so i think it was best said that voter fraud is about as common place as being struck by lightning. so this is a complete ruse. and we must fight back and make sure we all have the opportunity to vote and we will. and i'm happy to say, wisconsin just -- their voter identification law was just found unconstitutional. as i said, much of this is being enjoined in the courts or department of justice is saying, huh-uh we know what you're doing, we know this is essentially a poll tax or another method of discriminating against segments of the population. so hopefully we will win and make sure everybody gets to that ballot box this november and in the primaries this spring. and i just wanted to briefly talk about that. before i go on to introduce -- and i think i'll start with megan, because i mentioned mississippi.

and she is here to talk to us about a little bit about what they did there. i think megan, you were the deputy director of the mississippians for healthy families campaign, which was the main statewide campaign to defeat initiative 26. we, the feminist majority foundation, worked with students across the state through the students voting no on 26 campaign. and megan is currently the -- i should get this correct, because i know it's a mouthful, so i want to make sure i have it correct. ballot initiative and opposition research manager at planned parenthood federation. she has worked all over the country, understand, on ballot measures, including prior life with afscme, working to defeat anti-union initiatives. and please welcome to the stage now, megan darby.

>> hello. thanks for having me. at the elder state offices. and the man who is now the what has been defeated so far, but starting off i did have the opportunity of spending nine weeks in mississippi last year which was life changing. a little tiring and surreal when i think about it now. we had such a huge victory. we were 30 points down, about three weeks away from election day. and about i'd say five days before the election, independent poll came out that had us 1 point down but 11% people undecided. this was decided in the ballot box that day. we were very fortunate that we not only one, we kind of crushed it.

but as you mentioned, unfortunately that wasn't the case for voter i.d. that was initiative 27 that yeet. initiative 26, the personhood initiative, that i'll be talking more in detail on saturday at the campus gathering, if you guys are around, initiative 26 was the least voted on initiative of all three, and this was an untraditional ballot initiative state, meaning only used a couple times before for votes if they should keep the confederate flag on their state flag and a gay marriage ban. so this was untraditional. it wasn't an offyear in mississippi because all state offices were up and the man who is now the governor was a huge supporter of personhood. so what we really did, and would they're thankful for all of you helped us to do, was we created a climate where people could talk about this, and where people had doubts and where people were given permission to

be pro life, because they are in the state of mississippi, and be against personhood. so i think we were the least voted on, because we did create a culture of doubt that some people weren't comfortable voting no. but they definitely weren't comfortable voting this into law. and i'm happy to report that they did try a couple maneuvers in the state legislature this year to try to get personhood back up and running and it has been defeated. so we will not see personhood of mississippi for at least a couple more years. so let me transition into what we definitely will be seeing. and i'm going to start out in the state of north dakota. on the june primary, june 12th, there will be a religious liberties ballot initiative. it's a very broad, wide-based initiative that will legally make it that you can discriminate based on your religion. it can go as far as birth control refusal or denying a muslim couple to rent an apartment that you are the

landlord. this is a primary that people will be voting in, because there is an open senate seat. so that's the first one. and obviously, our organization and everybody in this room does not want discrimination, and especially with the refusal fight that we're still going through, actually. this is something that we will be watching. now, moving on to florida, there is a privacy and public funding ban. this was placed by the florida legislature last year. and what this basically does is public funding is -- it will deny public funding for abortion. we don't know, we're still exploring what this really means. but this also could impact public employees' private insurance, because technically it's paid for by public funds. so it could take away abortion care from private insurance people that are employed by the state. and also, there is a little provision written in. the florida privacy and their constitution is actually stronger than the united states constitution.

so they will would like to repeal it to the united states standard. now, what does this mean? because honestly, the first time i looked at it, i was like, what? we stop a lot of things because of the strong privacy laws in florida. so we're -- repealing it would open the door for things that might not necessarily get very far because of the protection in their constitution. so this will be happening in november. and another thing that will be happening in november, in montana is parental notification. now, this was a -- again, put in by the state legislature so we only have one citizen-driven initiative on the ballot now out of the three. montana last year, the state legislature passed a parental innovation bill and sent it to the governor, who is 100% pro choice. and they said, this is what we're going to do. if you veto this, we have passed something else that will throw a constitutional amendment on the ballot next year. so you either sign this or we

