By TINA RYNBERG and JEFF BENESCH

San Diego Congressman Scott Peters returns to the La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club to keynote our important Wednesday, Sept. 5 meeting, where we’ll catch up with this influential Washington, D.C. politico, and also delve into the battle for women’s reproductive rights.

Peters serves the 52nd District of California, which covers much of central San Diego County including Poway, Coronado, and large portions of the city of San Diego. He is a member of the House Energy & Commerce and Budget committees. Peters is regional vice-chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), a role in which he helps lead the on-the-ground effort to fortify and expand our new Democratic majority. He also serves as chair of member services for the New Democrat Coalition. Peters is a former environmental attorney, City Council president, and Port Commission chairman.

It is safe to say Rep. Peters will address his recent endorsements of both the Green New Deal and the start of the impeachment inquiry in the House. And we’ll ask this lawyer to analyze the Mueller report and it’s many references to Trump’s foreign entanglements and national security irregularities, and concerns even now about the Trump companies, Trump family business interests and Russian meddling in our elections, then and now.

And we hope he’ll reference the ongoing gun violence that kills Americans on a seemingly daily basis, stoked in no small way by our golf-playing “commander in chief.” Peter’s views on both the inability to get a bipartisan House gun bill past Mitch McConnell on background checks, and the House attempts to curb the president’s largely illegal and certainly unethical attacks on immigrants, even those serving in Congress, will be of great interest to all attendees.

Peter’s fascinating talk will be followed by an equally important panel on protecting women’s reproductive rights, particularly those efforts to maintain Planned Parenthood clinics in red states where they have become a diminishing resource for millions of American women.

We’ll have Neal Ortiguerras, director of Political Action for Planned Parenthood of the Southwest, and also representatives of NARAL, ProChoice America, and the local chapter of the ACLU. These organizations are three among many that work nationwide to provide and protect health services for women that may have few options in their family planning and obstetrical and gynecological care.

States like California have a plethora of affordable health centers for women, but in much of the United States, Planned Parenthood and others are being legislated out of existence by Republican state governments. Come hear what the most critical and current actions are being waged, mostly in courts, by both sides of this contentious debate.

The Sept. 5 meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Drive, La Mesa. For more information, visit lamesafoothillsdemcoraticclub.com.

— Tina Rynberg is president and Jeff Benesch is vice president of programming for the La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club.