Striking, Saving, Speaking, Sparking: Feb. 28th-March 12th

Hey Teen Resisters!
We are back on our cycle of lists after a quick break for our Black History Month List (which you should all go read!)--we know that the past few weeks have been beyond crazy, and so we tried to boil everything down to what we believe are some of the key happenings. Get ready to dive into a list full of youth protest, Trump trying to attack women's repro rights (again.), net neutrality, vaccines, and more!! (Also, happy late International Women's Day and current Women's History Month <33; more on that soon.) Sending all our love!
peace&power,
TR

what went (&is going) down

Worldwide Youth Climate Strikes This Friday!
Over the last couple of years, scientists and environmental activists across the world have made it clear that human-caused climate change is escalating at a previously underestimated and entirely destructive rate; its effects will be irreversible in a matter of years. Most global leaders have refrained from fully (if at all) addressing the significance of climate change, causing not only climate inaction but also disproportionately harsh impacts on racially and socioeconomically marginalized communities. Read more of our coverage of climate change by going to our Index by Issue and scrolling down to our section entitled Environmental Justice (near the top; the index is alphabetized!), where you’ll find bullets of all the past lists where we’ve mentioned it; alternatively, you can learn more about it on the NASA website.

This Friday, March 15th, students across the world will be walking out of school and protesting climate change inaction in their local communities. Goals and logistics vary depending on the school/community, but most strikes advocate for the support of the Green New Deal in Congress, a bill pushed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (among others), which aims to stimulate the U.S. economy in an environmentally sustainable and socially equitable way—an emphasis is placed on communities of color and low income communities that are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change.

• In order to find your community’s walkout and/or protest, check out the following link: https://www.youthclimatestrikeus.org/strikes

• If your school doesn’t have a walkout yet, we encourage you to strike with some of your friends anyway, and empower/organize your school peers to do so, as well! Follow the US Youth Climate Strike’s Guide to organizing a strike in your school community at this link.

• And if you can’t participate this Friday, there are still other ways to get involved! Go to this link to find a script and series of steps to follow to call your representatives and demand that they support the Green New Deal in their legislative house.

Domestic Gag Rule
On Monday, March 4th, Donald Trump and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar unveiled a new, newly outrageous policy known as the domestic gag rule. The rule would deny any clinic that provides abortion access any Title X federal funding, meaning that it would effectively defund Planned Parenthood and the numerous other smaller providers who work similarly. 

Title X currently serves about 4 million individuals and functions as the nation’s program for affordable birth control and reproductive care. According to Planned Parenthood, two thirds of those served by Title X live under the federal poverty line, and almost half lack insurance access. Currently, reproductive health care clinics can receive Title X funding for services other than abortion (they just have to pay for abortion procedures with separate funding).

That means that those served by Title X rely on the government for access to birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, and even simple women’s health exams. Planned Parenthood serves approximately 41 percent of those benefited by Title X funding; although 4,000 other Title X-funded health care providers across the country also provide abortion, if Planned Parenthood specifically were to be defunded, other providers would have to increase their caseloads by an average of 70 percent to service PP’s patients.

So what do all of those numbers mean? The domestic gag rule would take away funding from thousands of health care providers who service millions--many in poverty and without insurance—preventing them from accessing not only abortion but also basic, vital reproductive health care services.  

The second key component of the gag rule is that it would prevent doctors and service providers from referring patients who want or need an abortion to a place where they can get one. If a woman found out she was pregnant after being diagnosed with cancer, for example, her doctor would not be allowed to inform her that abortion was even an option. What the gag rule does is just what its name suggests: forcibly prevents service providers from giving women the comprehensive, accurate information about their health care options that they deserve.

It’s clear that this rule is unethical, irrational, dangerous, and unconstitutional. 

So: what can you do?

• Sign PP’s open letter pledging to protect Title X and oppose the gag rule here.
• Leave a comment for HHS and demand that it drop the domestic gag rule through NARAL Pro-Choice America’s petition here.
• Call HHS at 1-877-696-6775 to voice your disgust at the rule. (We’ll give you a chance to create your own script here; check out our Basics section for a template and advice!)​

Bringing Back Net Neutrality: Save the Internet Act
You may remember that in December of 2017, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) voted to repeal net neutrality, a piece of Obama-era legislation requiring internet providers to adhere to a set of regulations about keeping the internet a safe and fair place for all consumers. They passed legislation called the Restoring Internet Freedom bill, which reversed the effects of net neutrality. Activists and public servants alike were outraged— repealing net neutrality had the potential to further inequality between those who would be able to afford potentially more expensive internet service and those who would not, among a variety of other problems. Read more about what net neutrality is and why it matters in our net neut feature, published in December 2017.

Recently, House and Senate Democrats proposed legislation–– the Save the Internet Act–– which would combat the impact of the Restoring Internet Freedom bill. It would establish guidelines that reflect what net neutrality served to protect. According to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, “The Save the Internet Act enacts the three legacy net neutrality principles – no blocking, no throttling and no paid prioritization – and empowers the FCC to prohibit unjust, unreasonable and discriminatory practices.”

What can you do?