fight at the ballot box. so he vetoed. and now we have parental notification in montana. so those are the three that are definitely going to be printed on the ballot. here's what we think is probably likely in november. i'm sure you've heard, personhood is back in the colorado. it is. as you know, 2008, it was defeated overwhelmingly. and in 2010, they gained three points. still, defeated overwhelmingly. after the victory, keith mason of personhood usa, who is the leader, put out a press statement comparing himself to susan b. anthony and her campaign for women's suffrage in south dakota. and like her campaign, that was unpopular at first, but slowly started to gain and slowly started to gain, he will come back and fight for the unborn. and anyone who does this work is very familiar that colorado it's

kind of easy to get a ballot initiative on. it's very low threshold. there's not a lot of laws. what they did this year, they rewrote the title. so before mississippi, there's what i like to call personhood classic, which is just the basic language, life begins at conception. life begins at fertilization. and what they found themselves -- because colorado is a little bit more pro choice than mississippi. so what they found themselves in mississippi -- they weren't -- not prepared for was talking about ivf and talking about birth control. so they decided they were going to start making these hybrids. so they did one and it wasn't one of the most extremes. this is a pretty basic one. it says, personhood applies to every human being, regardless of the method of creation. a human being is a member of the species homosapien at any stage of development. so there was a challenge to the ballot title. and that was lost, so when it

was lost, it was appealed to the state supreme court, and that was lost. so last week, personhood usa kicked off their petition -- their signature drive at numerous planned parenthood health centers across the state of colorado. so we do expect to see that. we probably won't know until this summer. another one we do expect to see is a public funding ban in oregon. and like florida, this is the basic no public funding for abortion. but unlike florida, oregon is one of the only states that does give public funding for abortion. and this was tried two times before, in 1978 and in 1986. so this isn't the first time they've seen the fight and they're expecting to see it again. it is backed by oregon right to life, which is well-organized in their state. so we should know in july if we should see that. again, we're unsure what the implications will be for public employees that have insurance, if this will cut their care also.

so i'm briefly going to go over my watch list. and this is things that have been filed, things that have been moving, but unsure of what the future was going to be. so the first is parental notification in california. this is the fourth time. this was defeated in 2005, 2006 and 2008. they have filed multiple initiatives this year. so when one expires, there's already one that can keep on going. and they've done this up until june. and we expect this because they're not as organized as they were in the past. and they're trying to gain time to get the funding and the organization to collect signatures. another one is religious liberties in colorado. this was just filed by focus on the family. and this has gained a lot of earned media. and right now they're waiting for the state to approve the title and the language. and i'm assuming when that happens that there will be multiple groups that will be trying to appeal not only to the

state title board, but to the state supreme court to try to stop this. another one is personhood in montana. they've tried to put personhood on montana three times. the coalition partners there have always done a very successful decline to sign campaign. they do this around the primary, because in montana, that's usually around the time people are collecting signatures. they can go to polls, talk to people as they're going in and out. so that's always been a strategy that's worked in the past. this year, though, cal zastrow, the co-founder of personhood usa, moved to montana last year and has made it his mission to make sure that personhood gets on the ballot in montana. and he actually sometimes is the only person collecting signatures in some places in the state. so we have an eye on that. personhood in nevada, and i'm sure everyone here has seen some press about this, so in the span of months, five separate titles by two separate

groups were filed and four were withdrawn in the state of nevada. so what they would be doing -- and first of all, may i back up. the two groups weren't getting along. so one would put out a press release saying we're the true personhood, the other would put out a press release saying no, we're the true personhood. so great. my theory is, okay, great. so they would file. and four withdrawn. and this is what would happen. someone would go and appeal and try and start the process to make sure this didn't make it on the ballot. what they would do is wait until that complaint was public, withdraw, and take that complaint to strengthen their language. so after this happened three times, the aclu and the planned parenthood who the state were work together to help with lawsuits, decided they were no longer going to help the opposition strength of their language. so it took a couple weeks. i think they were in shock and were kind of like, oh, where's the lawsuit? and when that didn't happen,

chuck gallagher, who is one of the groups that pushes these initiatives in the state, he actually was a police officer once upon a time, and was called to a clinic to -- someone was blocking access for a patient, and refused to get involved because of his religious beliefs. he withdrew his petition and has thrown of his support behind personhood nevada, and that was the other group that was the true personhood initiative in the state. so we're waiting to see what signature collection will look like. and the interesting thing about nevada, if this does get on the ballot, and it does pass, they have to do it again in 2014 for it to become law. personhood in ohio. i think you guys are probably noticing a trend. this was filed again, state challenge to the title lost. again, appeal to the supreme court. last week that appeal was denied. and they have been slowly collecting signatures across the state.

