Hi there! Welcome to Easy A–Your go-to source for quick and easy actions you can take in five minutes or less about the issues you care about.
Are you a busy mom? Or maybe your work is so hectic you can’t think about anything else during the day? A lot of us are also taking care of parents or other loved ones too, leaving little time for anything else.
The good news is that these are things you can do while you’re waiting in the school pick up line, on your lunch break, or even at your kid’s soccer practice – anywhere you happen to be! And you can easily share Easy A with your friends so they can be in the know, too! We’ll send you a new action to take every week–just one, we promise –and it will always be something you can do in five minutes or less. Ready to get started? Let’s go!
Read This: The Climate Crisis Is a Health Crisis
Thank you to our guest author this week, Dr. Alice Chen! Learn more about Dr. Chen below and follow her on Bluesky here.
When I was a kid, summers meant riding our bikes around the neighborhood, lazing around outside watching clouds and ladybugs, and generally relaxing and recharging. Today, our summers are filled with suffocating heat waves, choking wildfire smoke, and more hurricanes and floods destroying entire communities.
Last week, we saw the heartbreaking consequences in Texas. Extreme flooding has left hundreds dead or missing, including dozens of children and counselors from a girls’ summer camp.
Our climate is changing fast, and it has quickly become a crisis that threatens the health and well-being of our children and our communities. Last summer broke heat records that had just been broken by the summer of 2023. From 2004 to 2021, heat-related deaths increased by a factor of 4. Extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related hazard.
We are at a high-stakes crossroads where we have a real but narrow opportunity to build a better future and avoid the most catastrophic outcomes of the climate crisis. As a doctor and a mother of two kids in elementary school, I am constantly reminded of why climate action is so important. As hot days increase, I worry about my spunky kids wilting and lying with their eyes closed on the couch as they suffer from a dehydration headache. I worry about my family in the Bay Area and Miami where worsening drought, wildfires, hurricanes, and floods threaten the homes where my husband and I grew up.
My colleagues and I are spreading the word about the health impacts of extreme heat and worsened air quality that follows. We are reminding people to hydrate, get in the shade or somewhere cool, and watch for signs that your body is not handling heat well – headaches, nausea, extreme sweating, lethargy.
We are asking people to check in with community members who are at higher risk because they are outdoor workers, student athletes, people in neighborhoods with few trees or no air conditioning, pregnant, older, very young, or if they have medical conditions that put them at risk like heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, mental health conditions, disabilities, and autoimmune diseases. It doesn’t take much — just a quick text, call, or knock on your neighbor’s door.
Beyond heat risks, we are raising the alarm that climate change is increasing wildfire smoke, smog and pollen in the air — increasing the risk of asthma and affecting childhood brain and lung development.
Here’s the good news:
We are not helpless, nor should we be hopeless. We made a lot of progress over the last few years, after Congress passed historic climate legislation that sparked a boom in clean energy growth.
It was a win-win, showing we don’t have to choose between protecting our families and revitalizing the economy. Those investments helped generate over 400,000 clean energy jobs and produce cheaper energy — all while reducing toxic pollution that sends people to our hospitals with asthma, heart attacks, strokes, and lung cancer. In my own household, we have cleaner air because we’ve been able to switch away from our gas stove and say goodbye to the gas station, too. The investments sparked a clean energy boom that won’t be stopped.
Here’s the bad news:
In the Republican budget bill signed last week, Trump rolled back the clean energy tax credits that drove so much progress. The bill also slashes money for weather forecasts that save lives in climate disasters. And it threatens our kids’ health — gutting clean air and water programs, then ripping Medicaid away from millions of families.
If you’re outraged, you are not alone.
Trump’s bill is more unpopular than any major legislation passed since 1990. Days after signing it, Trump’s approval rating has plummeted. When people learn what’s in the bill, they hate it.
There are three ways we can protect our health, air, water, and climate:
- Organize in our communities to help people understand the link between fossil fuels, climate change, and our health.
