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06/17/24 Missouri Mondays - Countdown to the Aug 6 election! We’ve got resources, news, events and ways to get involved! Let’s do this! #HotDemocracySummer



Welcome to Missouri Mondays! 


It’s hard to believe but the countdown has begun for the August 6 primary election. With so much at stake we need to make sure every eligible voter is ready and able to cast their ballot. In addition to voting there are so many opportunities to make a difference.  Each week we provide events and ways to get involved by helping candidates or taking other actions on issues of importance to you. 


THANK YOU for staying informed and participating in our democracy! It is critical that we all do our part to protect our rights and freedoms.  We can’t afford to sit on the sidelines with so much at stake!  Help us grow our numbers by spreading the word and sharing this email sign up link for Missouri Mondays weekly email https://www.moactionalliance.com/signup.


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GET INVOLVED!  ACTIONS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE! 



TAKE ACTION WITH THE MISSOURI VOTER PROTECTION COALITION (MOVPC) 

TO PROTECT THE RIGHT TO VOTE 



Join the MOVPC weekly online meeting MONDAYS at 10 AM

Text “MOVPC” to 66866 or register HERE: bit.ly/protectmovoters


Join MOVPC and voting rights advocates from all across our state to help to ensure voting is accessible to ALL Missourians! 


MOVPC is a nonpartisan statewide network promoting access to the ballot and working to remove barriers to voting in Missouri! Register for Monday calls here!


DONATE TO MOVPC

Help the non-partisan Missouri Voter Protection Coalition lead the fight against attacks on our freedom to vote in the statehouse, in the courthouse, in the media, in the streets and at the polls on Election Day. Donate: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/movpc


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MISSOURI VOTER RESOURCES


Did you know–


  • The next Statewide Election Date is TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2024


  • Last Day To Register To Vote & Participate In This Election: JULY 10, 2024



Make Sure Your Voter Registration Is Up To Date–


  • Did you know that you can register to vote online in seconds using a touchscreen device?






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Missouri Democratic Party Weekly Campaign Updates Call

Missouri Democratic Party & Grasstops Leaders and Volunteers

Monday nights at 6:30 PM on Zoom 


The weekly Democratic Legislative Network call is transitioning into the Missouri Democratic Party's campaign updates call for grasstops leaders and volunteers who want to stay up-to-date on Democratic campaigns running across the state in 2024. This call will provide space for open discussion with call participants and will occasionally feature candidates and other leaders providing updates.


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VOTE YES THIS FALL ON THE MISSOURIANS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOM AMENDMENT!  ACCESS TO BIRTH CONTROL IS ALSO ON THE LINE!  


We’ll shout it loud and clear: birth control is legal in Missouri and there are accessible options available to you!  While anti-abortion politicians continue to threaten our bodily autonomy, we have the opportunity this fall to keep these power-hungry bullies in Jeff City and DC from interfering in our personal and private medical decisions by voting YES on the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom amendment and enshrining the right to contraceptives, abortion, and the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare into Missouri’s constitution. SPREAD THE WORD!


Need to find low or no-cost birth control options? Check out https://therighttime.org/

to find contraceptives available near you!


HELP SUPPORT THE WORK OF MISSOURIANS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOM TO RESTORE ABORTION AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN MISSOURI


Missourians for Constitutional Freedom is a statewide coalition of organizations and concerned citizens from across the state working to establish the right for all Missourians to make decisions about our own reproductive health care – including abortion, birth control, and miscarriage care – without interference from out-of-touch politicians. 


Your continued financial support is vital and appreciated!  To make a donation go here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/missourians-for-constitutional-freedom-1



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Phone Bank for Crystal Quade for Governor

Virtual Event - Join from anywhere

Wednesdays (June 19, June 26 etc.)

5 - 7:30pm


Join Team Quade as we call voters to talk to them about the race for Governor and why Crystal Quade is the person we need to make sure families in Missouri today can beat the odds tomorrow.  We'll be phone banking on zoom so you can participate from every corner of the state!


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Canvassing with Crossley

Every Saturday (June 22, June 29 etc.) 

10AM - 12PM 

1842 S Drumm Avenue

Independence, MO 64055


Canvass with MO House Rep. Aaron Crossley as we prepare for November and connect with voters! No experience necessary - we'll guide you through every step! Meet us at 1842 S Drumm Ave, Independence for a brief training and let's work together to send Aaron back to Jefferson City! You'll need comfortable walking shoes and a fully charged phone!  Have questions? Email: aaron@aaroncrossley.com!


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Volunteer for Ashley Aune for State Representative District 14 (Kansas City Northland) 


Help re-elect Rep. Ashley Aune to a third term in the Missouri Legislature! We have lots of opportunities to get involved.  Thank you so much! Let's go win this thing!



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Virtual Bingo Fundraiser for Elad Gross for MO Attorney General

June 20, 2024 

5:30 PM - 7:30 PM CT

Zoom


Join us for a virtual Bingo fundraiser in support of Elad Gross for Attorney General! Help fuel our voter outreach and regional organizing efforts, while having fun with Democratic friends across the state! https://secure.actblue.com/donate/elad-virtual-bingo-1?refcode=060524-email


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What Happened to Our Reproductive Rights?

