Chop Wood, Carry Water 4/24

Fighting for American freedoms.

Download this and other abortion-related graphics here.

Hi, all, and happy Wednesday!

I’m a bit behind today, as I spent the morning listening to oral arguments in Idaho v the United States. It was honestly pretty mindboggling.

If you don’t know the background of this case I made a video explainer here or you can read CAP’s piece about it here.

To make a long story short, the state of Idaho is arguing that it shouldn’t be required to provide abortions necessary to preserve women’s health in medical emergencies. The U.S. government is arguing that it should, as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act requires exactly such care be provided by any hospital receiving Medicare funding (almost all of them).

Why would Idaho be taking such an outrageous position, you ask? Well, since their state’s almost total abortion ban permits abortions only in cases where the pregnant person is at death’s door, they argue that their state’s rights are being infringed upon by EMTALA, which allows abortion care when a woman’s health is at risk. Unbelievable, right? Idaho’s Attorney General is essentially demanding that sick-but-not-yet-dying pregnant people be allowed to incur brain damage, permanent infertility, sepsis, or kidney failure before they’re given treatment—that is, when they’re finally in mortal danger.

Of course, as Idaho’s lawyer blithely argued, they can also always be medivaced out of state for treatment. What a comfort!

I won’t bore you with more information, but I’d highly recommend paying attention to this case. If the court rules in Idaho’s favor—and there’s reason to believe they could—every state with a strict abortion ban will experience a dramatic decline in maternal health outcomes, which are already bad, folks. Even with EMTALA in place pregnant women are regularly being turned away from ER’s in red states, with catastrophic consequences. And even before Dobbs we weren’t doing well. This is an area in which we absolutely can’t afford to get worse.

But Republicans, and the right-wing justices they’ve stacked our courts with, don’t care. Because the wellbeing of women—or babies, for that matter—is not their priority. They care about power and control, and they know they can achieve those things more easily by forcing women into a subordinate position.

I won’t take their attacks lying down. I hope you won’t, either. Remember, Christian Nationalists represent about 35% of the country. There are more of us than there are of them. We can beat them. Not always easily, and not always quickly…but ALWAYS, eventually.

Let your rage and indignation fuel you, my friends. Love each other; care for yourself. Support court reform. Donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds if you can (they’re strapped, yet needed now more than ever).

Remember, the opposition is weak and growing weaker by the day. That’s why their attacks have grown so desperate, rabid, and cruel.

It’s awful. But we. Will. Beat them.

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.

I’m calling because I’m outraged and dismayed at the corruption and obvious right-wing bias in our Supreme Court. I want the Senator to support rebalancing the Court by co-sponsoring S. 1616 the Judiciary Act of 2023. I also want him/her to co-sponsor S. 359 the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act. We also need term limits, so please ask the Senator to support S.3096, the Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act of 2023. Please ask the Senator to make court reform a top priority. Thanks.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.

I’m calling because I’m outraged and dismayed at the corruption and obvious right-wing bias in our Supreme Court. I want the Congressmember to support rebalancing the Court by co-sponsoring HR 3422 the Judiciary Act of 2023. I also want him/her to support HR 926 the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act. We also need term limits, so please ask the Congressmember to support H.R.4423, the Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act of 2023. Please ask the Congressmember to make court reform a top priority. Thanks.

Extra Credit ✅

The Natural Resources Defense Council has launched a petition asking RFK to drop out of the race in order to protect the environment he claims to care so much about. Even with some suggesting he could take votes from Trump as well as Biden, I’d feel better if he were out of the race.

If you would too, please sign.

Get Smart! 📚

There’s a remarkable and important documentary dropping on several streaming platform in two days. I’ve watched it, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

BAD FAITH exposes the sinister Christian Nationalism movement and shines a light on its unholy plan to upend the Constitution and impose their version of Biblical law on all Americans. As the 2024 election looms, it’s important to fully understand the unsettling influence of Christian Nationalism on the political landscape.

BAD FAITH will be streaming on AppleTV+, Amazon, and Google Play.

Here’s the trailer. Here’s the Variety Review: Bad Faith' Review: The Potential Soldiers of A Second Trump Reign. And here’s the pre-order link: Bad Faith - Apple TV. You do have to pay to watch, sorry. But well worth it if you can!

Spread the Word! 📣

DemCast, the amazing all-volunteer-run Democratic messaging behemoth, is now on Substack!! 

Via their newsletter, The Digital Drumbeat, DemCast will deliver the following straight to your inbox: 

• Regular shareable content - including hot videos, memes, graphics and articles - along with suggested post language/hashtags.

• Social media toolkits from DemCast and our partners.

• Notifications about social media storms and opportunities for collective digital action. (We’re louder and more effective when we all talk about the same topic at the same time!)

• Messaging guidance from organizations and firms testing messages and content with key demographics and in key battlegrounds.

• Links to training about how to be a more effective digital messenger.

• And more!

So exciting! If you want to become a Team Blue messaging soldier—and I really hope you do!—please subscribe!

Win Races! 🗳

Hope to see some of you at the Power in the House event I’m co-hosting later tonight! Here’s the invite text again:

Join the California Grassroots Alliance Power in the House kickoff event celebrating the launch of our campaign to sweep California’s six purple Congressional districts and take back the House. We’re thrilled to welcome

• Representative Katie Porter, CA-47

• Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin

• Jessica Craven, activist, publisher of Chop Wood, Carry Water

for their inspiration and insight as we kick off the work for the general election. We’ll share our roadmap for getting the job done together, take a peek at tools to help us along the way, and ask you to join us, because the road to the House majority runs through California. Let’s hit the road!

It’s from 7 – 8:30pm PDT tonight (sorry it’s late for you east coasters.)

Register here.

Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻

[To: all 3 reps ] [Text SIGN PQGYBW to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER]

[This was yesterday’s call, but I wanted Congress to hear from even more of us about this, so I adapted it and made it into a Resistbot letter. Please share!]

Today the Supreme Court heard arguments in Idaho v. the United States, a case about the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. There is a real possibility that right-wing justices on the court will rule that pregnant people aren’t entitled to emergency care that may involve an abortion unless they’re at death’s door.

We have already seen that even with EMTALA in place emergency rooms in abortion ban states are turning pregnant people away with alarming frequency, and with catastrophic results. This is utterly sickening, and if SCOTUS rules for the state of Idaho it’ll get much worse. Congress needs to pass S. 701 / HR 12 the Women’s health Protection Act now.

Abortion care is a top issue for me. I am desperately concerned about the rollback of rights we’re seeing. Women and other pregnant people are going to suffer and even die if our rights aren’t restored. Do something. Thanks.

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OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.

Talk soon.

Jess