- Accelerate our transition to clean energy by taking advantage of tax credits before they expire at the hands of Congress.
- Show up. As families feel the effects of the Republican budget, they need to know that Trump and his allies in Congress are responsible.
In congressional offices, town halls, social media, and our communities, we can show lawmakers — and our neighbors — that we won’t be silent when our kids are in danger. We can demand action to protect our families from climate threats.
I know it matters. In 2009, I co-founded a physician advocacy group called Doctors For America, and after decades of failed efforts to pass healthcare reform, we helped get it across the finish line by elevating the stories of real people and what they needed to protect their health.
We can do it again.
Alice Chen is a licensed MD and public health advocate. She was a founding board member and Executive Director of Doctors for America — a grassroots organization of physicians and medical students in all 50 states who push for policies that improve the lives of their patients.
Do This: The Truth About Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Now we know that Crisis Pregnancy Centers are everywhere, and unfortunately they outnumber real abortion clinics by 3 to 1. And what’s really dangerous about CPCs is how they use misinformation to intentionally mislead women who need real medical care. So what can you do?
Let’s share this information with everyone we know! So many people haven’t heard about CPCs, so be a part of our movement and share this message with your friends and family. It’s super-easy with our social share tool. With just a few clicks, you can share this information and earn your Easy A today!
Watch This: The Truth About Crisis Pregnancy Centers
As you read last week, crisis pregnancy centers use misinformation and fear to manipulate pregnant women and stop them from getting abortions. This misinformation is dangerous and can risk women’s health.
Listen to the story of Maleeha Aziz, who was misled by a crisis pregnancy center when she was unexpectedly pregnant while in college. Maleeha had recently moved to the U.S. from overseas and didn’t know anything about crisis pregnancy centers. Like so many women, Maleeha thought she was visiting a real healthcare facility. Instead she found herself being told lies about the risks of abortion.
After her experience, Maleeha has dedicated her career to helping other women get access to reproductive healthcare. She is now the Deputy Director of the Texas Equal Access Fund, where she speaks out against crisis pregnancy centers and other attempts to limit the reproductive rights of women in Texas.
You can hear our full interview with Maleeha at The Cost of Extremism website or anywhere you get your podcasts. And stay tuned next week for an easy action you can take to make sure more people know about the misleading tactics of crisis pregnancy centers.
Read This: The Truth About Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Have you seen a billboard reading something like, “Pregnant? We can help.” You might envision a supportive place for women to get safe and professional reproductive healthcare. But that’s not the reality.
Despite their outward appearance as qualified health clinics, most crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), also known as “pregnancy counseling centers,” are often staffed by people with no medical credentials. They also have deep ties to religious groups who oppose abortion. You may be surprised to learn then, that the crisis pregnancy center industry operates on a national scale, receiving millions of taxpayer dollars annually while serving as a key player in the anti-abortion movement.
So how do women seeking abortion care wind up in a crisis pregnancy center? Unfortunately, CPCs rely on deceptive marketing. They aim to attract women who are seeking abortions by pretending to offer real healthcare options. They place ads near schools, colleges, and in online spaces to target women who are searching for abortion clinics. When women search for abortion clinics online, these centers’ ads often appear at the top. A report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that over a two year period, anti-abortion groups spent an estimated $10.2 million on Google search ads. Those ads were clicked on an estimated 13 million times, often by women looking for real reproductive care.
Once vulnerable pregnant patients are inside, CPCs often use religion to influence their decisions. They display religious visuals and symbols — things you wouldn’t normally see in a medical setting. They often have strict anti-contraception policies. They equate birth control to abortion and promote an abstinence-only lifestyle.