Happy Hour in Support of the Women in Politics Foundation

Saturday, June 22

4:00 PM to 6:00 PM

HJ's Community Center

6425 Wornall Road

Kansas City, MO 64113


Engage in meaningful dialogue with our panelists:


  • Crystal Quade, Candidate for Governor of Missouri


  • Teresa Woody, The Woody Law Firm


  • Bridgette Dunlap, Abortion Rights Lawyer and Journalist



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NAACP St. Louis County 

87th Annual Freedom Fund Dinner

Keynote Speaker U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett

June 22, 2024 

Marriott St. Louis Airport

10700 Pear Tree Lane

St. Louis, MO 63134

Phone: 314-899-0033


Join us as we continue to celebrate those public servants who have shown tremendous leadership and focus during this unprecedented time.  Enjoy a live band, red carpet, VIP Cocktail Hour, corporate and community awards plus much more!


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End of Session Town Hall Discussion 

With MO State Reps. Ashley Aune and Jamie Johnson

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

6PM

Riverside Library (NEW)

4510 NW Gateway Ave

Riverside, MO 64150-9721


Join State Representatives Ashley Aune and Jamie Johnson at the brand new Riverside Library for an end-of-session Town Hall discussion. They'll talk about what bills and budget items passed and how they will impact the Northland. They also hope to hear from you and answer any questions you have about the Missouri Legislature or our state government.


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JUNE IS PRIDE MONTH!


LGBT Pride Month is celebrated each year in June — sparked by the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York’s Greenwich Village, a tipping point for the gay rights movement in the United States. 



2024 Pride Fest St. Louis

Unleash Your Pride - A LGBTQIA+ Festival

June 29-30, 2024

Downtown St. Louis

1300 Chestnut St.

St. Louis, MO

More information: info@pridestl.org


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Kansas City Public Library Commemorates Pride Month 

The Library commemorates Pride Month with LGBTQIA+ book recommendations, book clubs, highlights from past programs, film offerings, and other resources.  This month's programming also includes special storytimes, exhibitions, and conversations.  



  • Stop by Friday Night Family Fun at the Plaza branch on June 14 for "Representation Matters: Celebrating Diversity in Children’s Books," mini-storytimes with the Kid Corner staff and UMKC's Pride Alliance.



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MISSOURI IN THE NEWS


MO Senators Hawley and Schmitt join U.S. Senate Republicans rejecting Democrats’ bill on IVF protections


“U.S. Senate Democrats’ attempts to bolster reproductive rights failed again Thursday when Republicans blocked a bill guaranteeing access to in vitro fertilization from moving forward.


The 48-47 procedural vote came just one day after Republicans tried unsuccessfully to pass their own IVF access bill and one week after GOP senators prevented legislation from advancing that would have bolstered protections for access to contraception. Senate rules require 60 votes to proceed on most legislation.


Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, both Republicans, broke with their GOP colleagues to support the IVF measure moving toward a final vote. The two also voted for cloture on the contraception access bill last week.


During both debates, the vast majority of Senate Republicans said the bills went too far or were too broad, a characterization that Democrats vehemently rejected, calling the GOP stance on certain reproductive rights out of step with most Americans.


Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said during floor debate the bill would ensure patients have a right to access IVF and that doctors have a right to provide that fertility treatment, as well as require more health insurance companies to cover IVF.


The package included additional provisions that would “help more veterans and service members, who have trouble conceiving, get the critical fertility services they need to start their families, including IVF,” Murray said.


“This is something I’ve long been pushing for, for years now, and it is long overdue,” Murray said. “All these men and women, who fought to protect our families, we owe it to them to make sure they have the support when they come home to grow theirs.”


Murray said advancing the bill should not be “controversial, especially if Republicans are serious about” supporting access to IVF.


“As we saw in Alabama, the threat to IVF is not hypothetical, it is not overblown and it is not fear mongering,” Murray said.”


“Protecting access

Senate Democrats’ IVF access bill was introduced by Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Murray and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker earlier this month.


The 64-page bill would have provided a right for people to access IVF and for doctors to provide that health care without the state or federal government “enacting harmful or unwarranted limitations or requirements.”


The measure included provisions that would have bolstered access to IVF for members of the military and veterans as well as spouses, partners, or gestational surrogates.


The legislation defines fertility treatment as “preserving human oocytes, sperm, or embryos for later reproductive use; artificial insemination; genetic testing of embryos; use of medications for fertility; and gamete donation.”


The bill defines assisted reproductive technology as “including in vitro fertilization and other treatments or procedures in which reproductive genetic material, such as oocytes, sperm, fertilized eggs, and embryos, are handled, when clinically appropriate.”


Duckworth tried to pass a similar bill through unanimous consent back in February. But Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked approval through the fast-track unanimous consent process. There was no recorded vote at the time.


Personal experience

Duckworth has talked openly about her struggles to start a family and use of IVF throughout her time as a senator, including this year after the Alabama state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos constituted children under state law.


