MEETING SCHEDULES WITH SWIM AND PARTNERS SENATOR DEBBIE STABENOW APRIL 20, 11 AM The SWIM/Senator Stabenow meeting has been rescheduled for Thursday, April 20th at 11 am. Join Terry Campbell, Senator Stabenow's staff member, as she helps explain and address what is going on in Washington that affects the lives of Michiganders. Click here to register. CALLS TO ACTION WOMEN'S MARCH APRIL 15, SIGN UP TO MARCH! Take to the streets and join a peaceful Women's March rally near you to protest the ruling by a Trump-appointed judge who ruled against mifepristone. We need to make it very clear that we will not accept an ultra-conservative, power grabbing judge undermining our entire drug approval system without cause. Mifepristone is safer than Viagra and Tylenol and has been used effectively for abortion care and miscarriage management for more than 20 years. There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO INVALIDATE ITS APPROVAL. Sign up and find a March location here. WRITE TO THE MICHIGAN FDA PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST ABOUT MIFEPRISTONE - PROTECT ACCESS TO MEDICATION ABORTION FROM TRUMP JUDGES Late on Friday Trump appointed extremist judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, issued a bombshell ruling that the Food and Drug Administration improperly approved the abortion pill drug, mifepristone, and ordered that approval suspended. This would be a severe blow to abortion access if seen through: more than half of all abortions in this country are done via medication, and the mifepristone/misoprostol combination was used for 98% of medication abortions in 2020. The decision is also believed to be the first time an American court has suspended drug approval over the objection of the FDA. For the moment, nothing has changed: Kacsmaryk’s ruling is stayed for now and the Justice Department has already announced it will appeal. Another federal judge also issued a ruling Friday night requiring the status quo in FDA approval of mifepristone be maintained. Mifepristone remains available, and there is plenty of legal wrangling ahead of us before it won’t be. That being said, this is a crucial moment that demands action from our leaders so that scientists and doctors make the decisions about drug safety and efficacy, not politically-motivated judges. Here is our call to action: Email or call Dawn Pyant, Public Affairs Specialist at the FDA Detroit District Office (313) 393-8196 or email the FDA, and ask the agency to use its enforcement discretion to not go after those who manufacture, market or dispense mifepristone, and to issue an enforcement discretion notice to prescribers and distributors explaining the same. Let’s also reach out to our members of Congress and to the White House to ask them to support this request to the FDA, and to demand they proactively and aggressively do everything in their power to protect access to medication abortion. NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE Most of us already know that five of our 46 Presidents came into office without winning the most popular votes nationwide. Call us old fashioned, but where you live shouldn't count more or less than someone else's vote in a neighboring state. Wouldn't it be great if everyone's vote counted the same? Ta-Dah! Enter the remedy: The National Popular Vote: The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact will guarantee that the President is the candidate who wins the most popular votes in all 50 states and District of Columbia. Write an email to your State Senator and State House member asking him/her to support the National Popular Vote in Michigan. Here's a simple example of what you can write: Every voter in the country should have an equal voice in electing the President. A vote in Wyoming is worth about three times more in the Electoral College than a vote here in Michigan. The candidate who gets the most votes nationwide should win. We can have a national popular vote for President by supporting this legislation (HB4157/SB126). or this one: Passing National Popular Vote in Michigan would apply the one person, one vote principle to presidential elections. The candidate getting the most votes in all 50 states and District of Columbia should become president. Please support this legislation (HB4156/SB126). NEW TECH TOOL TO HELP US GET OUT THE VOTE Register now for ACTION TOGETHER NETWORKS upcoming webinar: New Tech Tools To Help You Get Out the Vote on Wednesday, April 19, 8-9 pm ET Register now: https://bit.ly/ATNApril2023 How can new tech tools help you get out the vote in your state? Organizers in red, blue, and purple states will discuss how these tools are helping them elect Democrats and progressives at local and state levels, including getting young people involved. Our panel of organizers will discuss best practices. Featuring: * Jennie Frishtick (New York resident), SwipeBlue, www.swipeblue.org * Kalan Foster, (D.C. resident), BallotReady, www.ballotready.org * Juliana Terry-Torgerson (Houston