I am Woman: A Call to Action for Womens Rights

Show Transcript

I Am Woman: A Call to Action for Women's Rights

[00:00:00] Bob Gatty: Women are under attack, and the attack is coming from Donald Trump and his allies, resulting in Roe v. Wade being eliminated. But women are not quietly, meekly, standing by as this new video illustrates.

[00:00:16] Song Plays: The Supreme court has reached a decision. The Supreme court has now overturned Roe v. Wade.

[00:00:22] There is no constitutional right to an abortion. I am woman. Hear me roar. I vote in numbers to big, to ignore. I am a woman. Hear me roar. I'll vote in numbers too big to ignore you. To overturn Roe v. Wade But I am not afraid, you'll not keep me from voting at the polls. Yes, I am wise. Yes, I am wise, but it's wisdom born of pain.

[00:00:55] Yes, I paid the price, but now I lost again. If I have to. If I have to, I can face anything. I am strong. I am invincible. I am woman. I am strong. I am invincible. I am woman. You can bend but never break me. Cause it only serves to make me more determined to achieve. You can bend but never break me. Cause it only serves to make me more determined to achieve.

[00:01:30] It's to make me more determined to achieve choice, my final goal. And no one's ever going to keep me down again. Yes, I am wise, but it's wisdom born of pain. Yes, I've paid the price, but now I've lost again. If I have to, I can do anything, I will do anything. I am invincible. I am woman. I will vote. I am invincible.

[00:02:09] I am woman. I am woman. Watch me grow. See me standing, toe to toe.

[00:02:16] I need you to know, I'll be standing right here, ready to go, until I make my brothers understand. You overturned Roe v. Wade, but I am not afraid. Yes, I am wise, but it's with a boil of hay, yes, I'll pay the price. But now I'm lost again. If I have to, I can't face anything. If I have to, I can face anything. I am strong.

[00:02:51] I am invincible. I am woman. I am woman. Freedom. Freedom to choose. It's our fight. I vote for women's right to choose. I vote for women's right to choose. To choose. To choose. For women's right to choose. To choose. I am woman. I have too much to lose. I vote. I am strong. I am woman. I am invincible.

[00:03:21] I am strong. Soy una mujer. I am woman.

[00:03:26] Bob Gatty: Now with us today are two women who created that incredible video. Connie DeGioias began as a community organizer. She was the first woman elected from her district to public office. She's a former Maryland State Delegate, Government Relations Consultant, and is now happily retired. But she's not sitting around eating bonbons and knitting sweaters for her grandkids.

[00:03:51] Connie, welcome. Can you please introduce Donna for us? 

[00:03:55] Connie DeJullis: Sure, Donna is a former president of the National Women's Political Caucus, and Donna formed a chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus here in South Carolina. She gathered together a lot of very strong Democratic women to begin to work here in South Carolina.

[00:04:16] And I am proud to have met Donna, and Donna has helped to develop this chapter. Video that you have shown I am woman and to begin to organize women here in South Carolina and Donna is now Managing a campaign for another strong woman Democrat, Michelle Green, who is running for the school board in District 9.

[00:04:42] Bob Gatty: Excellent. Donna, welcome. Welcome. Thanks for joining us. 

[00:04:46] Donna Lent: Thanks for having me. 

[00:04:48] Bob Gatty: The National Women's Political Caucus is one hell of an organization that has a very important role to play. Just real quickly, exactly what is it that you guys do? 

[00:04:59] Donna Lent: What we do is recruit, train, and elect women for elected and appointed office, and we've been doing that since 1971, but I just want to go back for one second, Bob, if you don't mind.

[00:05:12] Sure. I had a very small part in helping Connie DeJuliis with this wonderful new remake of a classic. 

[00:05:21] Bob Gatty: Okay. It's a beautiful piece.

[00:05:23] Connie DeJullis: Bob, let me, first of all, let me go back and say, I appreciate your comments.

[00:05:28] However, there are times when you get to a point where the obstacles become Great. And the frustration becomes greater and I had reached that point. And although it is something that I thought about, I am happily retired and I feel like I have done a lot in my life. However, I didn't want to sit by on the sidelines.

[00:05:49] What the Supreme Court did in overturning Roe v. Wade took American women back to a time that we did not want to go. When you think about it, when you think about it, let me go back for a moment and tell you this. Okay. Abigail Adams, on March the 31st, 1776, wrote this letter to her husband. She said, I long to hear that you have declared independence.

[00:06:19] And by the way, in the new code of laws, which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire that you remember the ladies. And be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors, she said. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.

