WE KNOW REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM IS UNDER ATTACK across the country and in our state. As we’ve seen, anti-abortion extremists are working everywhere to severely limit reproductive freedom and OUTRIGHT BAN ABORTION--and it’s not just happening in places like Alabama and Georgia, IT'S HAPPENING HERE IN MINNESOTA TOO.  In fact, since 1995 when the Minnesota Supreme Court said that Minnesotans have the right to both have an abortion and decide to have an abortion without the government interfering in that decision, more than 400 anti-abortion bills have been introduced in the Minnesota State legislature. That’s why SPIRAL Collective is partnering with UnRestrict Minnesota, NARAL, and more than a dozen Minnesota organizations, and COMING TOGETHER TO HOST REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM LOBBY DAY 2020 AND ENSURE OUR LEGISLATORS KNOW THAT MINNESOTANS WANT OUR LAWS TO SUPPORT OUR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, FREEDOM, AND AUTONOMY.

We know that ensuring Minnesotans have full Reproductive Freedom WILL TAKE ALL OF US STEPPING UP AND DEMANDING OUR LAWMAKERS BE VOCAL CHAMPIONS OF REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM. That’s why NARAL, UnRestrict Minnesota and more than a dozen other organizations are coming together to host Reproductive Freedom Lobby Day on February 19, 2020. But we need YOU there to make sure our message is heard.

On Lobby Day, attendees will:
1. Be trained on: Lobby Day 101, Reproductive Freedom legislative agenda, messaging on reproductive freedom
2. Attend an appointment with legislators (appointments will be made for attendees)
3. Receive a free t-shirt (to be worn at the Reproductive Freedom Rally!)
4. Be provided with lunch
5. Attend post-rally Policy Exchange Meet-Up & Happy Hour

Lobby Day details:
• There will be a training for all attendees on what lobby day is, on how to talk to legislators, and what attendees should say to their legislators. We have reserved space at St. Paul College for training.
• Attendees will then attend meetings with their legislators; appointments will be made for attendees to talk to their respective legislators. (Note: If you are represented by a legislator who is anti-abortion/anti-reproductive freedom, you have the option of making a meeting with that legislator OR joining a meeting with the closest geographical pro-reproductive rights legislator. There will be a leave-behind piece created for attendees who live in districts with anti-abortion legislators to ensure those legislators know they have constituents who are pro-reproductive freedom).
• In meetings with legislators, we will discuss two bills:
        o Protect Physician’s Integrity Act (S.F. 2737): Chief author Senator Matt Klein. This bill repeals the 24
            hour waiting period and state mandated lecture doctors are required by law to give patients before
            they receive abortion care.
         o FACE Act--Freedom to Access Clinic Entrances (H.F. 1532): Chief Author Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn. This bill
           makes interfering with someone entering a clinic that provides reproductive health services a gross
           misdemeanor, and provides providers, staff and patients the ability to seek a restraining order against
           people who harass them at the clinic, in public, or at home.
• There will be Reproductive Freedom Rally in the Capitol rotunda in the afternoon
• A Greater Minnesota Meetup (organized for attendees from Greater MN to meet and connect with each other)
• Last, there will be a policy exchange happy hour in the evening, where reproductive freedom groups have the opportunity to learn and connect over reproductive freedom work that they’re organizations are doing.