the interesting thing about ohio, though, if i'm a registered ohio voter and i sign a petition and it's not submitted in 2012, my signature could be used to be submitted at a later date. so they could use 2012 and them being a swing state, to build up their petition signatures because they have until about july 4th to collect over 385,000 signatures. so we're not sure we'll see it this year. but it could be a possibility for an off-year like 2013 or 2015. personhood in oklahoma. oklahoma is a little bit eye of the personhood storm right now. i'm sure you've all seen the revamping of the personhood bill in their legislature. this did pass the senate overwhelmingly. i think only four people voted against it. and this was during the time of the virginia ultrasound. so it quietly went away, because

there was a lot of outrage. and i don't think people in oklahoma wanted that outrage on them too. it's kind of come back. but not only is legislation on march 1st, personhood oklahoma filed a ballot initiative. again, it's personhood classic language, life begins at conception. and they said they will file three. so we're unsure what that looks like yet. we're unsure if this is another nevada situation where they wait until there is a challenge, withdraw, use that challenge to strengthen their language and try again. but they do have a kind of high threshold for oklahoma for signatures to gather. and a fun fact, rick santorum signed the personhood oklahoma initiative in tulsa a couple weeks ago. and it's being used for earned media and fund-raising by personhood oklahoma, because he is a huge supporter of personhood.

personhood oregon. again, basic language. we're kind of sure this isn't going to make the ballot this year. they've tried multiple times, and just to give you a little bit of reference. in 2010, personhood usa tried to get personhood on eight ballots. they only got it on one. so, you know, it's pretty easy to file language for ballot initiatives and pretty easy to get a lot of attention, especially in states that don't usually do ballot initiatives. so it kind of makes a scramble and kind of makes us move. but oregon is one of the places where they filed fetal personhood, but we don't think we're going to see much. some good news. is that there has been failed attempts this year to get on the 2012 ballot. here's what they tried and what didn't make it. personhood in alaska. application was denied, flat out. personhood in arkansas. they've tried twice in the past month, month and a half, to submit a ballot title in summary for personhood to circulate in the state.

both times the attorney general has rejected it overwhelmingly. his first decision was 22 pages long. his second was 18. personhood arkansas has submitted a new ballot title, but they submitted it to a local television station. they have not submitted it to the government yet. and we're pretty sure that, you know, with a 22-page decision and 18-page decision, this attorney general is not leaving a lot of room for this to start circulating in his state. personhood in california has just recently expired. we didn't see any signature collection, and the group who was circulating it had a press statement right after they submitted their title, saying we're not associated with personhood usa. personhood in florida. a couple people in the room may be wondering why i'm bringing up personhood florida. the ballot initiative title for 2012 in florida on personhood hasek pyred. in florida i think you need to

pay like 10 cents a signature or something to have it submitted to the secretary of state. and they were having fund-raising challenges and i also think signature challenges. so they withdrew the 2012 before it expired and submitted for 2014. so in are actively fund-raising and doing earned media for 2014 but they won't be on 2012. and last but not least, stop baby skull crashing and decapitation in north dakota. this was supposed to be a ban on tools used for abortion. and i don't think i need to tell anyone that the title of this really hurt them. i don't think people are very comfortable with it. so that's my quick and dirty on what the ballot initiatives are. but i do want to bring up one thing i was thinking about when the other panel was talking about rick santorum and newt gingrich and everyone signed the personhood pledge but mitt romney hasn't.

but october of 2011, when mississippi was really starting to pick up steam, he went on the mike huckabee show, and mike huckabee has produced a movie on personhood, he is a huge supporter or on personhood. on september 8th when we lost our appeal, he had a fund-raiser in jackson, mississippi. asked him, will you support a constitutional amendment of personhood on a federal level. and mitt romney said, absolutely. so with that -- >> thank you, megan. i appreciate your description so much. it's -- what's frightening to know and having been in mississippi and campaigned, is how much how many of these personhood initiatives are being promulgated by the most extreme anti-abortion leaders in the country. they're not just quote, unquote,

pro-life individuals. these are -- some of them have ties to the army of god, like patrick johnston in ohio and other individuals. the army of god is one, if not the most, violent anti-abortion extremist organization in the country. individuals linked to bombings, murder, mayhem. unabashedly so. have been involved with the army of god and called -- been proud of that association. and anyway, so thank you for that. and on that happy note, we are now going to go -- i'd like to introduce marietta english, who is here joining us today. marietta is the vice president of the american federation of teachers. she is also -- yay! yes. whoo-hoo! teachers, yes. equal access to education, good. she is the president of the baltimore teachers union. you have so many titles. i tried to pick and choose them.

