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Thursday, July 20, 2017

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

State lawmakers condemn GOP health care 
efforts, advocate for Planned Parenthood

State senator 

Rebekah Warren 

warns against 

defunding women’s 
health initiatives

By DYLAN LACROIX

Summer Daily News Editor

State Sen. Rebekah Warren (D–

Ann Arbor) and state Rep. Ronnie 
Peterson (D–Ypsilanti) spoke at 
the Riverside Art Center in down-
town Ypsilanti to over 40 people 
on behalf of Planned Parenthood 
Advocates of Michigan’s third 
and final Field Hearing Monday 
night. They discussed the cur-
rent battle against the Republican 
health care bill in the Senate and 
its effects on women’s health if 
passed.

Warren’s speech, which fol-

lowed a brief informational ses-
sion by Emily Clancy, Planned 
Parenthood Advocate organizer, 
weighed in on how she believes 
Democrats have depended too 
long on the federal backstep of 

the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court 
ruling to protect and defend legal 
abortions, forcing the GOP to 
depend on states to funnel their 
own anti-abortion legislation.

“The states have really become 

incubators, kind of laboratories, 
of anti-choice legislation,” War-
ren said. “We haven’t worried that 
much, as much as probably we 
should have, because we have Roe 
v. Wade, and we know that it laid 
out some really important tenants 
that we thought were there to pro-
tect us for a very long time.”

In reference to the state of 

Michigan’s 
Informed 
Consent 

for Abortion law created in 1993 
— which requires women to have 
certain information be made 
available for at least 24 hours 
prior to undergoing abortion 
procedures — she discussed the 
increasing amount of legislative 
efforts passed by the GOP mak-
ing it more difficult for women to 
have access to an abortion.

“I think, as women, this is one 

of the most insulting pieces of 
legislation we have on the books,” 
Warren said. “I don’t know any 
woman who has ever found her-
self, even for a moment, in the 

event she might have an unin-
tended pregnancy, who doesn’t 
put a lot of thought into what the 
outcomes of that might be.”

Since the recent movement 

to defund Planned Parenthood, 
Warren also spoke about the 
importance of spreading trans-
parency about misconceptions 
of Medicaid-funded abortions in 
Michigan where, since the Hyde 
Amendment of 1988, Michigan 
has bannedthe use of federal 

Medicaid funds towards abor-
tions except for instances of rape 
and incest.

“Planned Parenthood does zero 

abortions in this state with feder-
al money,” Warren said. “The only 
abortions that can be funded with 
state Medicaid money right now 
are just in the category of rape and 
incest.”

to the event,” Delhey said. “As 
times have changed, we felt it was 
important to have that accessi-
bility on a Sunday, so we moved 
it over so that more people could 
get here on the weekend.”

Maureen Riley, the executive 

director of the Ann Arbor Street 
Art Fair, The Original, said there 
was bad weather on the Sunday 
last year and so event contribu-
tors did not see the results it 
had hoped for; still, according to 
Riley, it was the right decision. 

“Everyone has told us they are 

thrilled we made the move,” she 
said. 

In terms of coordinating the 

event, each group curates their 
show separately but work jointly 
on marketing, sponsorships and 
city services. 

“We all take applications from 

artists and then go through a 
juried process, so they’re scored 
and then we pick who comes into 

the show based on their score, in 
a nutshell,” Dehley said. “Each 
show indepently does that — 
they have different standards 
that they look for when they’re 
jurying their show. You’re pretty 
much going to see, they’re all jur-
ied art fairs; so you’re going to see 
high-quality 
work 
throughout 

the entire event.”

A lot of the differences, how-

ever, depend on the missions of 
the organizations running them. 
The State Street Art Fair and the 
South University Art Fair, for 
example, are run by area associa-
tions, so the fairs serve as fund-
raisers for the association. The 
goal of the Guild is to provide 
marketing opportunities for art-
ists. The Ann Arbor Street Art 
Fair, The Original is organized by 
a nonprofit that aims to bring art 
and culture in the community. 

