We Will Not Let Them Take Away Our Bodily Autonomy
The past several years have been defined by extremism and right-wing attacks on women, LGBTQ people (particularly trans youth), people of color, and immigrants.
These sweeping assaults on bodily autonomy are part of a broad strategy to normalize systemic oppression and the subjugation of all marginalized groups.
Most recently, right-wing politicians and lobbyists have helped to pass a bill in Tennessee that will restrict drag performances in public spaces and another bill in Wyoming that made it the first state to ban abortion pills. And they don’t intend on stopping.
So far in 2023, there have been at least 385 bills introduced attacking the LGBTQIA+ community, and we are all bracing ourselves for the Texas ruling on restricted access to the leading abortion pill, Mifepristone.
Thankfully, our grantee partners, who represent BIPOC, WOC, and trans and gender-expansive communities of color, have been preparing, fighting, and organizing for reproductive justice and trans rights for decades.
Below, you can learn about these organizations and how to support their work in key battleground states.
Photo credit: Avow Foundation for Abortion Access
Texas
The Afiya Center in Dallas, TX unapologetically advocates for reproductive justice, HIV issues, voting rights, and Black maternal health.
As a Black women-led organization they are raising the issues of abortion access, voting rights, and birth justice within multiple movements, to ensure that these critical issues for Black communities are not seen as separate and that anti-reproductive justice forces cannot use issues as wedges to divide and conquer.
Avow Foundation for Abortion Access
Avow Foundation for Abortion Access is developing a comprehensive survey and inventory of the national legal resources available and to create a legal support network for Texans facing civil or criminal liability due to abortion bans.
In response to the fall of Roe, Avow Texas, and the Repro Power Dallas Coalition combined advocacy with the collective need for community healing to coordinate an Abortion Liberation rally outside Dallas City Hall.
In April 2022, The Mahogany Project provided gender-affirming health care to trans youth in light of anti-trans legislation in Texas.
The Mahogany Project dispels the idea that abortion is a “cis” women’s health issue because it moves us further away from a conversation on how abortion affects families, geographic communities, and the TQLGB+ community.
Photo Credit: Campaign for Southern Equality
Tennessee
CHOICES Memphis Center for Reproductive Health
After the fall of Roe, CHOICES knew they would have to find a new location outside of Tennessee from which to offer abortion services. The New York Times profiled their newly opened clinic in Carbondale, Illinois, and how the clinic tapped local community leaders to help smooth the transition.
“You come into somebody’s house, you need to introduce yourself, break bread with people,”
-Jennifer Pepper, CHOICES Carbondale clinic chief executive
In anticipation of the Tennessee abortion ban, SisterReach put out a press statement expressing that “since 2011, my team and I at SisterReach have worked tirelessly to forward reproductive and sexual justice in Tennessee for the most vulnerable people in our state.”
“Over the last year, my team and I have been preparing for this day, building funding partner and stakeholder relationships in Illinois.
Today, we announce our new practical support fund: The Illinois Reproductive Justice Pipeline Fund, which will support the practical needs of pregnant people from Tennessee (lodging, transportation, food, childcare support) and surrounding southeastern states to access abortion care in IL or any other sanctuary state.”
Photo Credit: Freedom, Inc.
Wisconsin
In the wake of life-threatening rulings like the Wyoming abortion pill ban, Freedom Inc. is working on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court race to get better representation to fight against other sweeping anti-abortion laws that took effect when Roe was overturned.
LET’S WIN!
In a post-Roe era, we must turn our energy, our rage, and our resources toward the BIPOC, WOC, trans, and gender-expansive communities with the clearest vision for what we need to win.
We urge philanthropy to invest in intersectional grassroots organizing that centers their voices in the fight to protect bodily autonomy across the country.