You’ve been hearing a lot about tax reform, government shutdown, and budget fights in Washington, D.C. But you may not have heard about this: Our opponents in Congress are waging war on Death with Dignity.
Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed a spending bill that would repeal Washington, D.C.’s newly passed Death with Dignity Act. We worked hard to keep that awful provision out of the Senate’s companion bill—and we succeeded.
Now, the future of D.C.’s law rests with a small group of congressional leaders who will hash out the differences between the two bills and pass a final budget for 2018. We’re working overtime to make sure justice prevails before the year ends—and you help us win this fight.
Earlier this week, we sent this urgent letter to six legislators who will be in the room where this decision gets made, urging them to have our backs as we work to preserve D.C’s law.
D.C. residents aren’t the only ones at risk. This is just one battle in the longer fight our congressional opponents are waging to ban assisted dying nationwide. If they have their way, they’ll repeal the rights of qualified terminally ill citizens in five other states. And they’ll make it impossible for new states to guarantee their dying residents the right to choose the way they want to live their final days.
We’ve worked too hard to lose ground now. With your help, we were instrumental in passing the District’s law last year. Now we’re in a sprint to defeat the ideologues in Congress who want to tell us how to live—and how to die.
Can you help us before 2017 ends with a contribution to fund our final push to save D.C.’s Death with Dignity Act and send a message that we won’t allow our opponents to repeal our rights anywhere in the United States?
As always, we are so grateful for all you do, excited about the momentum we’ve built, and ready to bring Death with Dignity to new states nationwide in the years ahead.
Featured image by Dustin Gafke.
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