USA – ’Abject failure’: Abortion rights movement fractures over post-Roe future

By James Oliphant

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - Badly stung by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday, the abortion rights movement finds itself splintered, demoralized and faced with a startling landscape in which the procedure may be outlawed in half the country.

Angry grassroots activists are calling past efforts an “abject failure." They say national abortion rights advocacy groups were so consumed with winning federal elections they allowed conservatives to chip away at abortion rights through state-level legislation over decades.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/abject-failure-abortion-rights-movement-fractures-over-post-roe-future-2022-06-24/

The Abortion-Rights Message That Some Activists Hate

A devastating defeat in the Supreme Court could be a boon to the Democrats’ slim midterm hopes—if they can agree on the way to convert progressive anger into votes.

By Russell Berman
MAY 25, 2022

Democrats appear to have settled on their message for targeting these voters, judging by the ads that the party and its candidates have already produced in the three weeks since the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that would overturn the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe. An initial spot from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee opens on an image of matches about to be struck, with a narrator warning: “If Senate Republicans win in November, they will light women’s rights on fire.” Ads from Senators Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, two of the party’s most vulnerable incumbents up for reelection this year, home in on GOP proposals to “criminalize abortion” and ban the procedure with “no exception for rape, incest, or human trafficking.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/05/roe-overturn-abortion-democrat-midterm-elections/631647/

25.05.2022

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USA – ’We need to quit tip-toeing around the word abortion’: Rights group says the key to access is open dialogue

Analysis by Alaa Elassar, CNN
Sun May 1, 2022

(CNN) Meg Schurr was 22 years old when she says she was sexually assaulted.

A college student in New York with the dream of working in public health, Schurr's life came to a grinding halt when she discovered she became pregnant as a result of the assault in 2014.

“My pregnancy couldn't have been more unplanned or unwanted -- it resulted from an encounter that I didn't want to have and asked to stop," Schurr told CNN.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/01/us/abortion-stories-legislation/index.html

Abortion Rights Activists Fight Back With Mutual Aid and Direct Action in 2022

BY Michelle Farber, Truthout
January 5, 2022

It is difficult not to feel an overwhelming sense of defeat and fear for the year ahead in reproductive health and abortion rights as the Supreme Court deliberates on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health case. Brought against Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which runs the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, this case could reshape abortion law countrywide. Among the many restrictions being challenged, the one abortion advocates are watching the closest is a 15-week ban. If upheld, this 15-week restriction would represent the first pre-viability abortion ban upheld by the Supreme Court. The landmark Roe v. Wade case set the precedent that states could not outlaw abortion prior to the viability line, which currently sits around 23 to 24 weeks of pregnancy. Should the court uphold this ban, dozens of states would be in position to unleash similar, or possibly even more restrictive laws.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/abortion-rights-activists-fight-back-with-mutual-aid-and-direct-action-in-2022/

05.01.2022

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Anne Rumberger

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USA – Self-managed abortion could be the future — but it’s very hard to talk about

Especially in conservative states, advocates can’t talk openly about abortion methods that exist outside of the formal health-care system

Caroline Kitchener, The Lily
December 20, 2021

Two hours before the U.S. Supreme Court convened for the case that could make abortion illegal across much of the country, four women gathered on the court’s steps to propose another path forward. With a mifepristone pill in one hand and a loudspeaker in the other, Amelia Bonow started to chant.

“Abortion pills are in our hands and we won’t stop,” yelled the co-founder of the abortion rights organization Shout Your Abortion.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/self-managed-abortion-could-be-the-future-but-its-very-hard-to-talk-about/

USA – More activists who have had abortions are saying so out loud. Here’s why

November 2, 2021
Danielle Kurtzleben

In 1992, an estimated half a million people gathered on the National Mall for a rally for abortion rights.

