Spooky scary senate bills: oct. 16th-oct. 23rd

It's almost Halloween! And it seems the White House is ahead of schedule with some terrifying new legislation. Meanwhile, destruction in Puerto Rico and California is still aplenty and there were two attacks in Somalia last week. We're here to fill you in (and provide a puppy video).

What went down:

Birth Control Repeal: ​On Friday, October 6th, it was announced that the Trump administration had made the decision to repeal Obama-era birth control laws which required employers to cover contraceptives for their employees. If the employer's religious beliefs conflicted with this, the government would cover the birth control under the Affordable Care Act. "This system allowed specific employers to opt out of something that they had religious objections to while still ensuring the health and safety of women who worked for them," writes Kate Griem of Highly Independent.  The new proposed bill would allow employers to refuse to cover contraceptives without citing a specific reason and the ACA would no longer cover it. "Thousands of women whose birth control was previously covered by insurance will now have to pay from their pockets if they want contraception, and some of them who cannot afford it will have to sacrifice either contraception or another key health service," Griem says. Not only that, but the cost of birth control pills and other contraceptives can cost a minimum of $130 a year for women, while condoms cost about $1.33 for one condom. Also, with anti-abortion legislation, it's illogical to not cover contraceptives. And Griem also points out that birth control pills aren't solely used for preventing pregnancy: they're also used for acne, endometriosis and prevention of ovarian cancer. This is some utter BS, right? 
What you can do: Sign this petition here. For more, head to istandwithpp.org. Have a little extra time? Call your reps:
Script: Hi, my name is ______ and I'm calling to ask you to strongly oppose any efforts to repeal legislation that covers contraception. The previous laws that covered birth control is reasonable towards women, religious people and employers and the new legislation is a blatant attack on women. I ask that you do all you can to stop this from happening. Thank you.
Number: 202-224-3121; Republican senators (use google for this)

Puerto Rico and California: The devastation from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and destructive wildfires in Northern California is still affecting citizens all over these areas. If possible, please donate to organizations doing work with this or encourage your reps to provide federal funding. To do this, see last week's list.

Somalia: Somalia has suffered from an abundance of terrorist attacks from extremist group al-Shabab, and there were two terrible events last week. The death toll has risen to 358 and it seems the US is going to get involved soon. At this time, there is nothing we can do about this, despite the horror of the situation. 
Featured organization: International Rescue Commission (rescue.org); Somali Aid Foundation (http://saf-juba.org)

Puppy Video of the Week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4pwoLhX8Xo