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As the nation grapples with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that eviscerates the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, abortion rights activists are organizing to assist people facing unwanted pregnancies and improve policies to make raising children easier: compassionate pre-and-post natal medical care, affordable housing and child care, nutritious and plentiful food, and equitable job training and education programs.
The recently released free e-book, We Organize to Change Everything: Fighting for Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice, will boost these efforts. The twenty-essay collection—some were previously published while others were written in the immediate aftermath of Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—are divided into three sections: “It’s Time to Fight,” “Reproductive Justice is Justice for All,” and “Get Yourself Some Pills.” The mix is impressive, with information about where to get abortion medication and how best to use it, alongside an inspiring feminist vision of a world without patriarchy, racism, heterosexism, transphobia, or economic greed.
“Anything can be reversed through community organizing. We are more powerful in numbers than those in power.”
Arielle Swernoff’s “How to Give Yourself an Abortion with Misoprostol Pills,” begins with a cogent risk assessment and reports that, since 2000, at least twenty-four people have been prosecuted—and some convicted—for self-managing abortions. She then outlines the most effective ways to take the drugs, a regimen that typically includes both Mifepristone (four 200 milligram tablets) and Misoprostol (four 200 milligram pills if used in combination with Mifepristone, or twelve 200 milligram pills if used alone). She also offers some sobering advice: If you live in an anti-choice community, “have a man go to the pharmacy for you.” This is because pharmacists are less likely to tip off law enforcement about the purchase if it is made by someone who presents as male since Misoprostol is also prescribed to treat stomach ulcers.
Additionally, the chapter includes information about managing pain as well as anticipated side effects, cautioning that the medication should not be used unless a trusted friend or partner is in close proximity. Lastly, a list of organizations that are aiding and abetting those needing the pills make this section a particularly useful resource.
Equally compelling is an interview with Veronica Cruz Sanchez, founder of Las Libres, a group formed in Guanajuato, Mexico, twenty-two years ago to challenge the state’s decision to amend the Penal Code to make all abortions, even those resulting from rape or incest, illegal.
The group has since become internationally prominent, not only for its work to destigmatize abortion, but also because of a unique mutual aid project that assists people taking the pills. The program, acompañiemiento (accompaniment) uses highly trained volunteers to serve as a support network and takes the person from screening and counseling, through the at least twenty-four hours it takes for fetal tissue to be expelled to aftercare.
“It is solidarity work that benefits us all,” book contributor Naomi Braine writes, “rather than a service or a form of charity.”
And, she argues, the model can be easily replicated in the United States and elsewhere.
In addition to the pragmatic, many of the book’s essays are agitational, intended to recognize that, even as we focus on the immediate needs of people seeking abortions, we can’t lose sight of our objectives: freedom, equity, and human liberation.
Understanding history, of course, can help activists analyze both past blunders and past victories.
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"We Organize to Change Everything: Fighting for Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice"
Barbara Winslow’s “What We Need is More of What We Did: The Militant, Multiracial, Grassroots Campaign that Won Abortion by Popular Referendum in Washington State” is a case in point. The essay harkens back to 1969, when a group of Seattle-based feminists engaged in what Winslow calls “creative and confrontational nonviolent civil (and sometimes uncivil) disobedience” to defy the state’s abortion ban. Along with at least one doctor who openly flouted the prohibition, activists went door-to-door, organized groups of Black, brown, and white women to lobby the statehouse, and got themselves on the front pages of local newspapers. They ultimately won a 1970 referendum, three years before Roe, with nearly 55 percent of the electorate voting to permit abortion during the early months of pregnancy.
More than fifty years later, Winslow remains as active and committed as ever, and she’s hopeful that SCOTUS’s heinous decision will cause a groundswell of renewed militance. A host of tactics are needed, she tells The Progressive. “If we want reproductive justice to be a visible political issue, we have to make it a visible political issue. We may have to be what the rightwing calls ‘nasty women.’ After all, it’s nasty women who make history.”
Winslow is calling on supporters of reproductive justice to write op-eds for local media outlets, stressing the importance of sexual agency and bodily autonomy. She is also calling on folks who teach in humanities or social science programs to bring the issue into their classrooms. All told, she continues, it is high time to go beyond the polite legislative lobbying that has been the stock-in-trade of mainstream pro-choice organizations.
We Organize to Change Everything will undoubtedly be a valuable tool for new and seasoned reproductive justice activists. In many ways, the book is a roadmap to regaining the kind of radical chutzpah that won abortion rights in Washington State fifty-two years ago and is a clear reminder that we can achieve the world we need.
Needless to say, losing Roe is a horrible blow, but as Las Libres activist Veronica Cruz Sanchez told interviewer Elizabeth Navarro, “Anything can be reversed through community organizing. We are more powerful in numbers than those in power.”
She adds: “Social organizing, community organizing, the collective fighting for collective rights, will always bring gains for everyone—for a majority.”
Some resources on medication abortion:
Legal resources:
reprohelpline.org: 1-844-868-2812
Miscarriage and Abortion hotline: 1-833-246-2632
To speak to a trained counselor:
safe2choose.org/abortion-
Groups working to protect and expand abortion access:
Repro Action: Reproaction.org
Abortion Access Front: aafront.org
National Network of Abortion Funds: abortionfunds.org
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice: rcrc.org