PushAlert: Massachusetts Needs YOU
Attention Massachusetts!!!
If you care about mothers and babies, the Commonwealth needs your help TODAY to PASS HB 4253—An Act Relative to Certified Professional Midwives. We have just a few days left to pass this important legislation that will regulate Certified Professional Midwives. Currently, there is no state oversight, which means:
- ANYONE—even an 18 year old car mechanic—can hang out a shingle and practice as a midwife and
- Hairdressers must be licensed to practice in Massachusetts but midwives do not. Should a “cut and color” be regulated and have professional practice requirements while MA midwives currently have none?
How to help?
CALL your own STATE REPRESENTATIVE
You can find contact information for your representative at the following link: http://wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php- GIVE them an update on the bill, HB 4253—An Act Relative to Certified Professional Midwives—and let them know the bill is now with the House Ways and Means committee
- ASK them to contact Chairman Dempsey's office (617-722-2990) (representing Haverill and Chair, House Ways & Means Committee) to REQUEST that HB 4253 BE RELEASED TO THE HOUSE FLOOR FOR A VOTE ASAP
- ASK them to then support the bill when it reaches the House Floor
- URGE them to tell their colleagues to support the bill on the House Floor
Want to do more?
PLEASE reach out to Massachusetts HOUSE LEADERSHIP
(see listing at the end of this message), letting them know:- This bill is important to you
- That this bill is being supported by House leaders
Also, we will be at the State House on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons this week (7/25 and 7/26). Please join us! Drop a quick email to Ann Sweeney at [email protected], and we’ll let you know where to rendezvous with us.
Text of the bill can be found on the State House website: http://www.malegislature.gov/Bills/187/House/H04253 Please help us in spreading the word and passing this legislation into law! Keep the calls coming!!! We need EVERYONE to call to get this done! Make a difference! Make it count.
~Ann
Ann Sweeney
[email protected]
617-254-6175
~Miriam
Miriam Khalsa
[email protected]
508-655-7885
Here is how you do more:
CALL more Massachusetts HOUSE LEADERSHIP
- Rep. Haddad—very supportive—617-722-2600
- Speaker DeLeo—he is aware of the bill—seems to understand need for it—617-722-2500
- Rep. Reinstein—very supportive and a co sponsor—617-722-2180
- Rep. Moran (Boston and Brookline)—supportive and a co-sponsor— 617-722-2006
- Rep. Story (Amherst)—very supportive—617-722-2012
- Rep. Donato—seems supportive—617-722-2040
- Rep. Mariano—has always supported licensure bills—617-722-2300
- Rep. Jones—aide seems supportive—617-722-2100
- Rep. Rushing—617-722-2783
- Rep. Bradley—617-722-2520
- Miriam Khalsa (Mass Midwives Alliance)
508-655-7885 ([email protected]) - Audra Karp (Mass Midwives Alliance)
617-522-8383 ([email protected]) - Ann Sweeney (Mass Friends of Midwives)
617-254-6175/617-901-2777 ([email protected]) - Krina Patel (The Suffolk Group)
617-303-4570 ([email protected])
New York Times: "The (Home) Birther Movement"
Credit: Elinor Carucci/Redux, for The New York Times
"[Ina May] Gaskin says that because midwife-assisted home birth is illegal in many states, many women are de facto coerced into surgery or other interventions they don’t need. For Gaskin, choice in birth remains a realm of reproductive freedom that mainstream feminism, until recently, has foolishly ignored; women should seek not just the freedom to decide whether or not to have a baby but also how to have it. Here, Gaskin assists Jane Montanaro during labor, March 27."
- See the entire New York Times slide show here.
- Read the related New York Times article "Mommy Wars: The Prequel" here.
- Learn about the state of reproductive freedom birth options across the U.S. here.
- Join the movement today and help support efforts in your state here.
- Appreciate the amazing Ina May Gaskin even more here.