• Contact your Representatives and Senators and ask them to support the Save the Internet Act and/or any future legislation working against net neutrality.
  • You can use this script: Hi, my name is ___________ and I’m calling to urge [name of your congressperson] to support the Save the Internet Act and any future legislation combating the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality. Net neutrality is an extremely important issue that should not be swept aside, and it is imperative that it is protected in any and all ways possible. Thank you.

Border Update
This year we’ve born witness to a grueling succession of the Trump Administration’s attacks on immigrant communities. The crisis is ongoing:

• In February, Trump declared a national state of emergency to forcibly reallocate funding (that Congress voted not to give him) to his border wall. The House of Representatives has voted to reject the emergency declaration, but the decision cannot be overturned without a majority in the Senate as well. Declaring a national emergency in this situation is an abuse of executive power—Congress is the only entity responsible for deciding government funding, and in making this declaration, Trump is attempting to circumvent its will and undermine the checks and balances that make our government democratic. ​

• This power abuse aside, the wall is a huge waste of money, will likely not work to prevent the majority of drug trafficking across the border (most of which occurs at official ports of entry), and in general is just an awful plan with overtly racist motivations. 
• The family separation crisis is not over: 
  • The New York Times reported that since the official end of the administration’s family separation policy in June of 2018, at least 200 more children have been separated from their family members. As was the case with separations while the zero-tolerance policy was technically in effect, the government did little to track the whereabouts of these children and their parents. 
  • Many of the children separated from their parents over the summer have yet to be reunited with them. Some have even been deported without their children, as CNN reports in this heartbreaking story. 
  • Even as more and more evidence of the Trump Administration’s malicious negligence comes to light, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen continues to stand by the Administration’s decisions and refuses to acknowledge their responsibility in the harm done to these families. She testified for Congress last Wednesday (read her testimony here). Our main takeaway from this all? The administration isn’t budging on its disgusting treatment of immigrants and disregard of its rights. It’s up to us—and Congress—to fight back.

What can you do?

• The House has already passed a resolution opposing Trump’s declaration of a National Emergency. If you have a Republican senator, call them and ask them to vote for a similar resolution in the Senate! If you don’t, remind friends and family to do so. 
  • Direct them to this link for Indivisible’s guide to calling your senators in support of the resolution. Their script focuses exclusively on the National Emergency, but if you want to address the long list of ways that the Trump Administration has attacked immigrants, definitely go ahead—placing the Emergency Declaration within the context of the rest of these outrageous acts could bring your call to action more gravity. 
• Call your representatives and demand that they put ending the inhumane situation at the border at the top of their list of priorities. Even if you have a Democratic senator, your call will remind them that you, as a constituent, care deeply about this issue, and that will make them more likely to act assertively to address it.
• Sign this “Separating Families is Inhumane” ACLU petition (and help get it to 250k signatures!)

State Assembly Spotlight: On Vaccines
As of March 12, 2019, there have been 228 confirmed cases of measles in the US, caused by refusal on the part of some parents to vaccinate their kids. Because of the various outbreaks of a disease once thought to be eradicated, some states want to make it harder for parents to opt out of vaccinations. In at least 20 other states, however, bills have been proposed to make vaccine exemption even easier.

Washington State, home to one of the first measles outbreaks of the year, is considering two vaccine bills to curb “personal belief” exemptions, which are most often cited by parents who exempt their kids from vaccinations. H.B. 1638, which passed the House and is being introduced into the Senate, would outlaw these exemptions for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Another bill in the Senate, which was just approved by its committee, would outlaw personal belief exemptions for all vaccines.

 Arizona is going in the opposite direction, advancing three anti-vaccine bills.  H.B. 2470 would legalize religious exemptions for vaccines, as well as allow parents to exempt their kids without having to fill out a form informing them of the risks of not vaccinating (which would make the exemption process even easier and faster). HB.. 2471 requires medical providers to explain all the ingredients and risks of vaccines, which doctors say could confuse or overwhelm patients and make them less likely to get vaccinated. H.B. 2472 allows doctors to give an antibody titer test to patients to see if they are already immune to a disease that the vaccine would prevent. Doctors point out that the antibody titer test is sometimes unreliable—it can say that someone is immune to a disease when they really aren’t. The test is also expensive. 

​While many states like Washington are focusing on eliminating vaccine exemptions, enough states are focusing on expanding these exemptions to concern the federal government. Head of the FDA Scott Gottlieb has not released any specific plans, but said in an interview with CNN that “certain states” could “force the hand of federal health agencies” to act. 

What You Can Do: 

• The websites of all state assemblies can be found here: https://www.congress.gov/state-legislature-websites. The National Conference of State Legislatures is also a valuable resource. 
• Work with pro-vaccine groups like The Immunization Partnership and Voices for Vaccines.
• If reps in your state are considering an anti-vaccine bill, call them and urge them to block it using this script:
  • Hi, my name is _____, I'm from _____, and I'm calling to ask you to oppose [name or number of bill] regarding vaccination laws in [your state]. Vaccines save lives, and refusal to vaccinate puts everyone at risk of contracting potentially deadly diseases. I urge you to use your conscience in making your decisions on this topic. Thank you.​