this is a short version. she's also the president of the american federation of teachers in maryland. and she's the past president of metro baltimore alliance of black school educators and a current board member. and i believe, you know, we are so thrilled she could join us today to talk about the anti- union initiatives that swept the nation, as well. and to, you know, celebrate her as a labor leader and tireless fighter for fair wages and improved working conditions for teachers throughout the country. thank you. please welcome marietta english. >> thank you. thank you for this opportunity. there is an anti-union movement across this country. i'm not going to talk about the initiatives, but i will talk about some of those things that have happened across this country. the attack on unions which represent women is an attack on women.

when wisconsin's governor, scott walker, administration targeted teachers, unions and nurses unions, they exempted the male-dominated firefighters and police unions. you know, so that was definitely an attack on women. and this policy on attack on women has permeated throughout wisconsin. but what he did was wake up the sleeping giant. because he then woke up all of the women and all of the labor unions who went into wisconsin and, of course, you know, he now has a recall. and we're waiting to get him out of there. the republicans' attack on teachers unions and unions representing other pink-collar professions, like nurses, health care workers, early childhood educators, home health aides,

they're attacking organizations in which women workers have political voice. that's the organization -- we organize in these unions, and have a voice in the workplace. and we also have a voice politically. and these other systems are male-dominated. and i know when i go into a lot of boardrooms, because i do have a lot of titles, most of them are filled with men. we can barely count the women on one hand who sit in those boardrooms. when we look around education, a lot of the superintendents who run these systems are men. but the actual work is done by women in the classroom. mitt romney tells us that contributions from unions to political campaigns are forms of corruption. that, they imply, that

individuals who organize are corrupt and unpatriotic. oh, my gosh. but when the business banned together and they make huge contributions now, thanks to the supreme court ruling that you can make unlimited amount of contributions, well, that's commerce. that's a way of building business. the political attackers want to devalue our voice by calling us names, and they do that all the time. in the health care area, it is difficult to organize at least private sector nurses and health care workers, and it's really harder to organize in public sector also because these are basically dominated by women. and it's very hard and difficult. such places as oakwood health care in upstate new york where employers have tried to circumvent bargaining rights by giving nurses charge and

responsibilities and calling it supervisors. but yet they still work as nurses. and, of course, in teaching, i can't -- i can tell you that for the last few years, teacher unions have been bashed all over this country. teachers have been blamed from -- for everything from why the grass doesn't grow to why children are not achieving. and every time you hear people like michelle rea who hadn't taught by two minutes, blame teachers. i can tell you that the -- without teacher unions, we are not the cause of children not achieving. we are not that cause. children -- it is policies that keep children from achieving. we know the answers. no one ever comes to the teacher

and says, what should we do? what policies are agreed? what should you do? we know that early education helps children to achieve. and yet those are not mandated programs. those are funds that get cut right away. those are programs -- we know that children need art, music, phys ed. to be a whole child. and yet when the decisions come to be made, let's cut those programs. and then when children don't achieve, it must be the teacher's fault. it must be the -- it's that old teachers union that keeps bad teachers in the classroom. well no teacher union wants to keep bad teachers in the classroom. teachers unions only want to make sure that everyone have a right to due process. it's not about keeping bad

teachers in the classroom. the american federation of teachers has an excellent, dynamite president in randy wine guard. and she is leading country -- yes, she is, give her a hand. -- in initiatives that will bring together businesses and education to help achieve. we have a program in west virginia where she's brought together the community, businesses, the union, to help turn that community around. we are -- if you talk with the teachers unions, we will lead you the right way. but yes they want to bash and blame us for all of the ills of society. our union in baltimore, we just negotiated one of the most innovative contracts in this

country where teachers are now being -- have a voice about their own career, how fast they will move and whether or not they move from lane or another and from one pathway to another. given our expertise -- i know i've been teaching for a long time. i could probably teach this paper how to read. but nobody comes and asks us what are the things that we do. there's always a lot of money put into programs and then the program comes and goes. i don't know how many -- are there any teachers in the room? you know what i mean. they bring a program in, keep it for a couple days and then say oh, it doesn't work, let's try something different. and then we get blamed when it doesn't work. right now high-stake tests are governing our whole existence.

and yet we don't have a part in developing those tests. our children for hours. i look -- we're right now in the maryland state assessment and these little 8-year-olds are taking these tests for hours. and it's really, really sad because i can't sit here for hours without having to get up and yet we expect these of children. i wonder if these people sitting in boardrooms making decisions have any childhood studies or have any childhood understanding. they should understhand teachers can't do this alone. it takes the whole community to help educate these children. i know i raised two children and my son was in the eighth grade i thought he would die. i didn't know if he would make it to the ninth grade. but you keep working with him. and now i'm proud to say he's a wonderful teacher.