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Today we filed suit to stop Florida’s new mandatory 24-hour waiting period to receive an abortion. Governor Scott signed the bill last night and we filed our complaint first thing this morning. You had our back during the legislative session and contacted your elected officials; now we’ve got yours in the courts. Our clients are Gainesville Woman Care and Medical Students for Choice and they assert that this new law violates Florida’s constitutional right to privacy and equal protection. We warned the legislature that the abortion delay was unconstitutional, but they passed the law anyway under the theory that women needed a little more time to think about the abortion they’d already decided to have. Read the complaint here.

By: Elena McCollough- Coast Guard Veteran, retired after 24 years of service I came to this wonderful country to live permanently in 1977. I finished High School a couple of years later and the week of my 18th birthday I joined the United States Coast Guard. In the military I learned a great deal about work ethics, met amazing and life time friends, traveled to great places like Virginia, Alaska, Puerto Rico, California, Alabama and finished my career 24 years later in Florida. I am thankful to also have learned that teamwork joins individuals on a common cause and that we are most effective when we all contribute our part.

By: Salvador Montalvo, Chef One of my greatest passions in life is the culinary arts. I’m a chef with more than a decade of experience and the thing I enjoy the most about cooking is the possibility to mix flavors, styles and cultures. With food, the diversity of flavors enriches our palates. Just like in our community, and in our labor force, diversity offers us great strength and benefits. For this reason, I have always made an effort in my professional life about creating an inclusive environment for all employees, including those that identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT).

I first started my career with the ACLU as a voting rights attorney with our National office. In that role, I had the privilege of representing African-American voters who were challenging restrictive voter laws, namely voter ID, and most of my clients grew up in the segregated South. They vividly remembered the inhumanity of Jim Crow laws, especially those that made it impossible for African-Americans to vote and elect candidates of their choice. One of my former clients, Rev. Peter Johnson based in Texas, was one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s foot soldiers. At the age of 13, Rev. Johnson taught other blacks how to read at the bottom of his uncle’s church so they could pass Louisiana’s literary tests to vote. He recounted stories of how more affluent African-Americans would station themselves in front of polling places and pay the poll tax of any citizen brave enough to attempt to vote.