During floor debate Thursday, she spoke again about her own experiences with IVF, which she said is the reason she gets to put her 6-year-old’s drawings up on her Senate office wall and get tackled by her 9-year-old on Mother’s Day.


“I didn’t know it at the time back then, but infertility would become one of the most heartbreaking struggles of my life,” Duckworth said of her 23 years in the military that included a helicopter crash in which she lost her legs. “My miscarriage, more painful than any wound I ever earned on the battlefield.”


Duckworth said Republican opposition to the bill shows a lack of “common decency and common sense.”


“Excuse me if I find it a bit offensive when a bunch of politicians, who’ve never spent a day in med school, hint that those of us who’ve needed the help of IVF to become moms should be sitting behind bars rather than lulling our babies to sleep in rocking chairs.”



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‘No protection’: Missouri advocates sound alarm after IVF safeguards stymied in legislature – Despite outcries from families following the temporary shuttering of IVF in Alabama earlier this year, Missouri lawmakers failed to pass legislation guaranteeing the procedure”


Danielle Faith Zoll and her husband have one last embryo frozen in Missouri. Zoll’s daughter, who is 2 years old, was conceived through in vitro fertilization. But during that pregnancy Zoll developed Hellp Syndrome, an extreme and life-threatening case of preeclampsia. 


After giving birth to her daughter at 35 weeks, Zoll’s doctor advised her not to do so again out of fear that she wouldn’t survive another pregnancy. 


That warning left Zoll and her husband unsure of the best future for their last embryo. And the uncertainty turned to fear after an Alabama Supreme Court ruling in February. 


“Because of all we go through, (embryos) feel like more than just this clump of cells, because it’s this hope that you’ll be a parent one day,” Zoll said. “And you lose so much going through infertility.”



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“Where’s the future of IVF and abortion care? In the hands of voters” – Michael A. Wolff


“Two years have passed since Missouri outlawed abortion nearly completely.


Missouri’s life-begins-at-conception law also seems to outlaw in vitro fertilization (IVF), the medical process that enables many infertile couples to conceive and bear children. If citizens of Missouri wish to protect this procedure then there will need to be a new law.


How is IVF related to the state’s ban on abortion? Let’s start with a simple question: When Missouri law proclaims that life begins at conception, does that mean that fertilized eggs are persons? The Alabama Supreme Court said yes, shocking families whose doctors are helping them become pregnant through IVF. Likewise, when the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dobbs case held there is no constitutional protection for reproductive decisions, does that mean that destruction of fertilized eggs could be considered homicide under the laws of these states such as Missouri?


The Dobbs decision in 2022 turned these questions over to the states, subject only to federal statutes (which do not apply to IVF or abortion, so far), so the wording of states’ laws now really matters.


What should happen in a working democracy is that state legislators would change the laws before rulings strike down access to IVF or patients with ectopic pregnancies die waiting to be treated. Changes in laws are difficult in the current extremist era.


States like Missouri, where voters can change the constitution, can protect access to care. But Congress, if extremists prevail, could enact federal laws to limit or bar state protections, even state constitutions.”


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Governor Parson sets the vote on tax exemption for child care centers, Kansas City police funding for Aug. 6 primary election


“Missouri will have two constitutional amendments on the Aug. 6 primary ballot, one to grant tax exemptions for child care facilities and another to rerun a 2022 election result on police funding thrown out by the state Supreme Court. 


Gov. Mike Parson said Tuesday that he would put the two proposals from the General Assembly on the primary ballot.


The first, passed last year, would exempt property, aside from the child’s home, from taxation. Most of the income loss would be to local governments, the ballot summary estimates, with a loss to the state Blind Pension fund of about $400,000 annually.


The second measure on the ballot, originally passed by lawmakers in 2022 and approved that year by voters with a 63% majority, gives lawmakers the power to force Kansas City to spend 25% of its city budget on policing.


The Supreme Court in April ruled that the summary of the financial cost of the police amendment was misleading and ignored estimates from the city that it would cost about $38 million to add that much to the police budget.


The court ordered a new election.


Kansas City has the only police department in the state that is run by a Board of Police Commissioners appointed by the governor.


There are two other constitutional amendments proposed by lawmakers awaiting a ballot and the lack of action Tuesday means voters will see those proposals in November. One of those measures would ban ranked-choice voting and restate the ban, in place since 1924, on voting by non-citizens. The other would allow the courts to add costs and fees to cases and use the money to support sheriffs’ and prosecutors’ retirement funds.


Three initiative petitions proposing constitutional amendment are undergoing signature verification and could also put abortion rights, sports wagering and a new casino license before voters.”



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MISSOURI MONDAYS NEWS SUPPLEMENT!


With so much important news each week we don’t want you to miss a thing! Check out our MISSOURI MONDAYS NEWS SUPPLEMENT here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13cokjWlCh2EkY5K6bM357rjVPizZDzxlMqjAuoBQfoI/edit?usp=sharing



THANK YOU! for staying informed and taking action to make a difference!


Invite your friends and neighbors to join us and sign up for Missouri Action Alliance and this Missouri Mondays weekly email at bit.ly/3pF99Uw


Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @MissouriAction, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MOActionAlliance and check out our website at http://www.MOActionAlliance.com

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