Susan J. Frietsche & Amal Bass (Photo: Lisa Schaffer Photography)
Hi friend,
It’s been a devastating year for gender justice and a time of great transition for our movement – and our organization.
But thanks to your generous support, we were able to respond to the urgent needs of the moment. Thanks to you, we were prepared. We not only fended off some of the most depraved efforts to oppress us this year but made strides and, as always, continue to prepare for what’s next.
Here are just a few of our accomplishments so far this year:
Abortion rights and access: We presented oral arguments before Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in one of the most important abortion rights cases in the country—a challenge that could eliminate Pennsylvania’s discriminatory ban on Medicaid funding of abortion and affirm that our reproductive rights are protected by the Pennsylvania state constitution.
Addressing Pregnancy Discrimination: We expanded our WLP Legal Navigator program to directly serve and assist more Pennsylvanians navigating pregnancy or lactating in the workplace and school.
Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence Who Report to Police: We published the WLP Annual Advocate Sex Crime Case Review Guidebook, a detailed guide to our advocate-led sex crime police case review designed to empower all advocates, citizens, and officials to hold police accountable to the brave survivors who choose to report and the communities they have sworn to serve.
CPC Accountability: We issued an urgent brief warning that “crisis pregnancy centers” were poised to conduct post-Roe anti-abortion surveillance—work cited by several state attorneys general who issued consumer warnings and members of Congress led by Senator Warren who proposed a policy effort to protect our privacy from anti-abortion surveillance.
Workplace Justice: We collaborated on efforts to inform workers about their labor rights while continuing to advocate for Pennsylvania to update its outdated and inadequate equal pay law.
Protecting Transgender Youth: We relentlessly advocated against a heinous bill that sought to target Pennsylvania’s transgender youth based on false, stigmatizing, and dangerous anti-trans rhetoric.
These highlights are just a glimpse of our recent accomplishments. We rely on individual supporters like you to be able to do this work and implement the strategies we planned for next year.
If you can, please consider donating or setting up a monthly donation today. It would help us tremendously as we plan our litigation, policy advocacy, direct representation, and community education programming next year and beyond.
Thank you for being here with us through it all!
Sincerely,
Susan J. Frietsche & Amal Bass
WLP Interim Executive Co-directors
