We Organize to Change Everything: Fighting for Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice

227 Pages·2022·2.766 MB·English

by  Natalie Adler, Marian Jones, Jessie Kindig, Elizabeth Navarro, Anne Rumberger

WE ORGANIZE TO CHANGE EVERYTHING
We Organize to Change Everything
Fighting for Abortion Access and Reproductive
Justice
Verso Reports and Lux Magazine
June 2022
Edited by
Natalie Adler
Marian Jones
Jessie Kindig
Elizabeth Navarro
Anne Rumberger
The collection © Verso Books, 2022
All contributions © The contributors, 2022
Revolutionary Letter #1 © Diane di Prima, 1971. Initially published by City
Lights, and reprinted in the Verso Book of Feminism with permission from
the author.
Cover design: Sharanya Durvasula
Cover drawing: Robert Frederick Blum, “Figure,” 1876, courtesy Cooper
Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Collection
Interior posters designed and distributed by Shout Your Abortion:
shoutyourabortion.com/take-action/#fuck-the-supreme-court
The “Stop Forced Sterilization / ¡Alto a Esterilización Forzada!” poster is
copyright © 2020 Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization
Abuse (CARASA) News, vol 3, no 9, 1979, New York, NY, USA, which
is held in the Joseph A Labadie Collection, University of Michigan.
All rights reserved.
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.
Lux
lux-magazine.com
Verso
UK: 6 Meard Street, London, W1F 0EG
US: 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
versobooks.com
Verso is the imprint of New Left Books.
ISBN-13, US and Canada: 978-1-80429-105-4
ISBN-13, UK and Republic of Wales: 978-1-80429-105-4
I have just realized that the stakes are myself
I have no other
ransom money, nothing to break or barter but my life
my spirit measured out, in bits, spread over
the roulette table, I recoup what I can
nothing else to shove under the nose of the maître de jeu
nothing to thrust out the window, no white flag
this flesh all I have to offer, to make the play with
this immediate head, what it comes up with, my move
as we slither over this go board, stepping always
(we hope) between the lines
– Diane di Prima, Revolutionary Letter #1
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
by Jessie Kindig
Part I. It’s Time to Fight
1 The Fight Is On
Why We’re Going Backwards on Abortion Rights—and How We Can Rebuild a Fighting
Feminist Movement
by Jenny Brown
2 Pañuelos Verdes, Acompañamiento, Solidaridad
The Global South Has Much to Teach the North in This Moment
by Naomi Braine
3 Women Themselves Are the Solution
Las Libres Has Been Helping Women Access Abortion and Human Rights in Mexico—and Now
the United States—for Over Two Decades
by Verónica Cruz Sanchez, interviewed by Elizabeth Navarro
translated by Elizabeth Navarro
4 The Attacks on Native People’s Reproductive Autonomy
Amicus Brief Filed in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court Case
Shared on behalf of Cecilia Fire Thunder (Oglala Lakota), the National Indigenous
Women’s Resource Center, the Native American Community Board, and Team: Counsel
of Record Lael Echo-Hawk; Legal Team Lauren van Schilifgaarde and Sarah Deer;
Epidemiology Team Abigail Echo-Hawk and Kaeli Flannery; and Research Assistant
Elise Higgins
5 Clinic Defense Is Advocating for Our Patients
Defending the Last Abortion Clinic in Mississippi
by Derenda Hancock and Kim Gibson
interviewed by Anne Rumberger
6 They Were Wrong to Bet on Our Silence
Shout Your Abortion’s Rapid Response to the Dobbs Decision
by Amelia Bonow
7 What We Need Now Is More of What We Did
The Militant Multiracial Grassroots Campaign That Won Abortion by Popular Referendum in
Washington State—in 1969
by Barbara Winslow
Part II. Reproductive Justice Is Justice for All
8 Empty Choices
Women of Color and the History of Reproductive Justice
by Marian Jones
9 Sovereignty Lost
Not Only Has Native People’s Right to Parent Our Children Been Stolen from Us, but So Has
Our Right to Abortion—Even with Roe v. Wade in Effect
by Jen Deerinwater
10 Aborto Libre, Seguro y Accesible
In Puerto Rico, a History of Colonization Led to an Atrocious Lack of Reproductive Freedom
by Raquel Reichard
11 Labor Crisis in the Clinics
When You’re Not Focused on the Workers, Who Is Going to Provide the Care?
by Crystal and Luna, in conversation with Amy Littlefield
12 White Supremacy and the Antiabortion Movement
Abortion Bans and Regressive Gender Roles Increase the Number of White Babies Born While
Criminalizing Women of Color
by Erin Matson and Shireen Rose Shakouri
13 Your Body Is Not Your Own
What If We Understand the Criminalization of Abortion as Part of Creating a Larger
Criminalized Class?
by Cheryl Rivera
14 Abortion Behind Bars
The Carceral State Already Removes Bodily Autonomy and Any Illusion of Reproductive Choice
by Victoria Law
15 Pregnant and Prosecuted
In a Post-Roe World, the Rights of the Fetus Would Supersede Those of the Person Carrying It
—but for Many Pregnant People, This Is Already True
by Marie Solis
16 One Struggle, One Fight
Abortion and Transgender Healthcare Are Under Attack by the Same Forces Using the Same
Playbook
by Dr. Mary K. Bowman
17 Pregnancy and Abortion
Only by Measuring How Much We Enjoy This Right Can We Measure the Social Wealth We
Enjoy
by Movimento di Lotta Femminile di Padova
translated by Arlen Austen
Part III. Get Yourself Some Pills
18 Maybe Abortion Isn’t as Complicated as We’ve Been Led to Believe
The Underground Network of Midwives, Herbalists, Nurses, and Activists Providing Home
Abortions Across America
by Lizzie Presser
19 How to Give Yourself an Abortion
Get Yourself Some Pills
by Arielle Swernoff
illustrated by Mattie Lubchansky
20 Self-Managed Abortion Services
It’s Safe, Effective, and Done All over the World
by Naomi Braine
Resource Guide and Directory
Fight Back, Get an Abortion, Find Legal Resources, Fund Care, Tell Your Story
by the Editors
About the Contributors
Notes