SPECIAL MARCH UPDATE: NEW FLYERS AND UPDATES ORGANIZING MATERIALS ONLINE

Hundreds of thousands of young activists from across the nation will be coming to DC in April 2004 for the Feminist Majority, Planned Parenthood Federation, NARAL, and NOW led March for Freedom of Choice. We’ve updated our materials with new ideas on organizing for the March, including fundraising, recruitment, and visibility on campus. Get cool ideas, like asking for donations of frequent flier miles if you’re coming from afar. Get involved now with organizing a delegation on your campus and in your local community!
http://www.feministcampus.org/act/marchforchoice/default.asp

FMLA ALUMS: ORGANIZE A DELEGATION AND MEET OLD FRIENDS AT THE MARCH FOR FREEDOM OF CHOICE!

The FMF’s Campus Program has been promoting reproductive rights activism and feminist leadership since 1997 and Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance students have graduated and moved on to higher education, progressive and activist careers, and continue to advocate for women’s rights. Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance alumnae are encouraged to meet up and form delegations to attend the March. Former FMLA Alumnae from the University of Northern Texas and FMF staff, Jessica Terlikowski, is committed to organizing delegations from across the country to attend the March. According to Terlikowski organizing fellow FMLA alumnae will be especially rewarding, “When I was in college, all of the members of my FMLA were really connected and close. I’m sure all of them are going to the March and we could have a reunion if we organized a delegation of our own and meet up and March together again in DC.” Contact Jessica Terlikowski, jterlikowski@feminist.org, for help in organizing old college FMLA members and friends, as well as finding FMLA alums from other schools in your area.

Interested in coming to the March? Call or email a member of the Campus Team to get on board and join hundreds of thousands of feminists in Washington, D.C. in April 2004, campusteam@feminist.org 866-444-FMLA or 866-471-FMLA (West Coast.)

FMF CAMPUS TEAM JOINS GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY WOMEN’S COALITION TO COUNTER THE GENOCIDE AWARENESS PROJECT

FMF’s Campus Team joined forces with the GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY Women’s Coalition, a campus group of many feminist activists, to counter the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), a group sponsored by the Center for Bio-ethical Reform, which visits college campuses and set up graphic anti-choice displays which showcase pictures of genocide killings along with so-called aborted fetuses on school property. GAP’s antichoice agenda is to persuade onlookers that woman who choose to have abortions and the doctors who provide abortions are comparable to those who perpetuate genocide against entire populations. GAP’s comparison between abortion and genocide is both dangerous and misleading--genocide refers to the deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial, political, or cultural group and is usually carried out by governments or regimes. However, abortion and reproductive rights ensure women’s freedom from governmental control over their bodies and lives. In order to achieve full social, political, and economic equality, women must have the right to choose whether and when to bear and raise children.

Equipped with signs, a table, and hundreds of copies of fact sheets on abortion access and women’s health issues, the GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY Women’s Coalition and FMF Campus Organizers met vast support from students on campus. According to Leah Edwards, FMF Campus Organizer, “I was really excited about the positive feedback from our presence.” Students were angered that the administration allowed the GAP to come to campus and collected petitions to ban their displays and future visits.

If the Genocide Awareness Project comes to your campus, you can protest their presence and educate your campus about the importance of unfettered access to reproductive health care and family planning. Take action with ideas and fact sheets created by the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Campus Program,
http://www.feministcampus.org/fmla/printable-materials/KnowYourOppositionFactSheet_GAP.pdf.

Learn about the well-organized, well-funded right-wing opposition to women's rights, especially the right to choose abortion, http://www.feministcampus.org/know/sam/sam4.asp

FMF WEST COAST CAMPUS TEAM MOBILIZES TO GET OUT HER VOTE FOR 2003 CALIFORNIA SPECIAL ELECTIONS AND TO OPPOSE PROP 54

For the last two weeks, FMF Campus Organizers Jessie Raeder and Nisha Gulati visited campuses in the San Francisco and Oakland Bay area to shore up support for feminist leadership and reproductive rights activism. The team visited over 12 campuses and met with Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances, affiliates, individuals seeking to start new groups, as well as feminist groups interested in receiving support, leadership opportunities, and campaign ideas. On every campus visited, Jessie and Nisha spoke about the importance of the gender gap and the potential for change by mobilizing the youth vote, and also spoke of the threats to civil rights, reproductive rights, and health care in California’s special election, especially with Ward Connerly’s deceptive Proposition 54 on the ballot, which would effectively remove race and ethnicity as a factor in research and government sponsored data collection.

SAVE THE DATE: OCTOBER 25TH, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FEMINIST LEADERSHIP SUMMIT WITH DOLORES HUERTA!

The West Coast Campus Team is planning on bringing together over 125 students to their Los Angeles area office for a one day training and activist briefing on a range of issues. Email a member of the Campus Team for more information and to register to attend this free briefing, campusteam@feminist.org.

FEMINISTS UNITE ON RELIGIOUS HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN NEW ORLEANS

Led by senior Biology Major Tamika Middleton, over 20 students from the Catholic Historically Black University, XAVIER UNIVERSITY in New Orleans are meeting with supportive faculty and staff to start a feminist group at their school, which is over 70% female and has no existing groups to specifically address women's issues.

The LOYOLA UNIVERSITY Women's Issue Organization in New Orleans has a very active and feminist group that just recently organized a very successful pay equity bake sale. By tabling with baked goods and buttons, they raised $100 for the local Lesbian and Gay community center. The group also organized an "F-Word" discussion with their campus Women's Resource Center, and hoped to debunk anti-feminist stereotypes and educate on the principles and issues of feminism, including the media’s influence on women’s lives and body image.

