Demovictory9
Demovictory9's JournalConservatives Tried to Use the Pandemic to Crush Abortion Access. Abortion Funds Fought Back.
b]Conservatives Tried to Use the Pandemic to Crush Abortion Access. Abortion Funds Fought Back.
People “saw what the governor and state legislature were trying to do, and it made people realize the importance of the funds,” one organizer said of the assault on reproductive rights.
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In the pandemic, it has been the people—not the politicians—who have continued to push for reproductive justice. Abortion funds date to the late 1990s, when a handful of grassroots efforts united to form the National Network of Abortion Funds, which today stands vibrantly as an umbrella organization for abortion funds across the nation. These funds go beyond the mere purpose of financial support for abortions. Schilling’s fund, for instance, focuses on practical support, “which means, essentially, all the services that it takes to actually get somebody to their abortion, outside of paying for it.” The Clinic Access Support Network, according to Schilling, is the largest provider of practical support in the country. Thanks to its large volunteer base, the fund has been able to cover “over 1,000” rides to abortion clinics a year.
The 10 abortion funds in Texas are tight-knit. If one fund isn’t able to support a caller, described Zaena Zamora, executive director of the Frontera Fund in the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas, then another fund will take up the effort to help. This situation is different in North and South Carolina, where there is only one fund, the Carolina Abortion Fund. This places an inherent pressure on the fund that has only worsened during the pandemic. “We’re stretched thin financially,” Mars Earle, the director of engagement for the Carolina Abortion Fund, told me.
The “financial trauma” inflicted by the pandemic upon the fund’s primarily lower-income and uninsured callers has resulted in higher monthly expenditures. Earle described that, recently, the fund has interacted with many callers struggling with financial insecurity. “We’re seeing people who not only may not have been able to afford, say, a sudden $300-plus cost that you have to pay upfront but are also behind on utilities or other things.” Even after an executive board decision to push the fund’s budget and increase monthly costs, Earle estimates the Carolina Abortion Fund has only been able to serve “a third to a half” of callers in the past six months.
This situation is not exclusive to this fund. Abortion funds rely on donations, and even with as much outpouring and support as they receive, it never seems to be enough to meet caller demand. In the fiscal year of 2020, member funds in the National Network of Abortion Funds have only been able to support 56 percent of callers, the organization told me. That 56 percent amounts to 52,000 callers and over $9.28 million on abortion funding and practical support. This is still a more positive number than the prior fiscal year, during which NNAF funds were only able to support 26 percent of callers. It’s clear the support is great, but the need is greater.
But in a testament of strength, the Carolina Abortion Fund’s work has still managed to deepen in the last 12 months. As a result of the pandemic, CAF has been strategizing to work more closely with neighbors and local mutual aid organizations. The focus has to address their callers’ needs for the abortion, while also offering more holistic care. “You might need groceries afterwards, or need to make sure your light bulbs are still on,” Earle said. As for Zamora, the challenge of leading an abortion fund through a pandemic has actually proved reaffirming. Despite the spike in caller demand at the outset of the pandemic, Zamora’s fund has grown significantly. “We got a lot of other donations from people who might not have thought about us [before the pandemic].… But they saw what the governor and state legislature were trying to do … and it made people realize the importance of the funds.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/161755/conservatives-tried-use-pandemic-crush-abortion-access-abortion-funds-fought-back
Conservatives Tried to Use the Pandemic to Crush Abortion Access. Abortion Funds Fought Back.
Conservatives Tried to Use the Pandemic to Crush Abortion Access. Abortion Funds Fought Back.People “saw what the governor and state legislature were trying to do, and it made people realize the importance of the funds,” one organizer said of the assault on reproductive rights.
------------------
In the pandemic, it has been the people—not the politicians—who have continued to push for reproductive justice. Abortion funds date to the late 1990s, when a handful of grassroots efforts united to form the National Network of Abortion Funds, which today stands vibrantly as an umbrella organization for abortion funds across the nation. These funds go beyond the mere purpose of financial support for abortions. Schilling’s fund, for instance, focuses on practical support, “which means, essentially, all the services that it takes to actually get somebody to their abortion, outside of paying for it.” The Clinic Access Support Network, according to Schilling, is the largest provider of practical support in the country. Thanks to its large volunteer base, the fund has been able to cover “over 1,000” rides to abortion clinics a year.