Staff at many CPCs dress in medical attire like white coats and scrubs, even if they aren’t certified medical professionals. They perform non-diagnostic tests. They also use disinformation, manipulation, and scare tactics to dissuade women from seeking abortions. They use fake medical terms, imply false connections between abortion and other health risks, cite non-existent studies, and repeat claims that have consistently been debunked by reputable institutions. A Planned Parenthood investigation found that 80% of CPC websites have false or misleading information.
As you can see, CPCs manipulate pregnant women through every step of their search for abortion care, from misrepresenting who they are and what options they provide, to using fear and guilt to stop women from getting abortions, and even misleading women about the gestational age of their pregnancy. These tactics delay or prevent women from accessing timely abortions and potentially jeopardize their health.
To make matters worse, as of 2023, CPCs outnumber real abortion clinics by 3 to 1, with over 2,500 operating in the U.S. CPCs are a dangerous part of the anti-abortion movement and not enough people know about them, but we’re going to change that! Stay tuned next week to hear directly from a woman about her CPC experience.
Do This: They Are Coming for IVF and Birth Control
As you’ve seen over the past two weeks, extremists are targeting IVF and birth control – and it’s happening all over the country. It doesn’t matter where you live, our reproductive rights are at risk at the state and federal levels.
By now you’re probably wondering, how can we stop this attack on reproductive care? That’s why we’ve launched a new campaign called, They’re Coming for IVF and Birth Control…We’re Coming for their Jobs, and we want you to join us!
Join our campaign to say “hell no” to extremists who want to take away our rights to IVF and birth control.
Through this campaign, we’ll keep you informed about what’s going on with these issues, and give you simple actions to take throughout the year. The first one is easy – just sign up!
Watch This: They are coming for IVF and Birth Control
Last week we learned about how extremists are now targeting more of our reproductive rights. This isn’t just happening in red states — this trend is affecting every single one of us, no matter where we live. And even though some may try to deny it, Republican representatives at the state and federal level are talking more openly about taking away our rights to IVF and birth control. We have the receipts — their statements AND their voting records.
It might sound hyperbolic — we know it’s hard to imagine this could happen in the United States — but we’ve seen it happen before. Just watch this video and listen to the way Supreme Court Justices promised Roe v. Wade was settled law, then overturned it. Now extremist legislators see a path to continue to strip away all our reproductive choices.
Extremists are coming for our rights. Stay tuned to learn how you can help us come for their jobs.
Read This: They Are Coming For Our Contraception
Before the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, many of us thought our right to abortion was something that could never be taken away — but now we know better. 43 states now have abortion restrictions, 14 of them with total bans.1
We know that extremists have been targeting women’s reproductive healthcare for decades.2 And they don’t plan to stop with abortion bans. Everything related to reproduction — including abortion access, miscarriage treatment, fertility treatments like IVF, and birth control — is at risk.
At the root of this is the extreme-right’s long time goal of having “fetal personhood” legally recognized — a concept that says that life starts at fertilization. In January 2023, Republicans in the U.S. House introduced the Life at Conception Act, with 125 Republican sponsors, that says that human life begins at fertilization.3 And on February 16, 2024, a “fetal personhood” ruling was made in Alabama that has the potential to impact all of us.4
With its Chief Justice quoting the Bible in his concurring opinion, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are legally considered children. That means that all embryos, from the moment of fertilization, have legal rights, even before they are implanted in a woman’s uterus. IVF providers in Alabama have paused treatments while they figure out the legal impacts of the ruling.5
So, we’ve seen how extremists’ plans are restricting our access to abortion and IVF. What comes next? Well, shortly after the fall of Roe, 195 Republicans in the U.S. House voted against protecting the individual right to access contraception.6 Since then, several states have moved to criminalize other aspects of reproductive rights, including any birth control that stops a fertilized egg from implanting, such as intrauterine devices (IUDs). Our access to birth control, including emergency contraception like Plan B, will be at risk as long as extremists keep pursuing this idea of fetal personhood.
