The Supreme Court, packed with radical right-wing judges by Trump and Mitch McConnell, just made women second-class citizens. Women no longer have control over their own bodies. People will be forced to give birth against their will, and doctors will fear prison for treating those with complicated pregnancies.

This is the first time in US history that a fundamental right has been TAKEN AWAY. If Republicans retake power in November, Americans will be ruled by a minority of radical extremists.

*WE MUST MOBILIZE EVERYONE TO VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS IN 2022*. Register and vote, and ask your friends to register and vote.

Program

10:00 - 11:00 -  We will have speakers discuss the situation, how we got there, and what we need to do now. We will have a speaker joining us from Texas who will give us a sense of the situation on the ground there. We will also, give attendees time to speak out.

11:00 - 12:00 - We will have a quick phone banking training so we can immediately take action by calling our members who vote in battleground states. The majority of our members have not requested an absentee ballot yet!

Sign up for the Dialing for Democracy Event

We must maintain legislative control of our government to protect our rights.  In order to do that we will participate in Dialing for Democracy and help get out the vote.  Getting our members to request an absentee ballot is an important step in securing our rights. We must outvote the regressive Republicans! We must expand the Senate Majority, hold on to the House, and win key races at the state and local levels.

WHY ARE WE CALLING?

Our democracy is at stake this November. Votes from abroad - as mentioned in the Jan. 6th hearings - can hand Democrats much-needed victories to keep Congress, win two more Senate seats and more down ballot races. 

We know that calling DA members is one of the most effective ways to mobilize voters. 

Take action with us as we 'Dial for Democracy'

WHAT IS D4D?

MAKING CALLS

Dialing 4 Democracy is a 48-hour voter mobilization Call-a-thon. During the weekend of June 25-26, callers will contact Democrats Abroad members who vote in battleground states. Calling will start at 12:01am US Eastern on Saturday, June 25 and continue through 11:59pm US Eastern on Sunday, June 26. TOGETHER, we can reach thousands of voters!

AND/OR FINDING SPONSORS 

D4D is also a fundraiser modeled on walk-a-thons, where callers find sponsors from their family, friends and colleagues. All funds raised will support DA's voter mobilization efforts, including the online phonebanking program.

You can make calls with or without sponsors or donate even if you don't make calls!

HOW CAN YOU PARTICIPATE?

Follow these steps to Dial 4 Democracy: 

STEP ONE – 

Become a caller! Sign up via this Google form to indicate how many calls you'd like to make. 

New to phonebanking? Get Set to make calls here.

STEP TWO –

Find sponsors - let people in your life know that we are dialing for democracy.

Ask them to support our work by donating at the Dialing for Democracy donation page! 

STEP THREE –

Join us at our special online events. RSVP at the bottom of this page to receive the links!

SPECIAL EVENTS – RSVP for the links!

Opening Event – Saturday, June 25 at 8-8:30am EDT/2:00pm CEST

We’ll be on Zoom and Facebook to urge our callers (and donors) on!

Midway Motivation – Sunday at 8:45am EDT/3:45pm CEST

Get motivated for the 2nd day of calling with North Carolina Democratic Senate nominee, Cheri Beasley! RSVP HERE!

Closing Event – Sunday, June 26 at 3-3:30pm EDT/9:00pm CEST

We’ll be back on Zoom and Facebook Live to celebrate our progress and congratulate, thank, and hear from callers! 

DIALING 4 DEMOCRACY CALL-A-THON

RSVP below and sign up to become a caller here Google form

Join us at our special online events. RSVP to receive the links! 

Contact us at:  

[email protected]

Come meet the phenomenal US Senate Candidate from North Carolina!

Cheri Beasley is a mom, former public defender, judge, and the first Black woman to serve as Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. She’s spent her life fighting to uphold the law and keep communities safe – and as U.S. Senator, she’ll fight to lower costs, create good-paying jobs and expand access to affordable, quality health care in every part of North Carolina.

Join the DA North Carolinians Abroad State Team to welcome Cheri Beasley, Democratic nominee for US Senate!

WHEN: Sunday, June 26th at 8:45am EDT/ 2:45pm CEST

RSVP for the Zoom link!

You can also join our NC team to help pave the way to the Midterms and Turn NC Blue!

• Write to [email protected] with any questions
• Join the NC Team on Slack 
• Join the North Carolinians Abroad Facebook group
• Come to DA Phonebanking Training

Get help registering to vote, requesting your ballot, and learn how to get involved with getting out the vote in downtown Mainz! We will be at an outdoor table.

If you are interested in helping out the table or other tables in the future, please fill out this form.