Interested in hosting an “F-word” Forum and work to debunk anti-feminist stereotypes and mobilize the feminist majority on your campus? Contact a Campus Organizer at campusteam@feminist.org for ideas and to get connected to local feminists on your campus!

EC VICTORY IN NY: HOSPITALS TO OFFER RAPE VICTIMS EC

10/2/2003 - New York joined California, Washington and New Mexico yesterday, becoming the fourth state to mandate that hospitals offer rape victims emergency contraception (EC). "This is a tremendous victory for the women of New York state," bill sponsor Assemblywoman Susan John (D-Rochester) told the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. Facing pressure from the state Catholic Conference earlier this year, the measure contained amended language, granting hospitals permission to withhold EC from women who were already pregnant, New York Daily News reported.

EC is 95% effective in the first 24 hours after unprotected sex, failed contraception, or rape to prevent pregnancy by interfering with ovulation, fertilization, or implantation. Despite the time sensitive nature and documented benefits of EC, 54 percent of NY emergency rooms did not routinely provide EC to sexual assault survivors.

The Feminist Majority Foundation, along with a host of other reproductive health and rights groups, including American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association (AMA), are advocating for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of over-the-counter status for EC so women can access this pill quickly and easily all over the United States. The Women's Capital Corporation, makers of Plan B, has submitted a request to the FDA for over-the-counter status and FMF is gathering petition signatures in support of their application. The FDA is expected to make its decision by early 2004.

TAKE ACTION Sign the Petition for Emergency Contraception Over the Counter, http://www.feministcampus.org/act/prescribechoice/.
For the latest feminist news, visit www.feminist.org.

LEAD YOUR OWN "THAT TAKES OVARIES!" OPEN MIKE or PERFORM THE PLAY OVARIES!

Last year, 70 That Takes Ovaries! open mikes were held around the U.S. and India, organized locally by women on campuses and in the community. At an Ovaries! open mike, women and girls share stories about times they acted boldly. Many events are fundraisers for local girls' groups and groups working to end human rights abuses against girls. Rivka Solomon’s campaign is especially empowering in that any woman or organization interested in organizing a That Takes Ovaries! open mike in their own area can easily do it. First time organizers are welcome--learn to be an activist for women's voices and causes! Visit http://www.thattakesovaries.org/ for guidelines on organizing an open mike, to purchase the “That Takes Ovaries Book,” or to learn about the play version of the book.

Interested groups can request the other resources for activism, including an Ovaries PR-Info packet, the Ovaries play, as well as info on volunteer and leadership opportunities with That Takes Ovaries! Email, Rivka Solomon, writer, playwright, and International Coordinator of THAT TAKES OVARIES!, Rivka@thattakesovaries.org.

REPORT: US CUTS IN FAMILY PLANNING AID HURT WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD

9/30/2003 - A new report finds that the Bush Administration's global gag rule endangers the lives of women, children and families in poor countries around the world. According to the report by the Global Gag Rule Impact Project, two leading family planning organizations in Kenya had to close five of their clinics since the global gag rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, was introduced. These clinics offered much needed services such as pre- and post-natal obstetric care, child health, screening for cervical cancer, immunizations, and HIV/AIDS services.

In addition, the report said that by 2002 the policy had ended shipments of condoms donated by USAID to 16 developing countries whose family planning organizations were connected to the International Planned Parenthood Federation. 13 other countries have had their USAID funded condoms distribution cut off because the main family planning association would not sign the Mexico City Policy. These countries include Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland - all countries with some of the highest HIV rates in Africa.

The global gag rule prohibits US funds from being directed to any overseas program that provides information about abortions, abortion counseling, abortion services or that lobbies for the legalization of abortion in their country-- even with private funds. Instituted by President Reagan in 1984, repealed by President Clinton eight years later and reinstated again by Bush on his third day in office, the global gag rule has forced hundreds of healthcare facilities around the world to shut their doors to women.

LEARN MORE Read the report online at www.GlobalGagRule.org

TAKE ACTION Stop the Global Gag Rule from Killing More Young Women

PHYSICIANS FOR REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE AND HEALTH INVITE FMLAS TO UTILIZE EDUCATIONAL VIDEO ON ABORTION PRE-ROE V. WADE

Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances and affiliates are invited to utilize the Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health video "Voices for Choice," which reveals the experiences women faced seeking illegal abortion pre Roe v. Wade and the bravery of the physicians who risked their jobs to help women not only by providing underground abortions safely, but also by providing health care to those who survived botched, illegal abortions. This video details history that is imperative for campus activists, as many of our peers who were not alive during this era remain unaware of the disastrous consequences should Roe be overturned. Screen this video and invite a local speaker (ie: a supportive faculty member or a Planned Parenthood representative) to educate your campus and raise awareness about the threats to legal abortion. Let the courage and commitment of these physicians inspire you to build a powerful pro-choice presence on campus and recruit support for a HUGE delegation of activists for the March for Freedom of Choices in April 2004!

The Choices E-zine is a bi-monthly e-zine intended to keep members of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances, the Feminist Faculty and Student Networks, and the online Choices Campus Community connected with each other, informed of feminist issues and events, and prepared to take action.

To start a group on your campus or for more information, please email CampusTeam@feminist.org or call a Campus Organizer toll-free at (866) 444-FMLA.

LET US KNOW!
Please let us know about your Leadership Alliance actions and accomplishments so that we can include you in our next newsletter and share your great ideas! Email us about your successful events or upcoming events, campusteam@feminist.org!