Take Action
In This Edition
- Please Act Now: Help the People of Haiti
- What's Next for Health Care? National Lobby Day January 20
- Connecting in Tough Economic Times
- Ugandan Parliament Considers Criminalizing Homosexuality
- Women's Health Around the World
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Letter from Birmingham City Jail
Please Act Now: Help the People of Haiti
If you have not yet sent a contribution to help the people of Haiti - or if you have, and want to do more:
- RED CROSS: Text "HAITI" to "90999" and $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross, charged to your cell phone bill, or make an online donation at the Red Cross website: www.redcross.org.
- CLINTON FOUNDATION: Text "HAITI" to "20222" and $10 will be given to the Clinton Foundation's Haiti Relief Fund, charged to your cell phone bill, or make an online contribution: www.clintonfoundation.org.
- UNICEF: http://www.supportunicef.org: accepting online contributions
- ClintonBushHaitiFund.org: accepting online contributions
"The critical needs in Haiti are great, but they are also simple: food, water, shelter, and first-aid supplies. The best way concerned citizens can help is to donate funds that will go directly to supplying these material needs." - Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush
What's Next for Health Care? National Lobby Day January 20
Join us and the Stop Stupak coalition on our national lobby day tomorrow, January 20th. As you know, Congress is now in the process of making final decisions about the future of the health care bill. Anti-choice forces have demanded inclusion of the "Stupak-Pitts" amendment, which would make it impossible for women using the health care exchange to use their own money to pay for abortion coverage.
January 22 is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision which made clear that the right to choose is a constitutional right. Today, we are fighting to prevent the greatest reversal of that right in 37 years. We stopped Stupak in the Senate; now we need to take action to stop Stupak again!
To join us for our Lobby Day here in D.C., sign up here.
If you cannot attend the action day in D.C., please contact your representatives. Call 202-559-1164 to tell your member of Congress that the Stupak amendment is outrageous and unacceptable.
Connecting in Tough Economic Times
Assessing the recession's impact on families, the Census Bureau said Friday that unemployment rates for couples with children under the age of 18 had doubled from 2007 to 2009. — New York Times, January 17, 2010
The economic strain of unemployment is tough enough, but too often there is also a feeling of isolation or helplessness. No Limits is proud to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) in its ground-breaking empowerment program called "Ur Union of Unemployed" or "UCubed".
UCubed will serve as an online community, enabling people who are unemployed or underemployed, wherever they live, to connect through a linked network. As IAM President Tom Buffenbarger said, "[w]e hope that UCubed will provide a measure of relief and an end to the isolation, frustration and depression that so many unemployed workers experience. Working together, they can build a network of mutual support and help each other to get through the next few years."
UCubed members will also have the opportunity to speak on critical policy issues directly affecting the jobless, including unemployment benefits, food stamps, COBRA benefits and JOBS NOW!, the IAM effort to draw attention to the need for a national industrial policy.
Please check out the UCubed website and share it with everyone you know. With partners like IAM, there are No Limits to what we can do when we work together to make a difference.
Ugandan Parliament Considers Criminalizing Homosexuality
"Uganda is a country where the human rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community have been stripped away by anti-gay legislation already on the books. The country's LGBT community has a history of being harassed and silenced by the government and the Ugandan police." - Amnesty International
Now the Ugandan Parliament is considering the Anti-Homosexual Bill 2009, which would sentence gays and lesbians to life in prison, even, in one version, death. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned this legislation as a "very serious potential violation of human rights."
In a major human rights speech last month, Secretary Clinton spoke of the "many instances where there is a very serious assault on the physical safety" of gays and lesbians and why it is important for the United States "to stand against that and enlist others in doing so." Johnnie Carson, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, has since met with the Human Rights Campaign and more than thirty other advocacy organizations to discuss the bill and make clear the U.S. government's opposition to it.
On January 21, Representative Tammy Baldwin will chair a congressional hearing, under the auspices of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, about the proposed Ugandan legislation. Let your representatives know you expect them to stand up, on behalf of the American people, against this vicious, anti-human rights legislation.
Women's Health Around the World
Speaking at the State Department on January 8, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reaffirmed the United States commitment to improving health care for women and girls around the world -including reproductive health. She talked about too high numbers of maternal mortality, with one woman dying every minute of every day of pregnancy and childbirth related causes, while millions more are badly injured.
Hillary praised the United Nations Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, when nations around the world agreed to a program of increased support for reproductive health care, including improvements in maternal wellbeing. There has been some since then: better neonatal care, increases in child survival, and greater access to contraception; but there have been disappointments as well, as an anti-choice administration denied United States support for essential reproductive health care programs for eight years.
Today, as the Secretary of State made clear, the United States is back: back to supporting reproductive health care, and committed to working with the United Nations and with organizations working around the world to meet the Cairo goals. "Investing in the health of women, adolescents, and girls is not only the right thing to do; it is also the smart thing to do." Hillary said.
For the complete text of Hillary's important speech, click here.
Watch the video by clicking here.
THE LAST WORD
"For if we believe that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights, then we cannot accept the ongoing marginalization of half the world's population. We cannot accept it morally, politically, socially, or economically." - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, January 8, 2010