On Thursday, June 20th, at 5pm, at O’Banks Cafe and Grill Restaurant (10392 Leadbetter Road, Ashland VA), conservative candidate for governor Ken Cuccinelli will be making an appearance for fundraising purposes. Cooch Watch will be there, and is encouraging fellow Cooch Watchers to dress in period costume corresponding to the era at which Cuccinelli and his ticket seem to prefer women’s rights to have stopped.
RSVP through the title link.
Make your public comment on the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall website today. Your comment will be entered into public record, the regulatory agencies will be required to respond. The comment period ends tomorrow.
TRAP, Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers, are a set of spurious architectural regulations which are irrelevant to patient health, incredibly expensive to implement, and do not allow grandfathering. This means that all clinics which perform abortions must either retrofit their buildings or close down.
No other hospital or medical clinic has ever been subjected to architectural regulation without grandfathering, as grandfathering is the accepted means for allowing existing buildings to stand when new code is introduced.
Make your comment today.
Cheryl Higgins will be deciding whether Chris Dumler, who represents Scottsville on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and is a rapist, will be forced to resign. You can reach her by sending an e-mail to her clerk at ldugger@courts.state.va.us, addressed to the Honorable Cheryl Higgins.
Dumler was ultimately convicted of sexual battery earlier this year, rather than forcible sodomy (rape), which he what he committed, reportedly more than once.
Dumler has been seen to wink and whistle at women who showed up to the weekly demonstrations which occurred each Monday when he was released from serving his weekend sentence. He is a predator unfit to represent anyone.
Taglined “This is not your school’s summer reading list,” two authors have chosen a summer reading list for girls and young women. Their website, through the link, includes book reviews.
The list is broken into three levels: picture book and early reader, middle grade, and young adult.
The blog lists resources for social justice, radical, queer, and feminist teen and child literature.
A massive thank you to all of our business sponsors, donors, and supporters! Because of their generosity and encouragement we were almost able to match the ridiculous amount we raised last year, ensuring that the RRFP can continue with our monthly budget of funding $2,000 to folks in need across Virginia. RRFP’s funding capabilities have increased almost tenfold in the last 3 years because of the success of our Bowl-a-thons, and there are many people to thank for that this year.Thank you to each and every donor who supported a friend, co-worker, or family member. The vast majority of the $42,429 we raised came in donations of $25 and under.Thank you to everyone who came out to events and gave $5 at the door, dropped a twenty in the donation jar, or bought a shirt or patch. Thank you to all the teams that worked so hard organizing all of these fantastic events. From house shows to fancy dinners, from belly dancing to karaoke. Dance parties, drag balls, sidewalk sales, art swaps, photo booths, sober rides, and speakeasies- Of all the fund’s Bowl-a-thons across the country, no one does events like Virginia! Thank you for making Bowl-a-thon season, as always, so insanely fun!Thanks to all the businesses and collectives that sponsored us by donating gift certificates and lending their spaces, equipment, and resources:HALCYON VINTAGE//13AINBRIDGE//RE CYCLES//STRANGE MATTER//STUDIO TWO THREE//BUNNY HOP BIKE SHOP//AUTUMNATOPOEIA DESIGNS//IPANEMA//RAG & BONESBICYCLE COOPERATIVE//MARS BAR RVA//COMMERCIAL TAPHOUSE//SELBA//ESCAFE// THE ARTFUL DODGER//NEW YORK DELI//RUMORS//LAMPLIGHTER//PINE ST. BARBER SHOP// NILE ETHIOPIAN//VMFA//VIRGINIA SCIENCE MUSEUM//RICHMOND FLYING SQUIRRELS//RIVER CITY ROLLERGIRLS//HELEN’S//BSIDES//REAR GALLERY//DEEP GROOVE//CHARLES BERGER AT HEROES AND GHOSTS TATTOOS//DOGTOWN DANCE THEATRE//ASHTANGA YOGA// BABE’S//BLUE NILE//HARRISON ST. and of course HOLIDAY BOWL for once again letting us take over the whole alley!Thank you to Walker Allen, our awesome Bowl-a-thon photographer. Check out his photo booth pics, and feel free to download whichever ones you like. http://smu.gs/10mtlBaThanks to Mike Albrecht for spinning most excellent tunes for us to bowl and dance to!Thanks to Ramey and Charlie for cross stitching some truly wonderful prize ribbons. And speaking of prizes…Thanks to ALL of our bowlers,of course, but these folks really went above and beyond what we asked of them.TOP INDIVIDUAL FUNDRAISERS!!!ALLISON L.KIM R.SAFIYA B.MOLLY V.JESSICA J.LEE S.NATHANIEL B.JACKIE S.RAMEY C.SETH C.TOP FUNDRAISING TEAMS!!!TEAM GSEXXXYKATE BUSHCHURCH HILL HOBGOBLINSPICKLE SURPRISE!TEAM TOTALLY AWESOMECHARLOTTESVILLE VEGAN STRAIGHTEDGE BOWLING SQUADTHE PIN & TONICSVALLEY VAMPSTHE QUEEN BEESWINTER IS COMING16 of our 28 teams raised over $1,000. Holy smokes!Thanks to the entire RRFP collective and the volunteers that picked up the slack during such a hectic few months, and supported us Bowl-a-thon coordinators in any way they could.Extra special thanks to Lindsey O-Pries, a founding member of the RRFP, who five years ago tested out this Bowl-a-thon thing, setting off a nation wide chain reaction. This year 29 funds across the country raised over HALF A MILLION DOLLARS for abortion access. So thanks Lindsey, i’m just going to say it, on behalf of everyone.Thank you to everyone else that gave us encouragement, advice and support, and to the National Network of Abortion Funds for their tech support and helpful tips.If you’d like to contact the RRFP, you can through our website rrfp.net or message us on facebook or the Bowl-a-thon blog. And of course we are ALWAYS seeking more donations. If you’d like to become a monthly sustainer you can donate on our website or send check or money order toRRFPP.O. Box 7389Richhmond, VA23221and keep checking our blog and facebook for upcoming events!Thank you all for doing so much for reproductive access in Virginia!
