state of Mississippi, and state and local governments both in NJ and nationwide to put their money where their mouth is by funding safe and robust water infrastructure as a public utility. Access to water, necessary to sustain human life, should not depend on the profit margins available to private companies for delivering it, nor on emergency funding that is only available once a crisis point is reached. Given the vast wealth of our nation we can easily provide safe and reliable water to everyone as a public utility. This should not be in question, either in Mississippi nor in New Jersey.

The crisis of Jackson Mississippi’s water system is not merely a crisis of underfunding but is also a direct result of the profound ecological crisis wrought on humanity by climate change. Although decades of underfunding from both the federal government and the state government of Mississippi precipitated the failure of the Jackson Water System, notably the need for an additional $4.8 billion to maintain safe drinking water, two events in particular caused the system to fail as catastrophically as it did this september. While the media was largely focused on the failure of the Texas power grid that resulted from the February 2021 cold snap, the lower than usual temperatures also froze the pipes that supplied the water to Jackson Mississippi and damaged them irreparably. The situation was made worse this summer as the system endured damage from the massive floods that swept through Mississippi this summer.

At this point in the climate crisis there can be no debate between adapting to climate change or preventing it; we need to do both. An eco-socialist transition away from carbon intensive production and extraction needs to occur simultaneously with a reworking of our infrastructure to withstand the stress that will be put on it as a result of climate catastrophe or else we will see more cities struggle with the issues that Jackson Mississippi is currently facing.

In addition, the recent water main break in the Belleville area shows alarming parallels to what has happened in Jackson. In August of 2022, more than 100,000 households were affected with reduced water access after a 142-year-old water main ruptured. Like in Jackson, neglected infrastructure was the immediate cause. Contrary to what many would like to believe, New Jersey isn’t immune to images of bottled water packages and closed schools. New Jersey as of this year still has 186,830 discovered lead lines, and potentially up to 350000 from some estimates. Even outside of more momentous events like ruptures, many are forced to choose between risking unsafe water or paying for bottled water. Organizations like Newark Water Coalition still organize to bring to light continued concerns of poor infrastructure and insufficient fixes, especially in Newark where two years ago there was still estimated 24% lead piping.

Further, water privatization is rampant in New Jersey, increasing the cost of water as well as the risk of disasters like what happened in Jackson. For-profit water companies make no sense in a rational world- When a water system is given over to a for-profit company, as is currently planned to happen next year in Somerville here in Central Jersey, that company can make money (its sole objective) from that water system compared to a cost-neutral government-run system in one of two ways: Increasing the price of water for residents, or decreasing the amount spent maintaining the system (risking a Jackson-like disaster). Yet sadly some see it as the only way to fund necessary expansions to supply new houses and rising populations due to the lack of funding available to local governments for water projects.

The defunding of municipal water projects has not only occurred on the state level but was precipitated by cuts in funding on the federal level that occurred during the Reagan Administration as a result of the 1987 Water Quality Act. Republican lead efforts to “shrink government” and “lower the deficit” are not merely philosophical statements on the role of the state in private life or simple adjustments to the accounting on the federal ledger. The “Reagan Revolution” and the ideological justifications for austerity that came with it have had an immensely negative impact on the lives of the most vulnerable members of the working class who often have to shoulder the cost of republican tax cuts for the rich and the decimation of public services that result from them.

We must work within our communities and then expand outwards to recognize how much more needs to be done to repair the situation we are dealing with. Addressing poor piping in general, lead piping especially, fighting back against privatization and the usage of these crises to further increase exploitation are all incredibly necessary. As with many concerns, the solution is to build the power and organization of the working class, so we can address our social interests and concerns in ways capitalists will not. Groups like Newark Water Coalition, Food and Water Watch, and ecosocialist caucuses within DSA are working to build a movement for a more sustainable and environmentally sound world and organizing for water justice is an essential part of making the urban areas where most working class people live safer and healthier.

11/3/22
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Curt Ries, Marin DSA Co-Chair
marindemsoc@gmail.com | curtries@gmail.com 

FAIRFAX ADOPTS RENT CONTROL

First Town in Marin County and Smallest in California to Cap Rents

FAIRFAX, CA — On Wednesday, November 2nd, the Fairfax Town Council voted 5-0 in favor of adopting an ordinance to establish rent stabilization and 4-1 in favor of adopting an ordinance to strengthen just cause eviction protections. Fairfax is the first town in Marin County and the smallest jurisdiction in California to pass rent control. Fairfax has about 7,500 residents and 37% of Fairfax households rent their homes. 

The votes followed nearly two hours of heated public comments, with tenants and supportive homeowners speaking in favor of the policies and landlords and realtors speaking in opposition. The town council has been considering rent stabilization and just cause eviction policies for the last eight months, since March 2022. It has held eight public agendized meetings on the topic.

The rent stabilization ordinance will cap annual rent increases at 60% of the Consumer Price Index or 5%, whichever is lower, making it one of the strongest rent control provisions in the state. The just cause eviction ordinance will strengthen existing protections by establishing a right of return and relocation payments for displaced tenants, closing Ellis Act eviction loopholes, and providing additional protections against eviction for tenants who are elderly, disabled, or terminally-ill and for teachers and students during the school year. Both ordinances will go into effect on December 3rd, 2022.

The landmark ordinances were passed after a year of grassroots campaigning led by local residents and by the Marin Democratic Socialists of America (Marin DSA), who launched a campaign to establish rent control in Marin County during the fall of 2021. Marin DSA has gathered over 3,000 petition signatures from Marin County residents in support of rent control and just cause eviction protections, including over 650 petition signatures from Fairfax residents, about 9% of the town’s population. They are also working to pass rent control in nearby San Anselmo and Larkspur, where they are partnering with the Skylark Tenants Association.

Other organizations who support the campaign include: Sierra Club Marin Group, Legal Aid of Marin, North Bay Labor Council, North Bay Jobs with Justice, California Alliance for Retired Americans Marin CAT, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, Teamsters Local 665, Unite Here 2850, National Union of Healthcare Workers, Showing up for Racial Justice Marin, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative, Disability Justice Marin, and Tenants Together.

###

It’s election season again! That means that citizens will soon exercise their right to vote for their political leaders, but for workers in a union, or for those trying to organize one themselves, democracy does not end on election day. It is in the everyday struggle for a democracy worthy of the name not only in our politics, but in our workplaces and our unions. Tonight, we hear from Brandon Mancilla, a candidate for Regional Director of the UAW’s Region 9A, about what’s at stake in the UAW leadership elections this November and about how he and the other endorsed candidates of the UAW United Members United slate will transform the near century-old union. We also hear from our own Amy Wilson, host and producer here at RPM and a worker-organizer at the Trader Joe’s in Williamsburg, on organizing an independent union with Trader Joe’s United and what it means to lose an election.

Brandon Mancilla on Twitter: @Brandonfor9A