USA – Abortion Bans Upended Their Lives—Now They’re Fighting Back, One Story at a Time

Across the country, abortion storytellers are putting the struggle for reproductive freedom into powerful new words.

Regina Mahone, The Nation
April 7, 2025

Shanette Williams sat patiently on the stage of an auditorium in Austin, Texas, staring at the photograph of her daughter Amber that was resting in her lap. The photo appeared on the front of a rose-dappled pamphlet, below the words “Celebration of Life” and “September 16, 1993–August 19, 2022.”
Occasionally, Williams looked up, out past the audience of 200 or in the direction of the other women who shared the stage with her, each recounting the horrors they had experienced under new, extreme abortion bans. Then it was Williams’s turn to speak.

“Good morning, everyone,” she said. “My name is Shanette.”

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/abortion-in-america-storytelling/


USA – Meet the Organizers Trying to Fix a Shortage of Abortion Nurses

Abortion nurse staffing has gotten worse after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health wants to improve that.

Aug 28, 2024
Sarah DiGregorio, Rewire News

In 2021, Kiernan Cobb was the only registered nurse working at a reproductive and sexual health clinic in Oklahoma City. It meant that when they had to be away (often at the clinic’s other branch in Kansas), they had to bring on a temporary nurse. That was never ideal because it not only involved orienting someone new every time but was also occasionally catastrophic—like the day the temp nurse walked off the job, abandoning patients and grinding the clinic to a halt.

Despite the fact that nurses are the largest group of health-care providers and abortion is one of the most common health-care procedures, nurses’ crucial role in abortion care has often been overlooked and underleveraged. When you need an abortion, a physician or other advanced practice provider (like a midwife) can empty your uterus with a procedure or prescribe abortion pills. But experts say that is often only a fraction—albeit a crucial one—of the care you may need.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2024/08/28/meet-the-organizers-trying-to-fix-a-shortage-of-abortion-nurses/