07/05/21 - Missouri Mondays - Keep up the pressure on Gov. Parson! Actions to make a difference!
This is our second Missouri Mondays newsletter as Missouri Action Alliance! Our membership now includes both Indivisible Missouri activists and Indivisible KC activists on the Missouri side. We advocate for progressive values and policies primarily on the state and local government level. We are humbled and grateful to be in the good fight with you and THANK YOU for answering our calls to action to make a difference each week!
Invite your friends and neighbors to join us and sign up for Missouri Action Alliance and this Missouri Mondays email at moactionalliance.com/signup
Follow us on Twitter at @MissouriAction, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MOActionAlliance and check out our website at http://www.MOActionAlliance.com
JULY 4TH REFLECTIONS
Greetings on this holiday that we spend celebrating the birth of our democracy. But as we celebrate our freedom, we realize that we must continue to strive for the principles that our country was founded upon--that all are entitled to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” not just the privileged few. All are entitled to health care, to a living wage, to the right to vote. These are continually under threat in Missouri as our legislature often seeks to restrict who may receive these rights and who may not.
This Independence Day Kevin Strickland sat behind bars as he has for more than 40 years for a crime that prosecutors say he didn’t commit. Why? Because Mr. Strickland’s freedom is simply not a priority for Gov. Mike Parson who also questions his innocence. Just last week the governor pardoned 18 other individuals but not Mr. Strickland.
More than 275,000 Missourians set to receive Medicare on July 1 are being denied healthcare by the Governor Parson and his GOP majority legislature. Parson and the Missouri GOP are threatening lives and wasting time and taxpayer dollars in court to obstruct the will of voters to expand Medicaid. We are grateful to Democratic state lawmakers including Reps. Peter Merideth, Emily Weber, Ashley Aune, Ingrid Burnett, Doug Clemens and all those who rallied in Jefferson City last week to send a message to Gov. Parson to respect our vote and expand Medicaid! -- Missouri Independent and The Missouri Times
TAKE ACTION!
TELL GOV. PARSON TO RESPECT OUR VOTE TO EXPAND MEDICAID FOR 275,000+ MISSOURIANS WITHOUT HEALTHCARE!
Phone Gov. Parson: 573.751.3222
Email: https://governor.mo.gov/contact-us
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TELL GOV. PARSON TO IMMEDIATELY PARDON KEVIN STRICKLAND!
Phone Gov. Parson: 573.751.3222
Email: https://governor.mo.gov/contact-us
Kevin Strickland remains in a Missouri prison after serving over 40 years for a crime the judge, prosecutors, witnesses, and defense team all agree he did not commit. Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, and 13 Missouri lawmakers both Democrat and Republican have all called for his release, and The Midwest Innocence Project has filed a petition to overturn his conviction.
Earlier this year Gov. Parson granted 36 other pardons and last week he pardoned 18 more, but not Mr. Strickland. Parson has said publicly that pardoning Mr. Strickland is simply not a priority and in a recent interview with KSHB-TV Parson said, “I am not convinced that I’m willing to put other people at risk if you’re not right.” As reported in the KC Star “Strickland is a risk to no one. His life has been discarded by a system apparently uninterested in his actual innocence. Given a chance to show some grace to a man whose life has been stolen by Missouri, Parson has instead played to his base. This year, the Missouri legislature passed a bill allowing prosecutors to seek release of a prisoner by asking a judge. We expect Parson to sign that bill, and Jean Peters Baker to seek Strickland’s release later this year.”
TELL GOV. PARSON IT IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE TO LEAVE AN INNOCENT MAN BEHIND BARS. PARDON KEVIN STRICKLAND IMMEDIATELY!
FRA TAX CRUCIAL FOR MEDICAID RENEWED FOR 3 YEARS WITHOUT BIRTH CONTROL OR PROVIDER RESTRICTIONS
Last week the Missouri legislature passed the Senate version of the Federal Reimbursement Allowance (FRA) without the GOP extremist restrictions on birth control or Planned Parenthood provider restrictions!
The Federal Reimbursement Allowance (FRA) is a voluntary medical provider tax on hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies, and other medical providers that is then matched by the federal government. The FRA provides more than a billion dollars to Missouri and without these funds our Medicaid program would collapse. Renewing the FRA has been routine for the past 30 years. However this year the FRA died in the regular session when MO GOP extremists tacked on restrictions for women’s reproductive health care, necessitating a special session and additional cost to taxpayers in order to renew the crucial FRA dollars.
After passage of the “clean FRA”, M’Evie Mead of Planned Parenthood released the following statement: “Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri, with our health care advocacy partners, helped win the fight for a clean FRA. This protects access to reproductive health care, as well as funding for hospitals, nursing homes, and pharmacies. Make no mistake: an attack against any one of us is an attack against all of us. We must continue working together to ensure politicians never again come this close to threatening Missouri’s Medicaid program and its patients, many of whom the healthcare system is already failing, including people of color, women, the elderly, and people who live in rural communities. Today, we rest. And tomorrow, we get back to work fighting to ensure every Missourian’s access to health care.”
WATCH this reproductive health advocate challenge a GOP Missouri state rep who wants to defund Planned Parenthood https://fb.watch/v/4HdlIJQod/
DONATE TO MO PLANNED PARENTHOOD ADVOCATES - The fight for sexual and reproductive health and rights is nonstop. Make a donation HERE
TAKE ACTION to protect access to Planned Parenthood health centers for all Medicaid patients HERE
HELP PROTECT THE RIGHT TO VOTE IN MISSOURI!
MISSOURI VOTER PROTECTION COALITION (MOVPC) MEETING
Monday July 5 at 10AM
Join Missouri Voter Protection Coalition Zoom meeting with statewide advocates working to protect the right to vote in Missouri.
Sign up HERE or text “MOVPC” to 66866 and watch for an email with details and the link to join the meeting
COVID RESOURCES
LET’S GET VACCINATED MISSOURI! FIND A COVID-19 VACCINE TODAY!
ALL Missourians age 12 and up are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
STATE SUPPORTED VACCINATION EVENTS https://covidvaccine.mo.gov/find/#events
MISSOURI VACCINE NAVIGATOR https://covidvaccine.mo.gov/find/#navigator
FEDERAL VACCINE FINDER / FIND COVID VACCINES NEAR YOU! https://covidvaccine.mo.gov/find/#vaccine-finder
QUESTIONS? CALL 877-435-8411
Missourians Vaccinated - as of Sunday July 4 The New York Times
39% of Missourians are fully vaccinated
45% of Missourians have received at least one dose.
Total COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in Missouri
527,495 confirmed cases and 9,340 deaths as of Sat July 3 MO Dept of Health and Senior Services
637,479 total cases and 9,962 deaths as of Sun July 4 The New York Times
THANK YOU! for answering the Missouri Mondays CALL TO ACTION!
Invite your friends and neighbors to join us and sign up for Missouri Action Alliance and this Missouri Mondays email at moactionalliance.com/signup