[00:06:44] If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion. And will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no choice or representation. Okay, so we are not fomenting a rebellion, but however, we think about that. Okay, think about that.

[00:07:08] That was 248 years ago. And then in 1848, it was the first convention for women to rally and demand a vote. And then it took 72 years before women got the right to vote. Some women and some women, not all women, not American Indians, women, not African American and women of color to get the vote. Some women and now and then it took us 52 years ago to get the right to control our own body. And then when Brett Kavanaugh became a justice of the Supreme Court and then U. S. Senator Kamala Harris asked him, can you tell me what law exists where it controls a man's body? And he said, are you asking me about medical?

[00:08:15] She said no, it was a very specific question. And he couldn't answer. He said I can't think of that right now because there isn't. However, when you think about it, the government wants to control women's bodies and women have had to fight for 248 years to have the right to be full citizens of this country, have had to fight To have the right to participate in their government.

[00:08:45] And now we have to fight again to control our own body. And that's wrong. It's wrong. So although I'm happily retired, I couldn't sit on the sidelines. And then when the obstacles came, women stepped forward and Donna Lent was one of them. And literally in the 11th hour, I needed more women to participate in this video.

[00:09:16] Yes, it was my idea. One person, it takes more than one person. And women stepped forward to help and without Donna Lent, it wouldn't have happened and furthermore, without Donna Lent, it would not be, it would not be around this country as it is. Donna has sent this video and it's not an ad.

[00:09:41] It's not an ad. It's a message. It's a message to women of my generation of the generations that came after to remember. That we have the power. We have the power and the power exists in that hard fought vote that we have to use it to exercise it to come out and to voice your anger at what has happened.

[00:10:08] That's what the message is. That's what the purpose is. Okay. And Donna has sent that video to hundreds of people and those hundreds of people are sending it to hundreds more. And that's what its purpose is to remind women, you have the power, use it. 

[00:10:25] Bob Gatty: Excellent. I'm so happy to be able to help you guys promote this video.

[00:10:30] It is just an incredible piece and the message is so very important. Now, what are your further plans for it? 

[00:10:39] Donna Lent: I'm hoping that it will continue to gain attention. We would love to see it played at the Democratic National Convention this coming up, in just a short time. Yeah. It has been distributed to our chapters across the country.

[00:10:54] I believe that every delegate in the state of Washington and Maryland have received it. Many of our elected women have received it in Congress also it's going to just keep growing. It's an anthem. I received calls after I sent it out. One woman from Florida, a very good friend of mine in tears over it because she said after all the work that we did, all the marches that we attended.

[00:11:24] Yeah to maintain and keep hold of choice As a matter of fact in new york while I was that's where i'm from. You can probably tell by my accent. 

[00:11:33] Bob Gatty: Long island, I bet. 

[00:11:35] Donna Lent: Yes, long island And in 1992 I got involved with an effort, you know at that time we had a right to life party in new york Believe it or not.

[00:11:45] They had ballot access Because in new york just as in south carolina, you are able to course endorse major party candidates You Okay. So we tried to form what we call the choice party, because our goal was to provide a voting booth education to people that if a candidate appeared on our choice party line, you knew where they stood on choice, because at that time we found that there were Democrats that were being endorsed by major by the major party that did not support reproductive freedom. So we, I spent two and a half years of my life on that. It was a failed effort. We did file we had a candidate for governor and lieutenant governor that year, but but it was a lot of hard work. And at least we were able to do that and get petitions filed.

[00:12:37] And that the next time a seat came up on Long Island with the Suffolk County Legislature, it did go to a woman that had received 14 percent of the vote. on the choice line as an independent line that was before our effort to create the statewide party started. It got attention and they stopped endorsing anti choice men or men that did not support reproductive freedom because, it's just not about abortion.

[00:13:06] It's about birth control. It's about IVF. It's about access. There's so much involved in it. It is not just, everybody would like to reduce the number of abortions. Nobody is pro abortion, but I am passionately for reproductive freedom and women to be able to make or access, a safe, healthy way to, make these decisions for themselves. There has to be, there has to be access.

[00:13:38] Bob Gatty: Now the song says, until I make my brothers understand. What does that mean? 

[00:13:45] Donna Lent: How many men are in the anti choice movement? Tell me the last time they were pregnant. Tell me the last time they were faced with not being able to have a healthy procedure because of a miscarriage.

[00:13:55] Yeah. There are too many men. In the anti choice movement. Get out. Get out. 