Massive respect to all who participated, and to the folks who run the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project.
Next year, Active-RVA will be participating in the Bowl-a-thon with our own team.
Demand the equal enforcement of new hospital regulations in Virginia. This public comment period ends on May 26th.
TRAP rules- Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers, passed without grandfathering amendments last month- can’t be enforced exclusively on clinics which provide abortions, unless Virginia is able to prove that abortion care carries special risks that can only be mitigated by state-mandated outdoor awnings and compulsory linen closets.
If they want to run women’s health clinics out of business with spurious regulations, they’ll have to risk losing dentist, orthodontist, and cosmetic surgery clinics, too.
Last month, the Virginia Board of Health, under pressure from anti-abortion politician and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, passed a package of regulations specific to clinics which perform abortions. These are colloquially called TRAP, Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers. The regulations are prohibitively expensive to implement and unrelated to patient health, mostly specifying architectural standards, and are expected to cause the closure of 18 of Virginia’s 22 clinics which perform abortions. The first has already closed.
This will mean that there will only be 4 remaining clinics in the entirity of Virginia for low-income women and trans* folks to receive abortion care, cancer screenings, prenatal care, STI tests, family planning consultations, and other services. This was the intention of the supporters of the rules.
But why are these regulations being mercilessly applied to clinics that provide abortions only, rather than similar outpatient facilities like dentist’s offices, the offices of plastic surgeons, orthodontists, and more?
The answer is that these rules were intended to shut down abortion clinics only, regardless of the existance of other similar facilities which do not perform abortions- but for the sake of regulatory consistancy, shouldn’t other facilities be subject to the same rules?
And if those rules are judged to be too unreasonable for a dentist or a cosmetic surgeon to abide by, they are, logically, too unreasonable to enforce on a clinic at which abortions are performed.
A public comment was initiated by an individual who had this same thought- if these rules are so necessary for abortion clinics to abide by, they should apply to all outpatient medical facilities, and if they are not necessary for all facilities, they should not be necessary for abortion clinics.
The comment period begins today, May 6th, and lasts until May 26th. RSVP through the title link, to help organizers keep count and to invite your friends, and submit your comment here.
Share as widely as possible.
The Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project is a grassroots organization that assists low-income people who need abortion care; they help with the cost of the procedure, childcare during it, transportation to a clinic, and counseling. It’s vital work that literally saves lives, and last year they did it on a shoestring budget of just $50,000.
That’s not a lot of money. It wasn’t even enough to help everyone who came to them needing assistance, but they made it work as well as they could. This year, they’re more than $18,000 behind in their fundraising goals- and the costs are going up, thanks to new destructive regulations (TRAP) which have already started closing clinics.
Virginia is only going to be left with three or five clinics in the entire state; that means that people who use clinics- people who can’t afford to regularly see a general practitioner with admitting rights- are going to have to wait longer and travel further in order to receive care. This means that to help them, the RRFP is going to have to pay a babysitter two days, instead of one, pay for a hotel as well as transport.
All of this piles up, and if it piles up too much, we’re going to start seeing the kinds of grisly deaths that haven’t been witnessed since before Roe v. Wade; women dying of massive infections, of blood loss, of poisoning, in attempts to self-abort. Access restriction is as serious as an outright ban; having a choice about whether or not to remain pregnant is only theoretical if there is no practical means by which to execute it.
If this new reality is ominous to you, donate. It doesn’t need to be much; just as little challenges eventually stack up into big obstacles, small contributions can trickle together to make big changes. Give a few dollars- yes, even just one dollar, if that’s all you can spare- and pass it on.
Consider it an investment in the kind of world you want to see, in a year that’s less bleak and desperate.
After opening late as a result of poor weather on Monday, we made $50 on Tuesday, but had to take $27 of it for overhead costs (ice, freezy pops, lemonade, dog biscuits). Luckily, this sum constituted the entire cost, for the whole week. The remaining $23 is going to Team GSEXXXY.
On Wednesday, we made $30, but didn’t have a team representative, so we saved it up to split between the two teams represented the next day.
On Thursday, we made $35, for a total of $65- $32.50 to Team Totally Awesome, and $32.50 to the SubUrbanVersive Moms.
We had to cancel again on Friday, due to illness. Today, at the flea market, we made a lackluster $9, after arriving late due to conflicting engagements.
All told, we raised $101, which is not much in the grand scheme of things- but consider this a test year. We’ll choose a better location next year; while we did well in the VCU Monroe Park Compass on Tuesday, VCU Event staff told us that we were not permitted to use the space without a reservation, and asked us to leave.
Also, don’t forget that the fundraising isn’t over yet. Tomorrow we have the Benefit Show at the Nile for the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project. Monday we have the Art Swap and Stargazing to benefit the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project and the Bainbridge Bellydancing Benefit for the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project. Tuesday will be the Bowl-a-thon itself.
This Monday, April 22nd, from 1-6pm, at the Rear Gallery (the rear of 209 North Allen Street, Richmond VA), there will be an art swap and star gazing event to benefit the RRFP. $2 at the door if you have brought art, $5 if you have not.
The Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project only has a few days left in their fundraising endeavors, and they’re more than $18k behind last year’s budget. Given that obtaining abortion care is going to become more and more expensive this year, as more clinics shut down in response to the new TRAP regulation, this is a recipe for disaster. The first clinic has already closed.
RSVP through the title link.
