ACLU of Kentucky

Over 600 Kentuckians from across the Commonwealth came out to hear the stories of three individuals directly affected by the death penalty during the Journey of Hope tour in early November. Terri Steinberg, Shujaa Graham and Bill Pelke toured 7 Kentucky colleges in three days to gain support for abolishing the death penalty in Kentucky.

Katie McCracken, Georgetown’s Campus Ministry Intern, expressed her appreciation of hearing the different perspectives of the speakers, “When trying to change minds you need to come at it from multiple directions,” and the various points of view allowed listeners to do just that.  Cherie Dawson-Edwards, an ACLU board member and one of the organizers of the KY State Journey of Hope stated that following the event “Students and faculty came up to me throughout the day with stories of how the speakers moved them.” WKU student Sheri Pearson said, “What stood out most for me were my children’s reactions.” Sheri’s ten-year old son Grant Denbaugh told her that he had never really thought about why he was against the death penalty until he met Mr. Graham, who was exonerated from death row after being framed for the 1973 murder of a prison guard in Stockton, CA.

Journey of Hope attendees were overwhelmingly moved to act. Over 350 individuals filled out postcards to legislators asking them to support abolition of the death penalty. WKU student Greg Capillo urged fellow students to also call their legislators. Other attendees signed up to attend the annual conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, coming to Louisville in January.

The success of the Journey of Hope tour is another indication that Kentuckians are ready for abolition as indicated by extensive recent media coverage in the Courier-Journal, Bowling Green Daily News, and the State Journal, among others. Kentucky is on the tipping point of abolishing the death penalty - following in the steps of New Jersey and New Mexico, both of which did away with capital punishment within the last two years.

Kentuckians can end the barbaric and ineffective practice of executions, but we need your help! Please consider attending the NCADP conference from January 14-17 at the Seelbach Hilton in downtown Louisville where you will have an opportunity to hear experienced speakers cover ways to diversify the movement and lead discussions on innovative responses to crime, violence and criminal justice.

Register for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s annual conference Early registration rates end November 23! If you can’t make the entire conference, please consider attending the awards dinner where we will be recognizing longtime ACLU Board Member and abolitionist Carl Wedekind.

This Letter to the Editor Appeared in the 10-27-09 Edition of the Courier-Journal.

Abortion: less necessary,less dangerous

I would like to respond to some of the letters criticizing the editorial The Courier-Journal wrote in response to the Guttmacher Institute's study of global abortion trends. First of all, regardless of where we land on the political spectrum, each of us has strong feelings about abortion. One thing we can all agree on is that when 70,000 women die and 8 million women suffer medical complications from unsafe abortions, something is wrong.

The C-J agreed that the Guttmacher Institute's three recommendations are common sense solutions to this problem.

The first recommendation is that we expand access to family planning and contraceptive services. This recommendation is key. When family planning and contraceptive services are easily accessible, when men and women's knowledge of those services increases and when those services are utilized, the rate of abortions declines. There is a direct link between increased knowledge and use of contraceptives and fewer abortions.

The second recommendation is to expand access to legal abortions, to ensure that they are safe. Historically, we know that once a woman makes the decision to have an abortion, she will have one, whether it is legal or not. We should support her by making sure that she has access to sanitary facilities and trained medical staff. That is what all of us would want for our daughters, mothers and wives. Legal and safe abortion services do not increase the number of abortions performed each year. Legal and safe abortions across the world decrease the number of deaths and complications for the women in our lives.

The third recommendation is to improve post-abortion care to reduce deaths and medical complications. This is something we should all agree with. After a woman has an abortion, she should have access to comprehensive post-procedure care. This is especially needed if the abortion was not performed in a medically appropriate setting.

All three of these recommendations make sense and focus on what we should do, which is make abortion less necessary, not more dangerous and difficult. Now that is something we all should agree on.

DEREK SELZNICK

Director

Reproductive Freedom Project

American Civil Liberties

Union of Kentucky