[00:14:01] Connie DeJullis: Bob. Here's what it means. Here's what it means. Okay. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. First, let me say this, it put in jeopardy, it put in jeopardy a lot of cases that had already been decided by the Supreme Court, here's an example of what it did, what, and I'm not an attorney, what it did, it was it put in jeopardy the clause in the 14th amendment that guarantees due process.

[00:14:27] And some of the cases that were determined by that 14th amendment was the Dred Scott case. Brown versus Board of Education, same sex marriage. the affirmative action, race based college admissions so many cases that were based on, on, on the due process clause of the 14th amendment. But here's the other thing, and this goes to what Donna was saying.

[00:14:53] In state legislatures, first of all, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, states started enacting laws that were so restrictive. So restrictive. And here's how it breaks down. And in legislatures across this nation, 30%, 30 percent of state Senate's, women are 30%. Okay. 30 percent of state Senate of the state Senate, 30 percent all across the country, all across the country.

[00:15:24] So here's the example. Here's the example. There are 1, 973 state senators in legislatures. Okay. 592 are women. So that's 30 percent of state senators across the nation are women. And then in state houses or assemblies, depending on what state it is, how they're labeled. Okay. 34 percent are women.

[00:15:50] And so what happens when you have legislation that affect women? Women or affect families or affect children issues. Okay, what happened in this last election here in South Carolina, in the state Senate, there were five women in the state Senate, and now there are two. Now there are two, two women senators in Carolina State Senate.

[00:16:17] Okay. Yeah. What do you think is going to happen when legislation comes into Carolina's state legislature and there are two women, two women to, to advocate on behalf of issues that affect women. And let me say this. As a former state legislator, I can assure you that there are bills that are going to hit that assembly that affect every single citizen in this state, because every piece of legislation affects families regardless of whether you want to characterize it as a quote, woman's issue or not, it affects families. Women are the heart of every family. So it doesn't have to be a choice issue or a reproductive health issue, and these men have no clue how a woman's body works, and you know what?

[00:17:12] Let me say this. I talked to my husband about this. I said, you know what? I'm not going to say that. He said, remember what your dad said. He said, my father used to say, if you believe it, and you're the only one standing, he said, stand up. And so here's what I have to say. When, and it's generally true men, when a man rapes a woman and these legislatures have enacted laws that do not allow an abortion in cases of rape or incest.

[00:17:42] Okay. So listen to me, a 10 year old girl, 12 year old girl, a victim of rape, impregnated and forced to carry that fetus. So the man is indicted, convicted, and he goes to prison for five years. I think that he should be castrated. Why not? Why shouldn't there be a penalty that affects his body in the same way, in the same way that, that these state legislatures decide that they can control and govern women's bodies?

[00:18:25] When women are not committing crimes, 

[00:18:30] Donna Lent: Not only that, there are some states that allow visitation to to perpetrate it. So you could have someone who was a, a young woman, girl, forced to have a child. A baby have a baby and then be forced to deal with that perpetrator having visitation rights for that child and have to do a handoff.

[00:19:01] How outrageous is that? Texas is one of those states. 

[00:19:05] Bob Gatty: Yeah. That's terrible. You talked about the impact in South Carolina with only two women in the state Senate now. Look what they've already done with abortion legislation, one of the most restrictive laws in the country, right?

[00:19:21] Isn't that true? Yeah All right. So you guys have been in this fight and things were not looking so great for you now things have changed

[00:19:34] Connie DeJullis: That's right. 

[00:19:36] Bob Gatty: Why have they changed? 

[00:19:38] Connie DeJullis: Kamala Harris, we have hope joy.

[00:19:43] Bob Gatty: Yep, What else an opportunity, right? 

[00:19:48] Donna Lent: An opportunity and let me tell you women and here in South Carolina too,, it was, it really was hard for me to reconcile me coming from New York, coming down to South Carolina, I had vacationed here for many years with my children.

[00:20:05] I built my home here 10 years ago, even though we would only visit it two or three times a year. But two of my children also live here. They had relocated here before me. Okay. So now, I was an elected official in New York at a lower level. I was the town clerk for the town of Brookhaven.

[00:20:21] And I served for nine years there as town clerk. And when I decided to, I actually left my term early and I retired in the middle of November of 22. I had to really deal with having to to move from New York down to a red state, even though as much, I loved Myrtle Beach and South Carolina, but yes, it's a red state.

[00:20:46] Yeah. So very different. But let me tell you something. Don't be fooled. There are activists and Democrats all over this state. And nobody is going to sleep on the job here until November. As a matter of fact, we'll sleep when we're dead. You know that expression, I used to say it in campaigns that I ran.

