National Call-In Day

by Cara on April 25, 2007

in abortion, action alert, reproductive justice

Today is The National Call-In Day to support the Freedom of Choice Act. It has been arranged by dozens of pro-choice gropus including Planned Parenthood, NARAL, NOW, Feminist Majority and Sistersong.

You can call your member of Congress directly at 202-224-3121. Or, you can use this directory to find the direct line to your senator or representative’s office.

The idea is to request that your senators and/or representatives co-sponsor the Freedome of Choice Act. NOW has a list of representatives and senators who are currently co-sponsoring the act. If you have any senators or representatives on the list (both of my senators are) please call and leave a message thanking them for the support– because they’re getting a lot of angry calls from the other side.

NARAL recommends the following, simple script:

“Please cosponsor the Freedom of Choice Act (H.R.1964/S.1173) to codify Roe v. Wade and guarantee the right to choose for future generations of women.”

If you’ve never called your legislator’s office before, it can seem intimidating. The first time I participated in such a drive, I was really nervous and felt very awkward. In fact, I’m a fairly nervous person, in general, when it comes to interacting with people on the telephone. I can honestly say (though it still kind of makes me nervous!) that it’s not nearly as bad as it seems. You call the office, and a secretary will answer. You then ask for the person responsible for handling Women’s Issues or Women’s Health Issues. The secretary will connect you through. You express your support for the bill, and the aide will take down your name and full address. It’s that simple and it only takes a minute or two. They take these calls all day, and it’s really not a big deal to them. But several dozen calls in a day will really add up. A constituent taking the time to actually phone in their support for a bill means a LOT– and significantly more than a form email.

Please, please make your call today. Tell any pro-choice friends or family about the event and encourage them to call as well. If you have a blog, please share this information there. The more people who particpate, the better. This is democracy in action! Stand up and practice what you preach.

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{ 4 comments }

1 Cara April 25, 2007 at 3:18 pm

I’ve made my calls! Not a big deal at all. When I called Senator Clinton and Schumer’s offices, they didn’t even take down my address since I was just calling to say thank you. They did take down my info at the Rep’s office. They sounded slightly rushed on the phone but perfectly friendly. I’m also going to email all of them about the bill.

2 Dewey April 25, 2007 at 11:07 pm

I called and thanked my senator! That’s the only phone number I found so far. I’ll keep looking.

3 Cara April 26, 2007 at 1:49 am

whoo hoo!

all you should have to do, though, is go to this page and type in your zip code in order to get the phone numbers for all your reps.

4 Dewey April 28, 2007 at 7:03 pm

I found that, thanks!

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