You Are Powerless to Prevent the Threatened Abortion Ban

Myth-busting Monday:  You are powerless to prevent the threatened abortion ban.

 

No, absolutely not.  There’s so much we can do and I offer up this content with an acknowledgement that I cannot know it all and there are likely other ways to help the collective in preventing the abortion ban.

 

How to help, from the political and organizational to the personal – it all adds weight and proximity to the necessity of abortion:

  1. March in a protest. Numbers and solidarity matter.
  2. Call your representatives
    1. https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/planned-parenthood-texas-votes/tx-call-rep-now
  3. Speak your story – if you had an abortion and feel safe in sharing your story, do. The sharing of experience humanizes and adds proximity to an issue that might feel unfamiliar or inaccessible to some folks.  Abortions aren’t rare, but silence leads to that assumption (which contributes to myths around abortion as well as the lack of proximity). But/and, if you have a story, you don’t owe that to anyone.
  4. Read abortion stories, for the same reasons that we speak or listen to abortion experiences. A great book is You Are the Only One I’ve Told: The Stories Behind Abortion by Dr. Meera Shah.
    1. Follow related hashtags and campaigns: We Testify, Shout Your Abortion, #AskYouMother, Abortion Conversation Projects.
  5. Support your local abortion clinic – they often train volunteers to escort their clients and protect their clients from anti-abortion protestors
  6. Donate – so many organizations do the work of protecting abortion rights, including Planned Parenthood, the Guttmacher Institute, and the ACLU. I have additional organizations listed at the end of this page.
  7. Work as an abortion doula. (I am one) Abortions can be incredibly lonely experiences – unavailable partners or family, lack of understanding/supportive friends, and/or _________.  An abortion doula accompanies the client during the abortion procedure as a support person and/or supports the client in after care.
  8. Be present and aware of intersections of classism, racism, misogyny, ableism, trans antagonism, and ageism that impact the experience of abortion (see some of the resource links).
    1. And know your statistics – about 25% of women2 will have an abortion in their lifetime.
    2. All of those abortions involved (at least) 2 people. People with penises need to take an active role in birth control – passivity around their reproductive potential while in a relationship is irresponsible. There is a group the educates men3 on abortion, such as Men4Choice

 

Abortion is healthcare and reproductive justice.  You have the power to help protect access to this care – showing up where you can, in your reach matters.

 

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” (Alice Walker)

 

What other ways can you help protect abortion rights?  Thanks for reading and doing the work, community!

 

Additional Groups to Support (from Dr. Shah’s book mentioned above – that book – incredible)

Black Mamas Matter Alliance https://blackmamasmatter.org/

Center for Reproductive Justice https://reproductiverights.org/

National Abortion Federation https://prochoice.org/

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice https://www.latinainstitute.org/

Sakhi https://www.sakhi.org/

 

References and resources:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproductive_justice#:~:text=Reproductive%20justice%20is%20a%20critical,in%20safe%20and%20healthy%20environments. This ideas was formulated in 1994 by 12 Black women.
  2. A lot of the data is based off of the binary model of sex (sex and gender are not binary). We do not have enough data on non-binary & trans folk.  People with uteruses of a variety of genders can receive abortions
  3. Note that “men” is an identity open to a variety of folks, including those with and without penises. But, here, the likely target is cis/het men.

 

 

 

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The above content is written by Dr. Allison Mitch, PT (DPT), RYT500; sex-positive/affirming, trauma-informed sexuality counselor and educator (she/her/they/them); copyright protected, please cite accordingly.  The picture is from Pexels.

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