Dear all,
I’ll continue to offer all Abortion Updates to all subscribers - if you’d like to receive my weekly FM newsletter, please consider subscribing here. If you are a person of color, or a fellow queer person, I offer one year free - please email me at feministmidwife@gmail.com for the free subscription. All students receive 50% off - just email! If you have any need for sliding scale (including zero), just email!
No matter what state you are in, but particularly in anti-abortion or criminalizing states, here are a few things to know if you are looking up or advocating for abortion information online:
Use a VPN.
Use a secure browser, like FireFox.
Use a secure search engine, like DuckDuckGo.
Use a secure messaging app, like Signal.
Use an online protection group like Delete Me to monitor your personal information online.
For more information, please visit Digital Defense Fund’s website, where they provide open-access information on all of these tips. Keep an eye out for a webinar on digital defense that we will host coming up soon.
This week I put together a tweet thread on midwives (and nurses, and APCs) seeking info on abortion. It includes a link to ACNM’s recent resource on state-wide midwifery scope of practice abilities and limitations, as well as the recent application for the Midwest Access Project’s Clinical Training Application (for providers of all specialties). Here’s the full thread.
Also, I’ll leave you with these words:
Where to donate TODAY:
Abortion Freedom Fund is a national abortion fund supporting accessible, affordable, evidence-based telehealth abortion care for all. Our mission is to assist pregnant people to take control of their health care and futures by dismantling medicalized control of abortion and encouraging a world where abortion pills are over the counter. We fund virtual abortion providers and clinics as well as reimburse local funds who have supported people seeking telehealth abortions. We are not funding patients directly at this time, but will be soon via Reprocare's Project Piggybank platform.
Our Mission:
Supporting accessible, affordable, evidence-based telehealth abortion care for all
Assisting people who are pregnant to take control of their health care and futures
Dismantling medicalized control of abortion and encouraging a world where abortion pills are over the counter
Advocating for the full continuum of abortion care from self managed to clinician supported
Breaking down the stereotype that abortion pills are dangerous
Our website is abortionfreedomfund.org and we are taking donations at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/abortionfreedomfund.
We are on instagram, facebook, and tiktok @abortionfreedomfund and twitter @AbortionFFund
Latest news:
Why I’m Talking About My Abortion by Jemele Hill for The Atlantic
Excerpt:
“…For years, I battled a secret guilt about my abortion. It wasn’t because I wondered whether I had made the right decision. I felt guilty because I never had any regrets and worried that this somehow made me inhumane. It took me some time to realize that I shouldn’t have to apologize for wanting control of my body and life. Women consider and choose abortion for a variety of reasons, and sometimes one of those reasons is that childbirth simply isn’t something they wish to do. That’s the meaningful thing about choice: You have the right to make a decision based purely on what you think is best for yourself.
Although I’m married, in my late 40s, and still childless, I have never thought that I missed an important window of opportunity. I have not wondered what my life would be like now if I had carried a child. I did not agonize over the decision. I actually made it, with the full support of my then-boyfriend, mere hours after discovering I was pregnant. That was not because I took the decision lightly. I simply knew what was right for me. I understand the moral complexities of the abortion debate and respect the people who would make a decision different from mine. But above all, I would defend their right to choose…”
Abortion Is About Freedom, Not Just Privacy by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor for The New Yorker
Excerpt:
“…A few months before my seventeenth birthday, my mother bought me a subscription to Seventeen magazine. It seemed an odd choice, given its conventional makeup ads and utterly normative portraits of white girls. I was in the midst of coming out as a lesbian and found the whole thing jarring. But, in the mix of ads and grooming tips, there were articles that captured my attention, including one about the erosion of rights for teen-agers. A small sidebar noted, as an example, that teen-agers were required to get parental consent before receiving an abortion. The issue struck me viscerally. I had been fighting constantly with my father and stepmother about curfews, smoking, and the socialists I was hanging out with. The idea that they might decide whether or not I had a baby was enraging, obliterating any notion of self-determination.