The 10 abortion funds in Texas are tight-knit. If one fund isn’t able to support a caller, described Zaena Zamora, executive director of the Frontera Fund in the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas, then another fund will take up the effort to help. This situation is different in North and South Carolina, where there is only one fund, the Carolina Abortion Fund. This places an inherent pressure on the fund that has only worsened during the pandemic. “We’re stretched thin financially,” Mars Earle, the director of engagement for the Carolina Abortion Fund, told me.
The “financial trauma” inflicted by the pandemic upon the fund’s primarily lower-income and uninsured callers has resulted in higher monthly expenditures. Earle described that, recently, the fund has interacted with many callers struggling with financial insecurity. “We’re seeing people who not only may not have been able to afford, say, a sudden $300-plus cost that you have to pay upfront but are also behind on utilities or other things.” Even after an executive board decision to push the fund’s budget and increase monthly costs, Earle estimates the Carolina Abortion Fund has only been able to serve “a third to a half” of callers in the past six months.
This situation is not exclusive to this fund. Abortion funds rely on donations, and even with as much outpouring and support as they receive, it never seems to be enough to meet caller demand. In the fiscal year of 2020, member funds in the National Network of Abortion Funds have only been able to support 56 percent of callers, the organization told me. That 56 percent amounts to 52,000 callers and over $9.28 million on abortion funding and practical support. This is still a more positive number than the prior fiscal year, during which NNAF funds were only able to support 26 percent of callers. It’s clear the support is great, but the need is greater.
But in a testament of strength, the Carolina Abortion Fund’s work has still managed to deepen in the last 12 months. As a result of the pandemic, CAF has been strategizing to work more closely with neighbors and local mutual aid organizations. The focus has to address their callers’ needs for the abortion, while also offering more holistic care. “You might need groceries afterwards, or need to make sure your light bulbs are still on,” Earle said. As for Zamora, the challenge of leading an abortion fund through a pandemic has actually proved reaffirming. Despite the spike in caller demand at the outset of the pandemic, Zamora’s fund has grown significantly. “We got a lot of other donations from people who might not have thought about us [before the pandemic].… But they saw what the governor and state legislature were trying to do … and it made people realize the importance of the funds.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/161755/conservatives-tried-use-pandemic-crush-abortion-access-abortion-funds-fought-back
Boulder gunman Ahmad Alissa, 21, is charged with ten counts of murder at grocery store
confusing pics... guy being escorted to ambulance looks about 35 or older. 
Boulder gunman Ahmad Alissa, 21, is charged with ten counts of murder at grocery store where victims were getting vaccine shots: Cops reveal shooter 'lived most of his life in US' and was shot through leg in massacre
The gunman from Monday's shooting has been named as 21-year-old Ahmad Alissa of Arvada, Colorado
He opened fire in the parking lot of King Soopers grocery at 3pm, killing two people before entering the store
Once inside, he shot and killed another eight people before being arrested by Boulder Police Department
In Facebook posts over the last 18 months, he complained that he didn't have a girlfriend and hated Trump
Alissa's brother also told The Daily Beast he was 'very anti-social' and has been 'paranoid' since high school
The victims range in age from 20 to 65; among them was a cop, shoppers and people who were getting their COVID-19 vaccine
Alissa will be discharged from the hospital and booked into Boulder County Jail on Tuesday afternoon
Will at-home abortions make Roe v. Wade obsolete?
Will at-home abortions make Roe v. Wade obsolete?Pressure mounts on Biden to approve telemedicine for the use of abortion pills.
The battle over abortion rights has a dramatic new front: the fight over whether the Biden administration will make pills available online.
Even as they keep a sharp eye on the increasingly conservative Supreme Court, activists, lawmakers and medical groups are pushing Biden’s FDA to lift restrictions on a 20-year-old drug for terminating early pregnancies. Such a decision would dramatically remake the abortion landscape by making the pills available online and by mail even if the Supreme Court overturns or cuts back Roe vs. Wade.
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As the Biden administration deliberates on the federal rules on where, when and from whom patients can get the pills, with a federal court deadline looming in early April, conservatives are already erecting barriers. In court, in Congress and in statehouses across the country, they’re working to preemptively ban the pills or make them more difficult to obtain — with bills now pending in Indiana, Montana, Arizona, Arkansas, Alabama, Iowa this year alone.
“They’re trying as hard as they can to restrict access to the pills now because they know they won’t be able, later, to unring the bell,” said Mary Ziegler, a professor at the Florida State University College of Law who studies abortion. “This is just as important as what happens with Roe.”