RSVP & Share!

Upcoming Tabling Events

• July 23 in Wiesbaden Location:  Downtown, at the corner of Kirchgasse and Faulbrunnenstrasse. More info here.
  

April was Earth month, but our struggle to preserve the habitable future of our planet must not relent as we move into May and beyond. Democrats Abroad Environment & Climate Crisis Council (ECCC) will continue to share interesting events within DA related to environment and climate, offer avenues for climate activism and provide periodic analysis of current developments, policies, and legislation that address the existential challenges facing our planet today.

💙 By almost unanimous consent, our Resolution on the Climate Emergency was passed on Sunday, 22 May 2022, at the Democrats Abroad Global Meeting. Read the Complete text here.

Help us urge the Biden-Harris administration to take the lead and declare a National Climate Emergency.  

✍🏼 ✍🏿 ✍️✍🏾 ✍🏻 Sign our ECCC National Climate Emergency Petition. Our life on earth depends on treating  Climate Change like the Climate Emergency it is.

We’d like to introduce our new Steering Committee for the ECCC; Dana Freling – Chair, Dash Nesbitt – Secretary, Angela Fobbs – Communications Director, Inge Kjemtrup – Voter Outreach, Bruce Murray – Legislation Liaison, Martha McDevitt-Pugh, Anthony Akerman and Eric Burns. Read more.

We are building our ranks and need more volunteers and leaders, so please contact us to see how you can get involved…joining the Watchdogs Research Task Force, the communications team, events planning, and more. We love for you to volunteer and take individual action…and that should start with your vote.

By almost unanimous consent, our resolution on the Climate Emergency was passed on Sunday, 22 May 2022, at the Democrats Abroad Global Meeting. You can read the complete text below.

We are building our ranks and need more volunteers and leaders, so please contact us to see how you can get involved…joining the Watchdogs Research Task Force, the communications team, events planning, and more. We love for you to volunteer.

We’d like to introduce our new Steering Committee for the ECCC;

June is LGBTQ (Gay) Pride Month. Pride Month commemorates years of struggle for civil rights and the ongoing pursuit of equal justice under the law for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community and the accomplishments of LGBTQ individuals.

Our cafe topic this month is Queer Ecology. Queer ecology disrupts prevailing heterosexist understandings of gender, sexuality, and nature. Queer Ecologies stands as a powerful corrective to views that equate "natural" with "straight" while "queer" is held to be against nature.

We hope you will join us for an interesting and enlightening discussion.

RVSP today to receive the zoom link.

The Dark Side of Light:  Light Pollution’s Effects on Biodiversity

Though artificial light has been a game-changer in human history, enabling society to function and read around the clock and roads to be safer, there have been profound unforeseen consequences in this relatively recent miracle to the planet's biodiversity. Some 28% of vertebrates and 65% of invertebrates are nocturnal. Light pollution, glare, and skyglow affect their behavior in different ways:  attraction, avoidance, and disrupted circadian rhythms.

Do you know what an Ohio Supreme Court Justice does or how they influence your everyday life? Have you ever had the chance to talk with one? Well now is your chance! Come meet Justice Brunner as well as Judges Jamison and Zayas who are running to join Justice Brunner on the Ohio Supreme Court!

If you have a question to ask Justice Brunner, Judge Jamison, and Judge Zayas, please email us your question at [email protected]

Featured speakers; 

Justice Jennifer Brunner- seeking to be Ohio’s 11th Chief Justice

Judge Terri Jamison- running against Pat Fischer for the Ohio Supreme Court, 

Judge Marilyn Zayas- running against Pat DeWine for the Ohio Supreme Court

David Pepper and more!

By Diana S. Powers, DA France

On April 1^st, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced the ratcheting up of fuel economy standards, known as CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards, in a big move to address climate change, air pollution, high fuel costs, and energy independence. This action partially fulfills one of President Biden’s first executive orders of January 20, 2021, the “Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.” The President tasked the executive departments and agencies to review the former President’s policies and regulations and to suspend, revise, or rescind those policies that flout the principles of protection of health and the environment. The order asks them to consult with labor unions, the states, and the industry in designing policy replacements and revisions.

The first CAFE standards were undertaken in 1975 for model years 1978 for cars and 1979 for trucks, in response to the oil crises of 1973 and 1974.  Energy independence had become paramount, with the growing realization that decisions made in other countries could dictate whether the US would spin into a downward cycle of recession or would be pushed by rising fuel costs into a period of stubborn inflation.  Worse yet, we could have both with stultifying stagflation that affects every part of the economy, as indeed occurred in the 1970s. Energy efficiency became a powerful and quick way to free our economy from its dependence on foreign oil.  Energy expert and author Vaclav Smil dates the beginning of the energy transition to this time, long before there was much public awareness of climate change. These concerns have become paramount again today, with the geopolitical imperative to take Russian oil and gas off the market, with supply chain bottlenecks resulting from the pandemic, and from the critical need to stop burning fossil fuels to save the planet.