I had never thought much about abortion before, but I had thought often about pregnancy; my mother had said, almost in a whisper, that her grandmother had told her that, as soon as girls have their periods, they can’t let boys touch them. In Texas, where I had spent junior high, everyone knew that when some girls suddenly disappeared from school they were probably pregnant. During my freshman year of high school, a friend wore a coat every day until she, too, eventually disappeared. She had hidden her pregnancy for months before finally delivering a baby. It seemed to be only women and girls who suffered any consequence for pregnancy. Girls, not boys, disappeared from school. Girls, not boys, carried the weight of social stigma. Girls, not boys, had their entire lives turned upside down if they carried the pregnancy to term. It was terrifying; it was also radicalizing.
On those mornings in Buffalo, anti-abortion protesters trickled out of their cars wielding their grotesque signs. The protesters—white men accompanied by women and, in some cases, even children—yelled at patients who showed up for their appointments, saying that they were killing their babies. We chanted back, “Pro-Life, your name’s a lie, you don’t care if women die.” The clinic defenders, as we counter-protesters called ourselves, were a combination of campus activists, socialists, lesbians, and feminists—a motley crew of the Buffalo left. We had some inevitable tension with the owners of the clinic, who worried that our counter-protests might alienate patients, too. But, as the right escalated its tactics to shut clinics down, we came to feel that we were keeping the clinics open and allowing women to exercise a constitutional right…”
A Preview of the Dangerous Future of Abortion Bans — Texas Senate Bill 8 by Whitney Arey, Klaira Lerma, Anitra Beasley, Lorie Harper, Ghazaleh Moayedi, and Kari White for NEJM
Excerpt:
“…Health systems and clinicians planning their responses3 can look to Texas, where we have already witnessed the impact of strict abortion bans on the provision of evidence-based, essential health care for pregnant people. Since September 1, 2021, Texas Senate Bill 8 (SB8) has prohibited abortions after the detection of embryonic cardiac activity, which occurs around 6 weeks after a person’s last menstrual period. After that point, SB8 allows abortions only in physician-documented medical emergencies. Anyone suspected of violating the law or aiding and abetting a prohibited abortion can face a civil lawsuit with monetary penalties of at least $10,000.
We interviewed 25 clinicians from across Texas about how SB8 has affected their practice in general obstetrics and gynecology, maternal and fetal medicine (MFM), or genetic counseling. We concurrently interviewed 20 Texans who had medically complex pregnancies and sought care either in Texas or out of state after September 1, 2021. Although aimed at clinicians who provide abortion care, SB8 has had a chilling effect on a broad range of health care professionals, adversely affecting patient care and endangering people’s lives.
Some Texas clinicians still provide abortion counseling and referrals, believing that the law does not limit their free speech, while also noting that such freedom depends on a clinician’s willingness to assume possible legal risk. On the basis of legal guidance, other Texas clinicians believe they are not even allowed to counsel patients regarding the availability of abortion in cases of increased maternal risks or poor fetal prognosis, although before SB8 they would have done so. Many clinicians have also been advised that they cannot provide information about out-of-state abortion facilities or directly contact out-of-state clinicians to transfer patient information. These fears have disrupted continuity of care and left patients to find services on their own…”
Why Lauren Rankin won't "debate" abortion rights: The case against debating your own civil rights. by Lauren Rankin and Parker Molloy
Excerpt:
“…I’m not afraid to “debate” anyone. But the concept of “debate” positions this issue as reasonable on both sides, and it just isn’t. You can privately oppose abortion and believe that others should have the ability to choose for themselves whether they want one or not. But that isn’t what these folks believe. Abortion opponents believe that a pregnant person should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term no matter what. You don’t want to have a child? Too bad. This pregnancy could endanger your mental health or even your life? Oh well. You were raped? That’s a “gift from God.”