A lot of this doesn’t make logical sense. How is it pro-life to stop IVF procedures for the 1 in 6 women who want children but are experiencing fertility issues? And if they want to decrease the number of abortions in our country, why are they limiting access to birth control? But for them, it’s not about logic. It’s about controlling women and making our reproductive choices for us. Our access to birth control will not be safe until it is explicitly protected by law. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks about how we can secure that protection.
Do This: Tell Your Friends About The Maternal Mortality Crisis
Now you’ve read about how maternal mortality rates in the U.S. are drastically increasing, and how that means more women are dying. You also heard from Georgia Representative Jasmine Clark about how access to preventative healthcare can help women have healthier pregnancies and reduce our maternal mortality rates. Doctors and medical experts have solutions to this crisis, so we can’t let these tragic deaths continue to happen.
So what can we do about it? Raise our voices! Share this information with your friends and family, and let’s demand better reproductive healthcare access for ALL women! We’ve made it super-easy with our social media share tool. Start below, and with just a few clicks, you can share this information and earn your Easy A today!
Watch This: Maternal Mortality Rates in the U.S.
Last week we learned about the horrifically-high maternal mortality rate in the U.S., and how women of color are most affected. Recently our own Jasmine Clark, co-host of The Suburban Women Problem podcast and a Georgia State Representative with a PhD in Microbiology, spoke on the floor of the Georgia State House about maternal mortality rates. The Speaker of the House cut her off and denied her the full 2 minutes to speak.
We find it particularly offensive for a Black woman to be silenced when she is speaking about this crisis in maternal healthcare, and we aren’t going to be quiet about this issue.
Watch Jasmine’s speech below, and stay tuned next week for an opportunity to raise your voice about the maternal mortality crisis!
Read This: Maternal Mortality Rates in the U.S.
Did you know that the U.S. is the only developed country in the world with a high maternal mortality rate? “Maternal mortality” refers to when women die during pregnancy, childbirth, or shortly after the end of their pregnancy due to complications. In 2021, we were ranked 55th in the world for maternal mortality, despite having an advanced healthcare system. Other developed nations rank much higher, like the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Australia, and most of Europe.
If that’s not bad enough, our maternal mortality rate has actually been increasing in recent years! We are moving in the wrong direction and more women are dying.
In 2021 the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. was 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births. To put that into perspective, 1,205 women died from maternal causes. That’s a 40% increase in just one year! Those women were our sisters, our daughters, our partners, and our friends.
And women of color are much more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth than white women. In 2021, Native American women’s maternal mortality rate was 4.5 times that of white women, and Black women’s rate was 2.6 times the rate of white women.
Although not all states track maternal mortality rates, we do know that certain regions, like the south, have higher maternal mortality. And states with stricter abortion laws often have the highest maternal mortality rates. With abortion restrictions increasing throughout the United States, and the resulting deserts of maternal healthcare, experts fear the maternal mortality rate will continue to increase in the U.S.
That means more women will die — people we know and love, possibly even ourselves — due to complications with pregnancy, childbirth or the immediate postpartum period, and that’s unacceptable.
The big question is, what can we do about it? You just took the first step by reading about the problem. Stay tuned for more info and how to take action. Thanks for completing your Easy A action for this week.
Take It One Step Further: Subscribe to the Suburban Women Problem on Substack
As you know, many of our weekly Easy A actions, like the latest series on the problem with school vouchers, have been informed by our awesome podcasts, The Cost of Extremism and The Suburban Women Problem. You know those “Listen to This” clips we share with you? Those come from our pods! If you’ve enjoyed learning from their in-depth coverage of important topics — even if you don’t have a chance to listen — then we have some exciting news for you!
The Suburban Women Problem is now on Substack! Each week, they’ll be sharing stories, updates, and key information about their podcast topic, and you can get those posts delivered directly to your email inbox! What a great way to do a deeper dive into topics you’re wanting to learn more about.
Check out The Suburban Women Problem on Substack here: substack.redwine.blue and subscribe to get the posts right in your inbox!