Vox Populi
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Zane McNeill: How to get involved in the mass mobilizations erupting after Roe overturned
Reproductive justice organizers are urging support for already-existing networks and abortion funds to subvert the Supreme Court ruling.
On Friday, the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling which ensured the right to abortion. After a May leak of the drafted decision, advocates have had time to mobilize and prepare for the potential reversal of Roe, but had hoped that there was still potential for protest to influence the court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. While protest didn’t change the court’s decision, advocates are refusing to allow a right-wing court to imperil access to reproductive healthcare and are beginning to organize across the nation.
This reversal of Roe has immediately triggered anti-abortion laws in Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Dakota, making abortion immediately illegal. Nine other states have trigger laws that will take effect in the coming weeks and as many as 28 states are likely to outlaw or strictly restrict abortion in light of this decision.
The national advocacy organization UltraViolet, whose mission is to improve the lives of women of all identities and backgrounds by disrupting patriarchy and creating a cost for sexism, has called for mass mobilization. “This is just the beginning, and what happens the next several days is critical,” they tweeted. “The pro-abortion movement is the majority and we’re calling on you to join us in mobilizing to show our overwhelming support for reproductive rights and opposition to all who want to take them away.”
Other advocate groups, like the Feminist Front, have begun to publicize action steps for mobilization and a coalition of reproductive justice organizations, which includes Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, have organized a hub to publicize upcoming protests, called We Won’t Go Back.
As activists take to the street, reproductive advocates have cautioned protesters to be mindful and safe while organizing and to take advantage of free legal help like the National Lawyer’s Guild’s pocket-sized know-your-rights booklets and other mass defense resources.
While some advocates have called for an “abortion Underground Railroad,” in their response to the repeal of Roe, Black and Brown reproductive justice organizers have asked white activists to instead support the already existing “network of abortion funds, practical support volunteers, and advocates who already work tirelessly to make every community a safe haven for those seeking access to abortion,” as Prism, an independent and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color, has reported.
This infrastructure includes already-existing organizations like Shout Your Abortion, the National Network of Abortion Funds, the Miscarriage + Abortion Hotline, If/When/How and Access Reproductive Justice, among others.
As Prism has reported, “More recently, hashtags like #AuntieNetwork and #UndergroundRailroad2019 surfaced online in an attempt to link people to reproductive care. No matter how well-intentioned, these efforts are fraught with potential danger and directly undermine the work abortion funds have been doing and will continue to do.”
Shout Your Abortion responded to the Supreme Court decision with, “FUCK THIS COURT. WE’RE DOING IT ANYWAY,” and West Virginia mutual aid organization Holler Health Justice tweeted “Come hell or high water, we’re funding abortion in these hills and hollers.”
Zane McNeill is the founder of the DEIJ organization, Roots DEI Consulting and Policy, and co-manager of the labor rights group, Rights for Animal Rights Advocates (RARA). They have published anthologies on anti-carceral veganism and queer and trans liberation.
First published in Waging Nonviolence. Included in Vox Populi with permission.
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The madness overall (police brutality and lies, George Santos in the science committee, women disappearing or being raped, Judge Kavanagh and ilk, a six-year old shooting his teacher, Trump for president, being shot and killed while driving or walking while black, the GOP in general, wars to spread American freedom and democracy wherever ther is some money to be made… the list is endless makes me dispair. The shining city on the hill… the land of the free… the American dream… oh boy.
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Thanks, Rose Mary. I think South Americans like you can see North America more clearly than we can, living in the belly of the beast.
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Yes. You see clearer from the outside. One would expect stuff like this in a third-world country like ours, but not in the US, the country from which so many South American countries take their cues.
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