Dear friends,
As we see seasonal coffees become available and the leaves start to turn color, fall is truly here. This time of year is always quite packed for the policy world, and this fall is no exception. Here are some of the issues we’ve been taking on this month.
We joined the Arc and other partners for a call-in day to demand at least $250 billion for vital home- and community-based services. Thank you for all of your calls, emails and tweets letting our elected officials know that #CareCantWait! We still need to keep up the pressure to make sure disabled people can get the services we need. Together, we’ll keep speaking out until all of us have the services we need.
We also celebrated National Disability Voter Registration Week this month. Everything from education funding to curb cuts to health care is affected by policies that our elected officials make, and voting is a hugely important way to have a say in those policies. That’s whyit’s so important that all people with disabilities make our voices heard by registering to vote.
We are proud to join the National Partnership for Women & Families in creating four new reports on disability and reproductive rights. In our new reports, you can learn more about the barriers to reproductive rights that people with disabilities face, including how systemic ableism and racism intersect in health care, education, and the child welfare system. You can read more and download all four here. Because reproductive rights are so important to people with disabilities, ASAN also filed an amicus brief in a Supreme Court case about reproductive choice. An amicus brief is a way for people who aren’t participating in a lawsuit to tell a court what decision it should make. The brief explains how important it is for people with disabilities to make choices about our own bodies.
Tell us about getting the COVID-19 vaccine! We’re asking for videos of self-advocates talking about getting the COVID-19 vaccine for a storytelling project. These stories will help other self-advocates! You can record a short video telling us about getting the vaccine. You can also tell us about signing up for the vaccine. We will combine the videos together and share with our community, so send us your story today!
Save the dates!Join us for this year’s virtual gala, featuring events and activities spread across three evenings instead of just one. Our first virtual gala last year was a roaring success — having it online means more people can join in, and we hope you will! The gala will be held from Wednesday, November 17th to Friday, November 19th. We’ll be announcing all sorts of honorees and speakers soon. Register now to reserve your spot, and let everyone know you’ll be coming by RSVPing on Facebook!
We have been keeping a close eye on the ban on the use of electric shock torture on people with disabilities while meeting with allies on Capitol Hill. We are pleased that the Food and Drug Administration has filed an appeal to acourt ruling that overturned that ban earlier this year. We will keep working until no disabled person is subjected to torture in the name of “treatment.”
Immigration is a disability rights issue! This month, ASAN signed on to several letters urging the government to take concrete steps to improve the way our country treats immigrants. We joined a letter calling on Congress to support and quickly enact the Lifting Immigrant Families Through Benefits Access Restoration (LIFT the BAR) Act upon its introduction. The Act restores access to public programs like Medicaid, CHIP, and SNAP, by removing the five-year bar and other barriers that deny critical care and aid to immigrants and their families. Immigrant families deserve these benefits just as much as any families do, especially after serving in dangerous, essential roles on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also joined over 150 other civil and human rights organizations urging Congress to reject President Biden’s proposal to increase funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A funding increase would allow these agencies to increase spending on detention, deportation, and border militarization in the next fiscal year. Finally, we signed onto a letter to the Biden administration, urging them to immediately pause the removal of Haitians seeking asylum to Haiti, and uphold basic due process and human rights at the U.S. border. Seeking asylum is a human right, and refugees, many of whom are disabled, deserve humane treatment.
Thank you for your continued support and advocacy as we keep working for change together!
The Team at ASAN
We’re debuting a new newsletter feature this month. Policy work often takes place behind the scenes and in coalitions, and is not always highly visible. In this new section, we want to give you more information about that work by sharing some of the less visible policy work we’ve been supporting. Here’s some of what is on the policy agenda this month:
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Action Alert: Make HCBS a priority! #CareCantWait |
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