[00:21:10] You're tired. That's okay. You can sleep when you're dead. And that's what we're going to do this time. And that's what we're going to do this time. We will sleep when we're dead, because we're going to do everything we can to make sure that Kamala Harris gets elected as president. I love her choice in Mr. Walz, but I, we can't have a more strong advocate for women's reproductive freedom. Yeah, exactly. What a contrast. 

[00:21:40] Bob Gatty: Absolutely. And so now, as you said, there's hope. 

[00:21:45] Donna Lent: There's hope. And I came down here and I decided I just can't, I gave up my position as national president of the National Women's Political Caucus last August.

[00:21:56] I just can't sit here. So I decided let me start a chapter of NWPC down here in South Carolina. There used to be one here out of Spartansburg that had stopped, operating. So I've been busy trying to get people to sign up as members. You can go to nwpc. org, sign up as a member, become part of this caucus, and we will activate and work.

[00:22:23] We were involved last year in the mayor of Conway's race. Okay. We did a postcard campaign for everybody expected her to lose that race. That was the consensus. Anybody that I spoke to, but we did a targeted postcard campaign to people that we knew we needed to pull out to get out to vote.

[00:22:43] Donna Lent: Okay. And she prevailed. And now we've endorsed Michelle Green for school board. She has a tremendous background 31 years as teacher, assistant principal, and she's going to win that race also. Good. Because right now, the school board here in South Carolina, There is not one person that really has a background in education.

[00:23:07] There is one, I understand, that taught 25 years ago and hasn't been in a classroom since. But no one with a background in education. And maybe that's why South Carolina, when it comes to education, is 40th in the nation. 

[00:23:20] Bob Gatty: Yeah very well could be right. 

[00:23:22] Connie DeJullis: 55 percent of the registered voters in South Carolina are women.

[00:23:28] Oh, there you go, are women. And we want to pull 55%. And that is according, believe it or not, that's according to a Republican consultant. And so I think that we need to touch those women. We need to make sure that they understand that it is their reproductive health care and their daughters, their sisters, that's on the ballot.

[00:23:52] And maybe it makes a difference. 

[00:23:55] Donna Lent: Since we're talking about Republicans, this might be a good time for me to tell you, Bob, National Women's Political Caucus has always been a bipartisan organization. Okay. The mission though. Is to recruit, train and elect pro choice, pro ERA, Equal Rights Amendment, because it is still, it's still being worked on, and pro expansion of family care.

[00:24:19] Those are the, that, that is the mission. The only problem we have now is that probably since 2000 and the advent of the Tea Party , Republican women that were solidly pro choice. We're targeted and now it's very, you won't find really a woman running for office. It's very difficult to find a Republican woman who's willing to stand up and say, yes, she is pro choice.

[00:24:45] Bob Gatty: Oh, that's true.

[00:24:47] Donna Lent: It doesn't mean they don't exist because they exist. Trust me. 

[00:24:51] Bob Gatty: What's your message to voters?

[00:24:54] Connie DeJullis: Our message is to, our message is to the women. Our message is to the women. Our message is to the women. And it is because it is women's rights that are on the ballot. My message is to the women because it is the women's rights that are on the ballot and they are being, they are in jeopardy.

[00:25:15] They are in jeopardy. There is no, absolutely no reason why any government should attempt to control women's bodies and that is exactly what's happening, and the oh, there's an overarching concern as well I think this Supreme Court, you know has really gone. So I just I don't i'm at a loss for words in terms of how this supreme court Has undermined the very foundations of this country And that is frightening to me 

[00:25:45] Donna Lent: So my message would be to women do not sit back and think that someone else is going to do it.

[00:25:51] You need to do it. You need to grab a friend, join a group, join the National Women's Political Caucus, join efforts, knock on doors. This is not an election that's going to be won by talking about it. All right, don't sit around a table and talk about how things should be, how they could be. Get out and do something about it.

[00:26:11] Connie DeJullis: And don't think that your vote doesn't matter. Just remember that there are elections that have been literally won by one vote per precinct across the nation. The Kennedy election, one vote per precinct around in every precinct in this country, one vote. And the, Bob, there were five women state senators in South Carolina.

[00:26:36] Now there are two. The three women who lost were Republican. One of them lost by 31 votes, 31 votes, 31 votes in her primary. Lost to a male. Pro life extremists. Every one of the three female state senators who lost because of that issue. They lost because they advocated strongly to protect women's rights to control at some degree, their own reproductive health, and they lost.

