[[link removed]] DONATE [[link removed]]
[[link removed]]
FEBRUARY 27, 2025
Tickets & Sponsorships for Wine, Chocolate & Choice 2025 are NOW AVAILABLE!
[[link removed]]
Wine, Chocolate & Choice is Minnesota’s premier political networking event. This inclusive event is a space where we can all be ourselves.
When we’re together, we draw strength from our community. We learn from each other and are energized by each other’s commitment to reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy for all. Women Winning has been creating these vital spaces for engagement and activation for times like these, when we need them the most.
If you need a space to be fearless, then join us for Wine, Chocolate & Choice!
Wine, Chocolate, and Choice 2025
Thursday, March 13th, 2025
The Whim, 655 19th Ave NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418
6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Thank you to our generous sponsors!
Gold
Joanne & Dave Kamper
Champion
Kate Bryant | Traci Esades | Lorrie Janatopoulos | Kate Mortenson
Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP
Advocate
Kate Agnew | Cynthia Bauerly | Tracy Fischman | NewPublica
Lori Ryan | Jaime Tincher | Sandra Shirek | SeeBotRun
Grassroots
Carrie Carroll | Molly Coleman | County Commissioner Laurie Halverson | Kathy Heltzer
Ellen Hertz | Mary McKinley | Holly Kragthorpe Shirley | Alana Peterson
Cassandra Rohlik | Aaron Rosell | Betsy Sitkoff | Susan Thompson
Ambassador
Sen. Liz Boldon | Rep. Athena Hollins
Council Member Katie Cashman | Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw
Purchase Tickets & Sponsorships [[link removed]]
Applications for Women Winning’s 2025 PLOT cohort are NOW OPEN!
[[link removed]]
The Women Winning Political Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT) Training Program is designed to help you acquire the tools and connections needed to be a political leader in Minnesota. PLOT serves as an entry point for energized, pro-choice Minnesotans who are interested in a career in politics, especially those who have not yet volunteered or worked on a campaign.
PLOT invests in the next generation of political strategists, volunteers, and candidates in Minnesota through education and training. The Women Winning team supports and develops PLOT participants throughout the program by providing:
- In-depth training in campaign communication, fundraising, fieldwork, and strategy
- Professional development and networking opportunities
- Personalized check-ins and problem-solving coaching
Applications are now open and will be reviewed on a first-come-first-served basis! Apply today below for best priority!
Apply [[link removed]]
DFL revives Equal Rights Amendment which would guarantee some of the country's strongest abortion, LGBTQ protections
[[link removed]]
A proposed state constitutional amendment looks to take center stage at the Minnesota State Capitol. If approved the Minnesota Equal Rights Amendment would guarantee some of the nation’s broadest protections of abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.
Last year, the amendment passed the DFL-controlled House after a 15-hour filibustered debate. The Senate did not vote on the ERA after running out of time in the session. Now, state lawmakers and advocates are highlighting data they say shows Minnesotans support an Equal Rights Amendment.
The House is split evenly between the Democrats and Republicans which would make passage more difficult than it was in 2024 when the DFL controlled both the House and Senate where the DFL hold a one-seat advantage.
"Just because we have a tie in the house does not mean that the ERA is dead. I intend to move this legislation as I would any other piece of legislation," says Rep. Leigh Finke (DFL- St. Paul), who is the first openly transgender member of the Minnesota Legislature.
The proposal to amend the state Constitution is expected to receive plenty of pushback moving forward, particularly when it comes to abortion. Finke is the House Chair of the Minnesota Reproductive Freedom Caucus.
"I believe that the appetite among Minnesotans for an inclusive constitutional protection for all of our neighbors is what the voters want to support," Finke explains.
Read More [[link removed]]
Supreme Court rejects challenges to abortion clinic ‘buffer zone’ laws that restrict protesters
[[link removed]]
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider overturning a 25-year-old precedent that upheld "buffer zone" laws limiting how close protesters can get to abortion clinic entrances.
In a setback for abortion opponents, the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority hostile to abortion rights, opted against weighing whether such laws violate the free speech rights of protesters under the Constitution's First Amendment.
At issue in the two related cases were buffer zone laws in Carbondale, Illinois, and Englewood, New Jersey.
In the 2000 ruling in a case called Hill v. Colorado, the court upheld a buffer zone law in that state. A wave of such measures were enacted following violence connected to anti-abortion protesters, including a 1994 case in which two clinic workers were killed in Massachusetts.
Two conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, said they would have taken up the Illinois case.
Thomas wrote a statement noting that the court has not applied the Hill ruling in recent years, but lower courts still "feel bound by it."
By declining to take up the issue, the court "declines an invitation to set the record straight," he added.
Read More [[link removed]]
Texas banned abortion. Then sepsis rates soared.
[[link removed]]
Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion in 2021, ProPublica found in a first-of-its-kind data analysis.
The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester, ProPublica found.
The surge in this life-threatening condition, caused by infection, was most pronounced for patients whose fetus may still have had a heartbeat when they arrived at the hospital.
ProPublica previously reported on two such cases in which miscarrying women in Texas died of sepsis after doctors delayed evacuating their uteruses. Doing so would have been considered an abortion.
The new reporting shows that, after the state banned abortion, dozens more pregnant and postpartum women died in Texas hospitals than had in pre-pandemic years, which ProPublica used as a baseline to avoid COVID-19-related distortions. As the maternal mortality rate dropped nationally, ProPublica found, it rose substantially in Texas.
ProPublica’s analysis is the most detailed look yet at a rise in life-threatening complications for women losing a pregnancy after Texas banned abortion. It raises concerns that the same pattern may be occurring in more than a dozen other states with similar bans.
Read More [[link removed]]
Community Resources & Events
📌 Gender Justice Trans Equity Training
* Date: Friday, February 28
* Time: 12:00 - 1:00 PM
* Location: Virtual
* Sign Up [[link removed]]
📌 Honest Sex Ed Minnesota Launch Party
* Date: Friday, February 28
* Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
* Location: Sociable Cider Werks, 1500 Fillmore St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413
* Get Tickets [[link removed]]
📌 MUJERES CREADORAS: An art experience to commemorate International Women's Day, led by artist Constanza Carballo in partnership with the Minnesota Latino Museum
* Date: Saturday, March 8
* Time: 2:00 PM - 7:00 PM
* Location: Solar Arts Building, 711 NE 15th Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55413
📌 Reproductive Freedom Lobby Day with Pro-Choice Minnesota & Unrestrict Minnesota
* Date: Monday, March 10
* Time: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
* Location: Minnesota State Capitol, 75 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard., St Paul, MN 55155
* Sign Up [[link removed]]
Donate to Women Winning [[link removed]]
Women Winning is a Minnesota non-profit corporation that is recognized as a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organization. Contributions are not tax-deductible for income tax purposes.
Women Winning
2233 University Avenue West
Suite 310
Saint Paul, MN 55114
United States
If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe: [link removed] .