That’s violence. That’s control. That’s a fundamental disregard for humanity. There is nothing to debate here. One side believes that pregnant people should literally be forced to die to carry a pregnancy to term and one side doesn’t. I’m on the side that doesn’t. I believe that your body is yours, that you deserve to determine what happens to it, that your thoughts and feelings and dreams are vital and worth protecting.
After the call, I wrote an email to the producer:
I’m sorry to do this, but upon further consideration, I’m not able to do this interview. I cannot be a part of a segment that features me alongside someone who opposes human rights in their most basic form, framing our two points of view as equal. It is a traumatic and difficult time in this country and I’m unwilling to frame opposition to this right as valid in any way. I apologize but it feels like the right thing to do, and I hope you can understand that. If you’re interested in having a segment that doesn’t pit me against an opponent of basic reproductive freedom, I’m happy to participate.
I never heard back. That’s fine. They want to continue to uphold the mainstream media narrative that abortion is just two sides duking it out. But in this moment, when so much is at stake, when states have already enacted trigger laws and abortion bans, when clinic staff are calling their patients in tears to tell them that “we’re done,” it’s become more apparent than ever that now is the time to stop validating anti-democratic and fascist movements as somehow “reasonable.” I don’t care if it costs me book sales or speaking gigs or media opportunities. It’s the right thing to do. It’s my body. It’s my choice. And it should be yours, too…”
Swag to support:
From Stephanie: Storytelling and art are vital in this moment. The Abortion Project is a group of abortion storytellers who will continue to uplift the words and visuals of ordinary abortion, beautiful abortion, tragic abortion, and all things in-between. Looking forward to collaborating with them on some work in the future. Would love for you all to support their art and work by reading below, purchasing their zines or merch, and downloading their Abortion Intentions Care Plan that folks in your life might benefit from. Donate to TAP directly here.
The Abortion Project is a documentary photography project aiming to demystify and destigmatize medical abortions. TAP was started by Heather and Sarah in August of 2019. These two Full Spectrum Doulas are dedicated to supporting people through all pregnancy experiences, including abortions. They aim to use photography as a way to lift the veil on medical abortions in the United States. By showing a diverse sample of realities, demystifying what medical abortions are like, they hope to also destigmatize these outcomes in today’s society through storytelling.
Aside from documenting the day-of experiences, the two also provide comprehensive doula support to the participants of the project. They offer physical, emotional, and informational support, along with comfort measures and resources before, during, and after their abortion. TAP also covers lodging expenses for those needing to have abortions outside of their home. Lastly, they are willing to travel to participants in states where abortion is legal.
Every participant of TAP receives the care of two doulas, an abortion care package including emotional and physical support items, and a printed image of their experience. Having abortions can be empowering and TAP wants to show people just how powerful they are through the lens of photography.
The focus of the project is to create a series of zines featuring images from an individual’s abortion experience. Each zine will be a 40-page, bound booklet. We aim to document a variety of people (race, economic status, gender identities, body type, etc.)
You can support The Abortion Project in a number of ways. Telling trusted colleagues and providers about what the project offers so that they can tell their patients that are about to undergo their abortion experiences about the project. Sharing posts from their social media pages helps to spread the word about the project across the country. Both of these methods help put the project in front of individuals that may want to participate. You can also support the project by purchasing or sharing about the merchandise TAP sells [totes, stickers, and shirts] you are helping to fund the project in its entirety. All proceeds go towards covering the project’s logistical fees.
This care plan is so beneficial for preparing yourself or your client for the out-of-clinic abortion that is ahead, physically and emotionally. It covers items to gather, what to expect before, during and after, as well as what an abortion doula is and a slew of helpful resources. We’ve used the original concept of this guide for our project participants and are excited to be able to offer this beefed up addition to future participants and clients of our own. We hope you’ll love it as much as we do. Leave us a comment below with your feedback, we’d love to hear from you!
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In solidarity,
Stephanie (Feminist Midwife)