[00:27:10] Donna Lent: Can I tell you something about that race for Sandy's end, Bob? Okay. So I offered up women in my group. I had contacted her campaign headquarters or her campaign staff on Monday before election day, right? The primary, right? I offered, I said, get me a list. I have people that are willing to make phone calls to get your vote out..

[00:27:37] And I'm sorry to say, but the person told me that they were done making calls. They had already finished up that morning. And I said, Okay, but you're going to do phone calls tomorrow, right? You, everybody on your list that you know is a yes vote. You need to call them tomorrow to let them know to make sure they actually got out to vote.

[00:27:57] Yeah. They didn't have a plan for that. You cannot tell me there is no way where I would ever accept. That calling through her list again on Tuesday that we couldn't have found those 31 votes. Sure. My marching orders on a campaign day, on a, I'm sorry, on an election day, when I send my volunteers out to knock on doors, to do lift drops, it's, oh, we shake those trees.

[00:28:24] Get out there and shake those trees because you've got to shake every vote out because people, although they are well intentioned, they will still forget. You don't stop calling people to make sure they got out to vote until you know they can't get online at the poll anymore. It's too late. You just keep calling.

[00:28:44] And once you, they tell you, yeah, we go out, we asked, we voted for this case, voted for Sandy's son. You take them off the list. You don't need to call them again, but you just keep doing it. That's why I say you sleep when you're dead. You keep working and working until the last very minute. 31 votes is To lose by 31 votes is absolutely sickening.

[00:29:04] Connie DeJullis: Let me, may I say something? Sure. Strong advocate. This is this is funny. When we when I first moved to Myrtle Beach three years ago and in a grocery store, and maybe I was a little frustrated because I had so much and that this was literally, we maybe we hadn't been here a month and I was in a grocery store and I was in a hurry and the clerk said.

[00:29:26] Well, honey, you're in the South now. We move a little bit slower here. And I was like, okay, so people from the North are used to, we're used to that fast pace. We're used to moving. And I get it, so things are slower here, but I, Donna, I get it. I'm from Maryland and when you're in a campaign, you got to move fast and you got to work hard.

[00:29:47] And you got to continue that work until the polls close on election day. So you don't stop the day before you keep doing the phone calls and you keep knocking on the doors and you keep saying I'll drive you to the polls. You Oh, you didn't vote today. I didn't have a car.

[00:30:04] Okay. I'll get in. I'll drive you. That's how it works. And that's how you do it. And that's how we do it. And in Baltimore, that's how you do it in New York, and that's how you do it, and that's how you win, and that's what that's the message that we bring, and that's the work ethic that we bring to the campaign, and the difference.

[00:30:22] That's the difference that you make. And that's part of the purpose of that video, Bob, is to remind people. People and so that the younger generations, and the younger women that have, there's been some criticism that, that song was outdated. That song originally by Helen Reddy was the anthem for the women's rights movement in the seventies.

[00:30:42] The young women that have responded to me, they're in tears as well. They love it. They love it. They're touched by it. And if I know we've used a lot of your time, but let me just say two things, the woman who sings that song, her mother is in that video. Her mother is the woman in the baseball cap.

[00:31:02] Her mother, Anisha green is her name. And she's a beautiful singer. Anisha Green is the singer. Her mother is in that video in the baseball cap. Her mother, single mom, Navy veteran, raised that young woman. And they put their heart and soul, every woman in that video, put their heart and soul in it. Took time.

[00:31:23] Some of them time off from work, but they, women were absolutely unbelievable and their commitment to making this work. 

[00:31:31] Bob Gatty: it's my opinion you guys are unbelievable. This is an unbelievable, beautiful piece. And it needs to be an anthem across the country.

[00:31:39] It does. And I'm hoping that somehow it can be played at the Democratic National Convention. That's just great. All right. Okay. Have you guys got anything, any closing comments you'd like to make? 

[00:31:58] Donna Lent: Join the National Women's Political Caucus. Go to nwpc. org and join the South Carolina chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus.

[00:32:07] Okay, we can all work together on this campaign 

[00:32:09] Bob Gatty: But how about for people that don't live in south carolina because this podcast has national reach. So what do you got to say there? 

[00:32:17] Donna Lent: There's you'll find a chapter go to nwpc. org. You'll find a chapter close by to you. So 

[00:32:22] Bob Gatty: Okay, great.

[00:32:23] Donna Lent: It still applies. Okay 

[00:32:26] Connie DeJullis: Share, share the I am woman video with all of your contacts.

[00:32:30] Make sure that you get out to vote. Make sure that you vote. This is the most consequential election in your lifetime. 

[00:32:40] Bob Gatty: Absolutely. All right. Thank you guys. Thank you.