From: Nita and Shaunna, UltraViolet Action

Dear Readers,

OK, so the election is over. You knew that. But what you might not know is that a lot of key organizing resources are gone with it–right as conservatives in Congress are painting a big target on women and our rights.

Elections are exciting and they always shine a bright spotlight—a ton of grassroots activity, media attention and resources–on key issues people really care about. The downside is that the day the election is over the lights go out, and most of those resources are gone too.

But we can’t afford to go dark right now. Starting tomorrow, Congress is back to work and conservatives have made clear that their number one priority is to gut women’s health.1 And if we aren’t ready to mobilize, they’ll get their way. It’s happened before.

UltraViolet is here and ready to fight. We just need your help to do it.

We have a big plan to mobilize hundreds of thousands of women, spread the word about what’s at stake, and make sure lawmakers are held accountable in their home states. But it’s going to take resources to do it.

For the remainder of the year, Congress is going to focus on one budgetary fight after another. And over the summer, conservatives staked out a clear position that gutting programs that women rely on will be a “win” for them.2

And that’s not all. There’s going to be a huge fight over whether to end tax breaks for millionaires. Women disproportionally rely on the programs that conservatives want to cut in order keep paying for those tax breaks.3 Most people know they’ll try to gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security–but what most people don’t know is that they also want to cut childcare assistance programs, Head Start, housing assistance and similar programs where women make up the majority of the recipients. And without these programs, millions of women won’t be able to hold down their jobs or provide for their kids.4

So what are we going to do to stop these things from happening?
The most important thing to do is to make sure we channel the voices of hundreds of thousands of women who will be affected by these cuts into Congress.
We’ll make sure constituents know exactly what’s at stake–the overall media coverage will focus on a few programs, but UltraViolet will help spread the word about what people aren’t hearing about–cuts to childcare programs, education programs, food stamps and other services women and their families rely on.
We’ll make create a stir in the home districts of the lawmakers who are pushing these cuts and make sure their local media outlets know too.
We’ll organize our allies in Congress to hold the line, and make sure women aren’t casualties of the budget process.

There is A LOT to do. Together, we’ve built a ton of momentum for women’s rights this year, but it’s not over. In fact, the fight has really only just begun.

Thanks for speaking out,

–Nita, Shaunna, Kat and Karin, the UltraViolet team.

Sources:

1. GOP Spending Bill Aims To Defund Planned Parenthood, Up Abstinence-Only Funds, Huffington Post, July 17, 2012

2. Ibid

3. “Paul Ryan’s Budget Deals a Body Blow to Women’s Bottom Line,” The Nation, August 13, 2012

4. Ibid

– – –

A ton of grassroots activity, media attention and resources is dissapearing now that the election is over. But Congress is back to work, and the #1 priority for conservatives is gutting women’s health programs. UltraViolet is here and ready to fight–but it’s going to take a lot of resources. Can you chip in $20?
http://weareultraviolet.actionkit.com/go/355?t=2&akid=223.6000.VYS7GC