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Should the federal rules get rewritten, someone in, say, Arkansas, could have a video consultation with a doctor in Massachusetts or even the UK and then receive the pills by mail. Even if red states moved to ban their importation, enforcement would be nearly impossible.
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As conservative states have moved aggressively in recent years to restrict access to surgical abortions, passing hundreds of laws that have set limits on when, where and how people can have the procedure, demand for the cheaper and more convenient abortion pills has soared — including online, where patients have obtained the drug from underground marketplaces as well as approved vendors. In 2001, the drugs were used in just 5 percent of abortions in the U.S. By 2017, that jumped to 39 percent, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The increase came even as the total number of abortions dropped significantly.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/20/abortion-pills-telemedicine-477234
From Columbine to Boulder, Colorado has a long history of mass shootings.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/us/colorado-mass-shootings.htmlColorado has been the scene of a number of multiple fatal shootings in recent years, including these that made national headlines:
May 7, 2019 — Two students enter a charter school in Highlands Ranch, a Denver suburb near Littleton, and fire at fellow students in two locations. A student who tackles one of the gunmen is fatally shot, and eight others are wounded by gunfire. The two assailants are captured.
Dec. 31, 2017 — A sheriff’s deputy who barricaded himself in an apartment in Highlands Ranch engages in a gun battle with police officers responding to reports of a disturbance. One officer is killed and four are wounded before the police kill the gunman. Two civilians are wounded.
Nov. 27, 2015 — A man armed with an assault-style rifle enters a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs and opens fire, killing two civilians and a police officer who confronts him; nine other people are wounded in a 5-hour siege before the gunman surrenders.
Oct. 31, 2015 — A man carrying a semiautomatic rifle shoots and kills three people, apparently at random, on a residential street near downtown Colorado Springs, and then is confronted and shot dead by police officers.
July 20, 2012 — A man walks to the front of a crowded movie theater in Aurora during a midnight screening of a Batman film, sets off tear gas grenades and opens fire on the audience, killing 12 people and wounding 58 with gunfire. Another 12 are injured in the ensuing panic. The gunman is arrested in the theater parking lot.
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April 20, 1999 — Two students storm into Columbine High School in Littleton, fatally shooting a teacher and 12 fellow students, and then kill themselves.
Matt Gaetz explains why he let his "son" go to spring break
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1374176686066008065slain cop had been planning to transition to less dangerous job. Had 7 children.
This is sad: 
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'I'm grateful for the police officers that responded and I am so sorry about the loss of Officer Talley,' Herold said.
Talley had joined the force just eleven years ago at the age of 40, according to a statement from Talley's father, Homer Talley.
'He took his job as a police officer very seriously. He had seven children. The youngest is 7 year old. He loved his kids and his family more than anything. He was looking for a job to keep himself off of the front lines and was learning to be a drone operator. He didn't want to put his family through something like this and he believed in Jesus Christ,' wrote Homer.
Several other police forces in the area have tweeted their sympathies to the Boulder Police Department.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9391749/Stunning-footage-shows-huge-line-cop-cars-guiding-hero-Boulder-cop-51-hospital.html
man drives through California protest against Asian Hate, shouts profanities/racial remarks
makes crazy illegal u-turn to spew hate..https://www.instagram.com/p/CMseGmKgX73/
An investigation is underway after a man in Diamond Bar drove through a group protesting against Asian American-Pacific Islander hate crimes Sunday.
The incident occurred around noon at the intersection of South Diamond Bar Boulevard and Grand Avenue, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed.
Video of the incident posted to Instagram showed the driver of a black Honda Civic driving through the intersection full of marchers then making a U-turn and driving through a second time. Then he pulls over and yells “F*** China, f*** you” at protesters.
Investigators confirmed the driver shouted profanities and made racial remarks at the demonstrators before leaving the scene.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/man-drives-through-diamond-bar-protest-against-asian-american-hate-crimes/
spider in the shower... Australia
UGH 
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9374257/Woman-encouraged-monster-female-huntsman-spider-lurking-shower.html
'I have what I believe to be a beautiful huntsman in my shower,' she wrote in the post.
'She is out of harms way but should I relocate her? FYI heart racing at the thought of the latter.'
Users agreed that she should move the huntsman because the steam from the shower could cause her to lose her footing and slip off the wall.
Why your bathroom is the worst place to see a huntsman: Woman is warned to move monster female spider before it falls on her HEAD when she has a shower
Cathy Cox found the female arachnid curled up near the ceiling in the bathroom
She asked Facebook users whether she should try to remove the huntsman
Users were horrified by close-up photos which made the spider look enormous
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