A Letter to my Congressmen on SCOTUS Nominees and Roe v. Wade

I'm sharing the wording from my recent letter-writing efforts to state and national legislators/politicians for those who want ideas on where to begin. Do feel free to borrow my ideas and wording and get shit done.
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As your constituent, I’m writing today to urge you to reject any Trump nominee for the Supreme Court who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and turn back 45 years of progress since the landmark decision.  

A recent poll showed that 67 percent of Americans do not want Roe to be overturned. We’re the majority and we’re not going anywhere.

“El Salvador has a 'culture of life.' There, abortion is banned for any reason. Estimates from the Ministry of Health put the number of illegal abortions performed at 19,290 between 2005 and 2008. However, it’s difficult to trace illegal activity properly, so some other estimates claim this is closer to the annual average. We do know, from a 2011 study by the World Health Organization that 11 percent of the women undergoing these illegal abortions die. That is, at the bare minimum, over 2,000 women.

"Amnesty International reports that suicide now accounts for 57 percent of deaths of pregnant females ages 10-19 in El Salvador. Because in an attempt to terminate their pregnancies, women are 'ingesting rat poison or other pesticides, and thrusting knitting needles, pieces of wood and other sharp objects into the cervix.'

"It was not so long ago that women in the United States were in a position similar to the one women in El Salvador find themselves in today. Before the passage of Roe. Vs. Wade in 1973, it’s estimated that between 250 and 8,000 American women were dying per year of illegal abortions."

—Excerpt from Harpers Bazaar

And for as much grief as we saw legislators give Obama’s SCOTUS nominations, at the VERY least, voters deserve the opportunity to voice their votes in November and let a TRULY representative legislature consider nominations on our behalf.

Consider your constituency and vote NO on hasty Supreme Court nominations.

A Letter to my Congressmen on Immigration Policy

I'm sharing the wording from my recent letter-writing efforts to state and national legislators/politicians for those who want ideas on where to begin. Do feel free to borrow my ideas and wording and get shit done.
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As your constituent, I am writing today to express my opposition to the administration’s enactment of a “zero-tolerance” policy toward immigrants and refugees seeking to enter the United States. And I urge you as my representative to work harder to ensure that the US treats people humanely.

Legality does not dictate morality, and the current treatment of immigrant families and children is deplorable. Separating young children from their parents is morally bankrupt and permanently traumatizing. Not even violent crimes could justify the human rights abuses this practice seeks to do.

I share the sentiments of former First Lady Laura Bush, herself a Dallas resident as well:

“I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.

“Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso. These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history. We also know that this treatment inflicts trauma; interned Japanese have been two times as likely to suffer cardiovascular disease or die prematurely than those who were not interned.

“Americans pride ourselves on being a moral nation, on being the nation that sends humanitarian relief to places devastated by natural disasters or famine or war. We pride ourselves on believing that people should be seen for the content of their character, not the color of their skin. We pride ourselves on acceptance. If we are truly that country, then it is our obligation to reunite these detained children with their parents — and to stop separating parents and children in the first place.

“People on all sides agree that our immigration system isn't working, but the injustice of zero tolerance is not the answer.”

Letter to reps re:Texas Women's Health Program

Link if you would also like to send a message

Apr 2, 2013

Representative Jodie Laubenberg
Capitol Extension, Room CAP 1N.7
1100 Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78701

Dear Representative Laubenberg (also sent to Senator Paxton),

Two years ago this week tens of thousands of Texas women lost access to
basic preventive health care when the legislature slashed family
planning budget by two-thirds. Please protect women's health in the
state budget by supporting  funding for lifesaving breast and cervical
cancer screenings, birth control, and other preventive health care--and
ensuring women have access to the full network of qualified providers,
like Planned Parenthood. Family planning is good for women and good for
the state. In fact, every $1 spent on family planning saves the
taxpayers $4 and 73% of all voters believe Texas should fund family
planning services.  Family planning is extremely cost-effective,
curbing rising health care costs and saving taxpayers money. Investing
in family planning is the fiscally responsible decision to make.

If this reduced access to birth control continues to happen, it is
expected to cost Texas taxpayers up to an additional $273 million.

Texas leads the nation in repeat teen pregnancies. We need greater
access to women's health care and education more than ever. It's a
matter of public health. The women of Texas need your help. Our
sisters, mothers, aunts, nieces, children, friends, wives, and
girlfriends need your help.

Health care providers in Texas are all deeply affected by budget cuts
and unable to address the need for women's health care without Planned
Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a vital part of the Texas health care
network and a longtime partner in saving the state money.

Sincerely,
Me and my personal info

Welfare drug testing wasteful

I was so ticked to read about Texas' drug testing for welfare plan that I looked up my representatives and shot off this angry email.

I am writing to express my disgust and opposition to the proposed measures for drug testing welfare recipients. A similar program introduced in the state of Florida was a proven failure and absolute waste of resources, namely tax dollars.

The program did not deter drug users from applying for aid, as there was no reported change in the numbers of applicants after the program was implemented. The drug testing disqualified a paltry 108 people, 2% of applicants, and primarily for marijuana, widely regarded as a low-risk drug that causes fewer deaths, disease, and overall damage than alcohol.

The state lost $45,780 on this program, counting attorneys and court fees and the thousands of hours of staff time it took to implement the policy. Considering the population of Florida is over 19 million people, $$45,780 can hardly be justified to deny benefits to a mere 100 people—people in such dismal living conditions that they need an escape more than anyone else.

Prohibition has only ever been a failure in the history of the United States, giving rise to more violent crime, and the War on Drugs is no exception. I find it absolutely unacceptable and morally reprehensible to waste constituents’ hard-earned dollars on programs destined and proven to fail.

Denying a handful of people welfare benefits is nothing compared to the citizens who need government programs most; consider the millions of uninsured women and children in Texas and the state’s abysmally low number of dollars spent per student in education. There are hundreds of other programs and millions of people who would benefit from judicious spending by our representatives. And wasting tens of thousands of dollars to exclude a hundred people is an irresponsible waste of resources designed specifically to target and criminalize the poor who are in the greatest need of assistance.

As a humanist and a skeptic born and raised in Texas, I hope you’ll keep your constituents’ desires and needs in mind when consideration of this issue comes to you.

Sincerely,

MP

Source: Florida's welfare drug tests cost more money than state saves, data shows

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/20/2758871/floridas-welfare-drug-tests-cost.html#storylink=cpy