June is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBTQ) Pride Month to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots and work to achieve equal justice and equal opportunity for the LGBTQ community. In June of 1969, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City staged an uprising to resist the police harassment, and persecution LGBT Americans were commonly subjected to. This uprising marks the beginning of a movement to outlaw discriminatory laws and practices against LGBT Americans. 2022 marks the 53rd anniversary of the June 1969 Stonewall Riots. This year is also the 30th Anniversary of Christopher Street Day (CSD) Frankfurt.

The Frankfurt Chapter and the Wiesbaden-Mainz Chapter will be setting up an information stand for the duration of the event and walking in the CSD Parade on Saturday to show our support.

Come help us find Americans living overseas and get them to help us with next year's voting efforts! We'll need help on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday times to be determined. We will also need people to walk in the parade.

Further details will follow. Please RSVP to the event if you’re interested in attending, and you will receive the link to the signup sheet.

Join Democrats Abroad on Saturday, 17 July, as we take to the streets to celebrate love and pride!

Parade Route

Parade Details:

• 11:30 Meet up and get ready for the start. Stay posted for exact meet-up information.
• 12:10 Official Opening of the 2022 CSD.
• 12:30 is the official start of the parade.
• Bring your friends and family. This is a serious cause but a really fun event! Be colorful, be celebratory, and just be yourself.
• It would be good to bring your own water and wear comfortable walking shoes.
• If you RSVP, you will be informed of the latest information.

This event is so much fun, so come on out and be a part of it!

Are you ready to show up in person for reproductive freedom and our democracy? Join one of our six in-person marches or the online event.

If you can't make it to an in-person event,

BANS OFF OUR BODIES GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION - Online Event, May 14 from 4 pm - 5:30 pm Berlin Time  ⚈ More Info/RSVP Here to receive the Zoom link.

Another way to help defend our rights is to vote for Democrats in the 2022 Midterm elections. Register to vote and request your absentee ballot at https://www.votefromabroad.org/. Ask for your ballot to be sent to you by email.

Mourn but DO SOMETHING!

Senator Schumer has announced that he is bringing the Women’s Health Protection Act to a vote in the Senate on May 11^th

Please email and call your Senators to support a YES vote. You can find their contact info here: www.senate.gov.

GET THIS MESSAGE OUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

And join the Reproductive Justice team at [email protected].

The Kentucky law, which was the worst ever anti-choice law promulgated YET, has been stopped by the Kentucky Courts.

Here is the latest from the Hill.

Please join us in fighting against State legislation that takes away our RIGHTS to choose. Send me an email at [email protected].

Salli

Federal judge halts Kentucky’s restrictive new abortion law

by John Kruzel - 04/21/22 4:14 PM ET

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FILE – Abortion-rights supporters chant their objections at the Kentucky Capitol on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, in Frankfort, Ky., as Kentucky lawmakers debate overriding the governor’s veto of an abortion measure. Frustration is building among abortion-rights groups in Kentucky, where a restrictive new law has thrown the state’s only two remaining clinics into limbo. For women seeking abortions, it means traveling elsewhere or waiting for a judge to rule on requests to block the law. AP Photo/Bruce Schreiner, File)

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a restrictive new abortion law in Kentucky, handing a win to abortion providers challenging the measure.

In a 21-page ruling, Louisville-based U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, a Trump appointee, sided with Planned Parenthood’s request to block Kentucky officials from enforcing the sweeping new law, which providers say essentially eliminates all abortion services in the state.

It took effect after the state’s GOP-held legislature overrode a veto from the Democratic governor.

The judge scheduled her temporary order to expire in two weeks, absent new developments in the litigation, and said she expects to hold a hearing during that timeframe.

The Kentucky law, known as H.B. 3, created dozens of new requirements for abortion providers, including regulations on medical abortion, additional patient reporting requirements, and provisions dealing with the cremation or interment of fetal remains. 

Planned Parenthood, in a legal challenge filed last week, argued that the law amounted to “a de facto ban on all forms of legal abortion” by imposing strict requirements that make it too challenging to perform the procedure.

What’s more, they argued, because the law was rushed into taking effect before Kentucky officials put key procedural requirements in place, it would be impossible for abortion providers to comply with the law at the present time.

