Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2021
In what feels to be the most challenging of times during my 27-year tenure leading FFL, we are unrelentingly pursuing what FFL can uniquely do to fulfill our mission of finding resources and support for women and children at risk of abortion.
I need to brief you on our major initiatives.
Our next issue of The American Feminist, appropriately titled “F O R E V E R Priceless℠,” will give parents and teens the tools they need to protect them from predators and the spectrum of abuse and violence that they employ, including abortion.
I am asking you to introduce others—especially teens and parents—to our Girls Deserve Better<&;reg>; campaign with our message that they are “F O R E V E R Priceless” and related social media campaign, video, course, quiz, and kit!
FIRST, we have launched our new initiative, Girls Deserve Better®, which aims to reach teens at risk before they become vulnerable to abuse and violence, including abortion.
Our F O R E V E R Priceless campaign will give teens and young women what they need to know before they could become prey to predators.
SECOND, as part of our teen outreach, our new First Wave Feminist History Course and Quiz has just begun to educate the next generation about the contributions of these remarkable women and men.
Our new video, “The Feminist Case Against Abortion, Part 1: First Wave Feminists,” has been shared at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference and is now freely available to teens, collegians, and the general public. We are inviting homeschoolers, high school clubs, and advisers to show the film, share the course, and take the quiz. FREE kits are also being offered for the first time to high school groups!
THIRD, prepare to actively support Rep. Jeff Fortenberry’s (R-NE) bill, “Care for Her,” which can best be described as an FFL wish list to help pregnant women in school, in the workplace, and in the community with real resources and support. Look for our action alert about this via email, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram once it is introduced, and read our exclusive interview with him in your next magazine!
FINALLY, in addition to making a call to your U.S. Representative and sharing our new Girls Deserve Better® campaign, please support us financially with a spring gift. (If you feel able, perhaps donate a portion of your stimulus check or tax refund.)
Perhaps our confidence to do more during these tough times comes from our past successes:
Who could have imagined that shortly after two women started Feminists for Life, that one of our co-founders would meet Alice Paul, only to learn that we were not the first pro-life feminists? …or that FFL historians would first research and reveal our pro-life roots—and that so many others would share it?
Who could have dreamed that our message “Refuse to Choose®: Women Deserve Better® than Abortion” would become the catchphrase ever since the 30th anniversary of Roe—and that so many are embracing our refrain, “Peace Begins in the Womb©?”
Who would have thought that after a Republican administration supported our clarion call for the unborn to be covered in the State Child Health Insurance Program through regulation, a Democrat President and Congress would make it law to cover pregnant women through CHIP legislation in 2008?
Who would have known that when we started the College Outreach Program that it would have inspired so many, now for more than 25 years?
Evidently, people like you did—because you invested in FFL—and our impact has only grown over the years.
And other organizations took note—as well as state and federal legislators.
Over the years, I met with women legislators from Michigan, both Republican and Democrat, and briefed them on the unmet needs on campus. They asked what they could do. And the first state law was passed in support of pregnant and parenting students.
In 2008, the Pregnancy Assistance Fund grants were inspired by our College Outreach Program and focused on resources and support for pregnant and parenting students.
More recently, 100% of self-described pro-choice Democratic legislators in California passed AB-809 to provide on campus support for pregnant and parenting students, inspired by FFL’s research on California colleges and universities. (Who else does that?)
And finally, who could have imagined in the last year that we would have helped 125,000 women in need through our helpsite, WomenDeserveBetter.com, especially when COVID hit us hard. We did, thanks to people like you.
Yes. Who would imagine? We did. But now it is time to “march forth” once again to build on our success.
Now, while many are rightfully concerned about funding abortions through numerous bills, or codifying abortion as part of the U.S. Constitution, we must also focus on systematically eliminating abortion through resources and support.
In another 27 years, we will look back at your investment today of activism and financial sacrifice for those mothers who were supported, and those children who will have been born and maybe have children of their own—with your help.
Because women—and girls—deserve better,
Serrin M. Foster
President
Feminists for Life of America
Editor-in-Chief
Women Deserve Better
& The American Feminist
P.S.Supporters like you have responded enthusiastically to our reaching younger students by saying, “Yes, by college it is almost too late to reach them.” Well, certainly it is more difficult, but still we have been successful. Teaching and activating students remains our top educational priority.
Complementing our outreach to pregnant women in school and the workplace, especially the poor, is Rep. Fortenberry’s Care for Her Act. THIS is our pro-woman, pro-life legislative priority. Please be prepared to take action.
Simultaneously, our WomenDeserveBetter.com helpsite, College Outreach, and Girls Deserve Better® education campaign will complement this effort, because they are F O R E V E R Priceless! Please, donate now at feministsforlife.org/support. Thank you.