“You’ll see very similar art 

throughout the whole event — 
more of the difference lies behind 
the scenes,” Delhey said.

Each fair has a featured art-

ist whose work is displayed on 

T-shirts and posters; generally 
that artist is picked the year prior.

Sarah Goodyear, a painter from 

North Carolina, is The Guild’s fea-
tured artist. Her piece, entitled 
“Rage Louise,” features a woman 
who appears to be screaming.

“It’s awesome,” Delhey said. 

“It’s a really interesting piece, 
and we’re excited about it this 
year. It’s her first time doing the 
fair.”

Frances Todoro is the execu-

tive director of the State Street 
District, which oversees the State 
Street Art Fair, now celebrat-
ing its 50th year. Todoro noted 
the importance of the historical 
aspect of the fair. 

“Back in the days of (bargain-

ing) when the local businesses 
would come outside for sidewalk 
sales … it kind of built into an art 
fair,” she said. “Over the 50 years, 
providing that extra income or 
that economic catalyst has been 
huge in kind of forming the qual-
ity of our neighborhood and who 
we are.”

Furthermore, 
Todoro 
said 

what sets the State Street Art Fair 
apart is its “eclectic feel.”

“We mix artists with the local 

businesses and the local mem-
bers,” she said. “You could be 
walking down the street and have 
a fine artist and then you have 
(the shop) Orchid Lane, then you 
have more art, and then you have 
Knight’s (restaurant).”

The State Street Art Fair’s 

featured artist is Andy Anh Ha, 
a mixed-media painter from Los 
Angeles . 

“He just did an amazing job,” 

Todoro said. “We did do T-shirts 
with his art on it, a poster, which 
is hanging around the district, in 
our local businesses.”

For its 50th year, however, 

Todoro said the fair has worked 
with a local artist — referred 
to as the district artist — Tim 
Gralewski, who did a piece spe-
cific to the district. The work 
will remain in the district after 
the fair. 

58TH ANNUAL
From Page 1

Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor 
addressed the crowd, speaking in 
support of Bautista and immigrants 
in the community.

“On days like today, I am so proud 

to be in Ann Arbor,” he said. “I am so 
proud of our commitment to the val-
ues of pluralism and compassion. So 
devoted are we to sharing burdens 
and speaking out in the presence of 
injustice and wrong. We live, in the 
end, in an imperfect but great coun-
try.”

Taylor said for some, their ances-

tors have been in the country for 
millennia, some were brought in 
bondage and many came as refugees, 
who chose the United States to seek a 
better life.

“All these brave souls ever wanted 

was the ability to build and realize a 
dream,” he said.

Taylor said Bautista’s deportation 

would not benefit the United States in 
any way, and that the mere act com-
municates weakness.

“Lourdes’s threatened deporta-

tion is a breach of faith and a dis-
grace,” he said. “It would not make 
America safer, or protect Ameri-
can jobs. All it will do is devastate 
an already-separated family and 
impoverish a community that val-
ues her… What kind of culture are 
we if we deport hard-working par-
ents?”

Taylor called on the community 

to do everything possible to keep 
Bautista’s family together.

“Finally, it is up to us to do 

everything we can to tell the world 
that Trump is not America,” he 
said.

Ypsilanti 
resident 
Karina 

Valle, mother to a young son, also 
addressed the crowd — her hus-
band Jose Valle-Rodriguez has 
been detained by ICE for over a 
month.

Years ago, ICE stopped Valle-

Rodriguez in a vehicle and told 
him he would need to go to court, 
but according to Valle, he never 
received a court date or informa-
tion about a hearing. On May 24, 
ICE officers stopped Valle-Rodri-
guez and his family in their vehi-
cle.

“The first thing (my husband) did 

was look back at his son and say, ‘I’m 
sorry,’ ” she said. “He was pulled 
out of the car. My son started going 
crazy, crying, because he saw that 
they were pulling his dad out of the 
car. I didn’t know what to do.”

 
 
 
 
 FILE PHOTO/DAILY 

State Senator Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor) speaks at an event at 
Washtenaw Community College oin March 2011. 

DEPORTATION
From Page 2

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