Jennings appeared receptive to that argument. 

“If Plaintiff cannot comply with HB3 and must cease providing certain medical services until the Cabinet promulgates a means of compliance, then this disruption to medical services will no doubt interrupt the continuity of care for Plaintiff’s patients,” she wrote. “As a result, a temporary restraining order serves public policy.”

The judge also said the law, in its current state, likely violated longstanding Supreme Court precedent recognizing a woman’s right to abortion access prior to fetal viability, around 24 weeks.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s (D) veto of the bill earlier this month was overridden last week by the Republican-controlled Kentucky House and Senate.

In the leaked draft of the opinion on Dobbs, the Mississippi case, the  Supreme Court indicated its firm decision that the Courts have no business deciding what is characterized as a “moral” decision.

The draft calls both Roe and Casey grievously wrongly decided.

If the draft stands and is issued as drafted, there is no longer a right to privacy under the Constitution and 50 years of protection of women but also of gay marriage and other LBGTQ+ rights will no longer be federally protected.

The fights are now in the States.

Join our Reproductive Justice Action Group and help us fight. Write to us at [email protected].

Here is what Slate published. It accurately sums up the situation.

“If the Supreme Court indeed strikes down Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey this June, as the draft opinion leaked to and published by Politico tonight suggests it will, years of conventional wisdom about the court and its concerns for its own legitimacy will be proved wrong. Every single court watcher who spoke in terms of baby steps, incrementalism, or “chipping away” at one of the most vitally important precedents in modern history will have been wrong. Those who suggested the court would never do something so huge and so polarizing just before the November midterms will have been wrong. And the people who assured us that Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett were moderate centrists who cared deeply about the appearance of a nonideological and thoughtful court—well, yeah. They will have been wrong too.

If this draft opinion becomes a precedent for the court, the results will be catastrophic for women, particularly for women in the states that will immediately make abortion unlawful, and in those places, particularly for young women, poor women, and Black and brown women who will not have the time, resources, or ability to travel out of state. The court’s staggering lack of regard for its own legitimacy is exceeded only by its vicious disregard for the real consequences for real pregnant people who are 14 times more likely to die in childbirth than from terminating a pregnancy. The Mississippi law—the law this opinion is upholding—has no exception for rape or incest. We will immediately see a raft of bans that give rights to fathers, including sexual assailants, and punish with evermore cruelty and violence women who miscarry or do harm to their fetuses. The days of pretending that women’s health and safety were of paramount concern are over.”

And here is an excerpt from Ms Magazine recently published:

Szal, R. (2022, May 3). ‘This Is An Emergency’: America Left Reeling in Wake of Likely Roe v. Wade Reversal. MS Magzine. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://msmagazine.com/2022/05/03/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-roe-v-wade-dobbs-v-jackson-leak/.

The Frankfurt, Heidelberg, and Wiesbaden-Mainz Chapters have come together for a star-spangled 4th of July celebration! 

It’s a great opportunity to meet other Americans. Feel free to bring along any Americans or friends who would be interested in seeing what July 4th is all about (minus the fireworks of course).

🎉 We’ll celebrate in true American style and look forward to seeing you there!

We're providing the meat (hot dogs, bratwurst, ribs, hamburgers, and vegan "meats"), American hot and hamburger buns, soft drinks and water, ice, real glasses, plates, and silverware.

🍺 Beer, 🍷 Wine, and 🍹cocktails will be available are extra.

👕 Democrats Abroad merchandise will also be available.

🗳️ If you need help getting registered to vote, you can get help with that during the event.

What to bring: Please bring a side dish or a dessert. 🍉 Use the sign-up sheet so we don't get too many of the same types of foods.  You can find the sign-up sheet here.

🏐 Bring your games!

🇺🇸 To celebrate our democratic heritage,  we will read portions of the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Equal Rights Amendment.

Remember to buy your prize give-away tickets to help us get out the vote!

Space is limited, we can only accommodate 100 people. RSVP early to ensure your place. RSVP deadline 26 June.

In case of rain, the picnic area is sheltered.

This is a 3G event. 3G means: access or participation only for those who have been vaccinated, have recovered, or have been recently tested. Official proof of a rapid test no more than 24 hours ago or a PCR test no more than 48 hours ago was required for those who were tested.

How to get to Grillhutte Eppelheim

We will arrange carpools from Frankfurt, Mainz, and Wiesbaden, the Heidelburg areas. You'll receive a sign-up form after you RSVP.

Take public transportation to Heidelberg Bahnhof and we will have people that can pick you up at the train station.

For Driving Directions, click the picture below.