#email them

As promised, I've drafted the script for calling your senator or rep, in addition to a template that you can insert information into (your name, and the name and address of your elected representative) concerning the USAID shutdown.

I'm also linking this webpage where you can look up your congressfolk's names and contact addresses, and this page where you can send free faxes to the senate.

I cannot say this enough - FLOOD THEM WITH MESSAGES. Emails, faxes, snail mail, phone calls, messages through contact portals. As many different methods as you're comfortable using, use them. Send the same message several times. Do not let them forget that we care about this.

I’ve been meaning to post about these abortion bans for awhile now. I’ve just needed some time to truly digest everything and do a little research. But now that I have done that, I wanted to use this time to really get the word across. Let everyone know what their choices are. 

For starters, let’s talk about the motives behind all of these bans. Now, keep in mind that I use the word ban not bill. Because all of these pieces of legislation are, in fact, BANS, and they are near-complete bans on all abortions. So, I implore all of you to use the word ban when talking about these legislations because it emphasizes the true negativity they hold, and it begins to invoke the sense of false narration they all have. 

Besides that, the reason these bans have been passed is not because of pro-life. This has nothing to do with pro-life. In fact, if these lawmakers wanted to save lives, they would worry about all of the children that live below the federal poverty threshold. They would worry about all the children that go hungry every single day. Or they would worry about the education of children. Or the ones that currently do not have health insurance. Or they would worry about the increasing infant mortality rate. If these politicians truly cared about life, these are the things that should be worrying about, and so much more. Except they’re not. So, this leaves the true reason why these bans are being passed. 

Control. 

For all of history, men have tried to control women in anyway they can. With Brett Kavanaugh now as a justice on the Supreme Court, there is a true threat to Roe v. Wade. These politicians know that. They also know that their bans will directly violate Roe v. Wade, which “affirmed that access to safe and legal abortion is a constitutional right,” according to Planned Parenthood. By violating this constitutional right, they know there will be judicial action taken against them. And there is a potential that all of this will be appealed to the Supreme Court. With Kavanaugh as a justice, there is a real threat of Roe v. Wade being overturned. So, no. These men are not trying to save lives. They are not pro-life. Because these men that are making these laws are the same men that have spoken horrifically about rape and rape victims. They are the same men that supported this country when they locked children in cages. These men do not care about any life. They are merely trying to take away women’s (and people that are able to get pregnant’s) control of their own bodies. 

Also, let’s take a second to discuss the false narration behind Georgia’s ban. I currently live in Atlanta, and I knew the second that Brian Kemp elected this would happen. This ban is so incredibly dangerous because it perpetrates this false narrative of a “fetal heartbeat.” This ban criminalizes women that decide to have an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, when doctors can detect a “heartbeat.” At six weeks, there is no heart that beats. In fact, what doctors can hear is activity within a 4-millimeter wide growth which is called a fetal pole. They use the word heartbeat, knowing full well it is not a heart that is beating, to invoke a false image. To cast a negative light on women that pursue abortions. To make them seem like monsters for “killing” what is perceived to be a fully realized person, though at six weeks, the fetus is no bigger than a grain of rice. At six weeks, many women do not even know they are pregnant. Most doctors do not schedule appointments with women until their eighth week of pregnancy. This is a ban on abortions.  

Now, let’s talk about Alabama’s ban. Alabama’s new ban does not criminalize the women that get abortions but the doctors and midwives that carry out the abortions during any stage of pregnancy. And the worst part, it does not take rape or incest into account. Meaning this ban now FORCES a woman to carry her rapist’s baby with no regards to the trauma she will have to undergo. Our justice system has been historically forgiving to men that rape, and the victims of these rapists continue to suffer because of that. Now, this country places laws into effect that will only further damage these victims. It is truly unjust. 

After all of this, please keep in mind these laws do not go into effect until January 2020. Call your representatives. Call them. Email them. Do whatever you need to do to tell them that this is not okay, and you will not stand by this. We have to fight before it is too late. We need these people to know that we will not stand for our reproductive rights being taken away. North Carolina is trying to legally redefine the meaning of consent, and by doing so, they are trying to redefine what it means to be raped. And if rape is redefined, then those that can seek an abortion because they were raped is redefined. We cannot stand for this. There was a GOP lawmaker that used the term “consensual rape” when discussing abortion. This is the day in age we are living in. Our bodies are trying to be stripped from us. And this does not only affect cisgendered women. It affects other minorities that are able to get pregnant. Trans men and non-binary people can also be affected by this. And we must fight to protect them as well because they have a part in this narrative. That needs to be recognized. 

Call your representatives. Do it before it is too late. Because there will come a time where it is. If conservative politicians get their way, there will be a time when it is too late. 

Jaehwan: dramatically serenade myself in the mirror.

Jisung: puzzles.

Jihoon: eat a cookie! and when I'm feeling dangerous... I eat a second cookie.

Sungwoon: I usually go and sit on a surface that isn't meant to be sat on, because when tomorrow comes I will be faced with even more challenges... and I am too overwhelmed to be worrying about what is and is not a chair.