The speakers made many of the same arguments that abortion-rights advocates have made for decades, arguing that government shouldn't limit people's ability to make decisions about their own bodies.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2021/11/02/1050653918/more-activists-who-have-had-abortions-are-saying-so-out-loud-heres-why

USA – Breaking the Silence Around Abortion

Breaking the Silence Around Abortion

Claire Valentine
August 12, 2019

American discourse has changed radically in the past decade around a number of social issues.
....
And yet, there is one topic that, while high on the list of divisive issues that get people riled up, remains shrouded in shame and secrecy. When it comes to reproductive rights, and specifically abortion, conversations, when they happen, typically exist on a theoretical plane. The reasons women (and other people capable of getting pregnant) don't disclose their abortions are in many ways obvious: it's a highly personal medical decision loaded with cultural baggage, and sharing that you had one can lead to dire consequences. It's relatively rare for women to tell even each other about their abortions. This of course isn't true for everyone — some people are more open than others. But the social stigma remains, and whether in deeply conservative communities or supposedly woke circles, talking about your abortion is taboo.

Continued: https://www.papermag.com/abortion-scene-euphoria-cassie-2639652158.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6

USA – Pro-Choice Groups Are Changing Their Strategy for a New Era of Attacks on Abortion

Pro-Choice Groups Are Changing Their Strategy for a New Era of Attacks on Abortion
NARAL is shifting its strategy to embrace the term "reproductive freedom," which polls well with moderates and independents.

by Marie Solis
Aug 8 2019

NARAL Pro-Choice America, one of the largest pro-choice organizations in the country, is changing its communications strategy amid mounting attacks on abortion rights. In an exclusive interview, the group said it will place a greater emphasis on “reproductive freedom,” a framework its leadership believes will bring together a wider swath of the population in support of safe and legal abortion. Though NARAL has used the term in its messaging before, the group has relied more heavily on terms like “reproductive rights,” and "abortion access” to talk about their cause.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a35zkp/a-huge-pro-choice-group-is-changing-its-messaging-to-appeal-to-moderates

USA – Men Aren’t Quite Sure How to Be Abortion-Rights Activists

Men Aren’t Quite Sure How to Be Abortion-Rights Activists
Does a movement that proclaims a deep belief in women’s autonomy have a place for male voices?

Ashley Fetters
Jun 10, 2019

On a Wednesday night in late May, 44-year-old Matt Garbett of Atlanta attended a meeting held by NARAL Pro-Choice America, a prominent abortion-rights group, at the urging of a female friend who is active in the local chapter. A few weeks earlier, both Georgia and Alabama had taken measures to restrict access to abortion.

Garbett had always believed that Americans should have the right to get an abortion, and he’d always voted that way—and until that night, he said, he’d thought that was enough. But what Garbett saw at that meeting startled him. In a “completely packed” room, full of what he estimated to be 80 people, only three were men. Garbett didn’t feel out of place, however; instead, he was “absolutely embraced and welcome,” he told me. “I was, oddly, overly thanked [for being there]. The next day, Garbett voiced his bewilderment in a thread on Twitter. “Last night I attended my first @NARALGA meeting,” he began. “My biggest takeaway: Men... we are not showing up.”

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/06/men-abortion-debate/591259/

How ‘Shout Your Abortion’ grew from a Seattle hashtag into a book

How ‘Shout Your Abortion’ grew from a Seattle hashtag into a book
Amelia Bonow was recently in Seattle to talk about the book, "Shout Your Abortion."

Originally published December 12, 2018
By Nicole Brodeur, Seattle Times columnist

Amelia Bonow was in a Lyft, headed to Seattle’s Neptune Theatre, when she told the driver what awaited her there: She had co-founded a movement called “Shout Your Abortion,” aimed at humanizing, normalizing and de-stigmatizing the procedure. It had spread from Seattle across the nation, and resulted in a book of personal essays by abortion clients, and providers, that was being launched before a crowd of supporters that night.

The driver had a story of his own, apparently, because at some point during the ride, Bonow posted on Facebook: ” … having my one thousandth conversation with a male Lyft driver who knocked somebody up who had an abortion and hasn’t ever talked about it …”

Continued: https://www.seattletimes.com/life/how-shout-your-abortion-grew-from-a-seattle-hashtag-into-a-book/