resident), Indivisible and Neighbor2Neighbor, http://bit.ly/40ynQWH * Sam Sandmire, (Boise resident), Knock My Neighborhood, www.babevote.org * Moderator: Anne Isenhower (Atlanta resident), Action Together Network, www.actiontogethernetwork.org Link to original shareable Facebook post: https://bit.ly/3KgBZSF If you won’t be able to join the webinar, they’ll post it afterwards, or if you want to learn more about a particular technology, you can contact the organizers (jennie.frishtick@gmail.com, kalan@ballotready.org, juliana.t@indivisible.org, samsandmireidaho@gmail.com) directly at any time. REGISTER DEMOCRATS AND SAVE THE WORLD THE FIELD TEAM 6 WAYWant to do something concrete to fight voter suppression in the crucial state of Michigan? Learn to register Democrats, the Field Team 6 way! It's the #1 most direct, effective way to swing elections – and it's also incredibly fun. At this training, you'll be introduced to Field Team 6 who will let you in on all the secrets of successful voter registration and answer all your questions. You'll leave the call fired up, and knowing everything you need to lead your own voter drive! Register here. HAPPY EARTH MONTH We all know that every day is Earth Day, and every month deserves action to protect her. As stewards of 20% of Earth's fresh water in our backyards (seemingly, much of it quite literally with all the rain!), it is imperative to keep it clean for the present and future. The Sierra Club has a petition effort to urge President Biden to take action to shut down the ticking time bomb in our waters known as Line 5. Very little of what comes across the Straits is used in this country; most goes back to Canada. There are other conventional ways to get propane to our fellow citizens in the UP. The arguments supporting Line 5 just don't hold water!! Please jot a note, sign, and share in your circles! http://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/tell-president-biden-shut-down-line-5/petition You can sign up on this site for more social justice actions that the Sierra Club regularly sponsors. Don't let those writing skills go to waste! CONSIDER RUNNING FOR OFFICE Are you considering running for office but need help? Take a minute and contact Kelsey Heck Wood, MIchigan director for Run for Something. Tell her SWIM sent you!! POST-ELECTION MESSAGING SWIM IS LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR THE PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR AN IN-PERSON CONFERENCE IN EARLY JUNE We have not had an in-person meeting with all our members since before COVID. We are planning a statewide meeting in Lansing on June 3. We are coordinating with the Distill event which will be held on the following day. We want to get everyone together somewhere in central Michigan for one day of networking fun, sharing resources and meeting like-minded activists! If you have a desire to help plan an 2023 SWIM conference, we are looking to meet in the next week or so to start putting together logistics! Please email info@statewideindivisiblemi.com if you'd like to help plan for even more fun! We need your voice, thanks! ADD TO YOUR TOOL BOX CHOP WOOD, CARRY WOOD: Jessica Craven’s “Chop Wood, Carry Water”, provides daily actions for you to choose. You can sign up here. VOICES: Our own Michigan Indivisible, Laurie Evans writes “VOICES”, is a bi-weekly newsletter with insights into the political scene and actions to be taken. You can sign up by contacting Laurie at levans56@gmail.com. ROGAN'S LIST Susan Rogan, a YOOPER, has a wonderful daily newspaper with bite size actions you can take and save democracy. We often include some of these actions in our newsletter. Sign up here. Want to stay current on SWIM activities and share them with your networks? Here are some ways to do that! Visit the Website! www.statewideindivisiblemi.com. This new website is designed to be a central repository of the resources and network partners that we’ve amassed since 2016. We also wanted you, as members, to be able to add your own announcements about your successes and events. Have news to share? Let us know by using the "Contact" page at the top of the homepage! Follow us on Facebook! The SWIM private page is now open to all interested members. Simply go to the page, answer a few simple questions and you are in. This is a great way to keep current on events and issues in between newsletters. This page will be the sole Facebook page for SWIM going forward as the SWIM public page will be phased out in the near future, so join today! Help us build our social media presence and impact by following SWIM on Twitter @SWIMIndivisible and Instagram StateWideIndivisibleMichigan If you are familiar with social media platforms like Mastadon, WhatsApp, TikTok, Tribel, Post, etc. please contact SWIM CORE member & resident social media maven Vickie Gutowski at info@statewideindivisiblemi.com to help expand our outreach! GET INVOLVED GOT IDEAS, GOOD NEWS OR QUESTIONS??? Send us your thoughts here!
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