Hillary speaks out for kids, Washington AG joins birth control fight, and President Obama

Welcome to a new daily series at Shareblue Media, providing you with links to important news, interesting stories, useful information about actions of resistance — and a picture of President Barack Obama to raise your spirits. Because they were just so busy with … other stuff, Congress shamefully allowed the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) […]

By Alison R. Parker - October 10, 2017

Because they were just so busy with … other stuff, Congress shamefully allowed the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to expire, the first time that has happened since its creation in 1997. Thanks to Republican incompetence, 9 million kids lost their health care coverage. And Hillary Clinton, who was instrumental in the bill’s formation under her husband’s administration, made sure that everyone knew just what the GOP had done:

This hasn’t gotten enough attn: For the first time, Congress missed the deadline to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program. 1/7

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 10, 2017

Back in the ’90s, Democrats and Republicans worked together to pass CHIP. Today, it covers 9 million kids. 2/7

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 10, 2017

There are so many stories of young people whose lives have been transformed by CHIP. Sara’s is one: https://t.co/i2o8d4mMsb 3/7

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 10, 2017

Right now, many states are getting ready to send out notices to parents, letting them know that their kids’ coverage is in jeopardy. 4/7

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 10, 2017

The test of any society is how it treats its children. We cannot allow millions of kids to lose access to basic health care. 5/7

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 10, 2017

And to that end, there is something you can do: Call your member of Congress at 202-224-3121 and demand that he or she stand up for children’s health and safety — something that ought to be both bipartisan and a no-brainer.

The fight to protect contraception access from the overreaches of the Trump administration continues to grow stronger. Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has joined California AG Xavier Becerra and Massachusetts AG Maura Healey, as well as the ACLU and other organizations, in their mission to block Donald Trump’s birth control grab:

Washington state sued President Donald Trump on Monday over his decision to let more employers claiming religious or moral objections opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women.

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who successfully sued to block Trump’s initial travel ban early this year, announced his latest lawsuit on Monday, three days after the new rules were issued. […]

Ferguson said it violates the First Amendment, because it requires individuals to bear the burden of religions to which they don’t belong, as well as the equal-protection requirements of the Fifth Amendment, because it affects women but not men.

“President Trump’s contraception rules are unfair, unlawful, and unconstitutional,” Ferguson said in a news release.

Remember: your voice matters, and Generation Progress wants you to Share Your Story about what it means for you and your life to have reliable and accessible contraception, and to be in control of your body and your future.

Democrats are also bringing the fight to Trump when it comes to protecting the environment. The GOP seems to have forgotten that no matter what party you’re registered with or how big your bank account is, you still live on the same planet as everyone else. And every single one of us deserves a safe world. So when Scott Pruitt, Trump’s head of the now somewhat Orwellian seeming Environmental Protection Agency, announced a rollback of the Clean Power Plan, President Barack Obama’s signature policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman wasted no time making his intent to stop the dangerous move loud and clear:

By seeking to repeal the Clean Power Plan – especially without any credible commitment to replacing it – the Trump Administration’s campaign of climate change denial continues, once again putting industry special interests ahead of New Yorkers’ and all Americans’ safety, health, and the environment.

I am proud to lead the coalition of states and localities defending the Clean Power Plan in federal court. If and when the Trump Administration finalizes this repeal, I will sue to protect New Yorkers’ and put a stop to the Trump Administration’s irresponsible and illegal efforts to turn back the clock on public health …

The Trump Administration’s persistent and indefensible denial of climate change – and their continued assault on actions essential to stemming its increasing devastation – is reprehensible, and I will use every available legal tool to fight their dangerous agenda.
In case it isn’t clear what the EPA’s rollback means, watch this video from the Center for American Progress, about a mother with asthma and how this new policy that could lead to 90,000 more asthma attacks a year will hurt people like her:
It’s abundantly clear how paramount it is to take back Congress from the dangerous clutches of Trump’s Republican Party. In Alabama, Democrat Doug Jones is ready and willing to take on Republican Roy Moore in the race to fill Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat. Moore is, to put it succinctly, a blatantly racist and homophobic nightmare. Moore actually said that the 9/11 terror attacks and the mass shooting of first graders at Sandy Hook were punishments that came about because the country had forgotten “the law of God.” Jones, a former federal prosecutor who successfully went after Klan members who perpetrated the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, is running to keep dangerous ideologues like Moore far away from the nation’s capital.