ADAPT Demonstration at Senator Portman’s Office

COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 10 -- The Center for Disability Rights issued the following news release:

Today, about 20 members of Ohio ADAPT are calling on Senator Portman to vote against the Senate's repeal of the Affordable Care Act, known as the "Better Care Reconciliation Act" (BCRA). The BCRA will, if passed into law, will cut 880 billion dollars in Federal Medicaid funding and eliminate protections which ensure that disabled people and seniors have access to supports and services which literally keep them alive and in the community.

"This not Ohio ADAPT's first attempt to reach Senator Portman," said Dominick Evans, an ADAPT organizer from Dayton. "Last week we asked our Senator to oppose not only this bill but any bill that cuts Medicaid services for disabled people. He would not commit to support the lives and liberty of disabled Ohioans, and that's not good enough."

The protest is part of a lengthy campaign of protests that ADAPTers have conducted in the offices of Republican Senators around the country. Since the die-in at Senate Majority Leader McConnell's office on June 22, members of ADAPT have protested in each of the following states: Arizona, Arkansas, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Many of these protests have ended when the protestors have been arrested for civil disobedience or removed from the offices by police.

"We'd rather go to jail than die without Medicaid," the protestors chant.

"This really is a do or die moment for the Disability Community" said Darrell Price of Cleveland OH. "If this bill passes and Medicaid is cut in this way, it will cause many disabled people to die from lack of services or be forced into institutions which are already overcrowded, abusive, and segregated in spite of our right to home based services. This will only get worse as this funding gets cut. They are stealing our lives and liberty to pay for a tax cut for people who are already wealthy."

Ohio Governor John Kasich has been a vocal opponent of the BRCA and its counterpart legislation in the House, the American Health Care Act.

ADAPT's history, the issues we are fighting for and our activities can be followed on our web site at www.adapt.org, our ADAPT Facebook page and on Twitter - look for #ADAPTandRESIST