Thread by @doctorow

With Roe v Wade likely headed to the US Supreme Court and a woman's right to a safe and legal abortion under grave threat, a new generation of pro-abortion activists are rising up.

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As @ameliajpollard writes for @theprospect, this new wave is militant, organized and unapologetic - rather than engaging in petty framing wars about being "pro-choice" or "pro-life," they call themselves "pro-abortion."

prospect.org/justice/the-ne…

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They link the right to safe, legal abortion on demand to wider struggles for gender equity, trans inclusion, and, especially, comprehensive sex education and access to contraception as the single most effective way to reduce the number of abortions.

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They're not intimidated by evangelical harassers who congregate outside of abortion clinics to terrorize pregnant people seeking abortions, nor are they shy about bucking movement leadership when they engage in trans-exclusionary bullying.

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These young people are rising up especially in "red states" like Mississippi, where cynical politicians have courted the misogynist and religious maniac vote by attacking abortion rights, sex education, and access to contraception.

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They're starting their organizing careers in high school, demanding sex education and access to contraception, and staying with the movement as they graduate. They demand that abortion be understood as an issue at the intersection of race, class and gender.

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As such, they don't just focus on changing the law, they also work on the immediate needs of people seeking abortions, raising money to defray travel and other costs as abortion clinics disappear thanks to restrictive laws.

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They also offer emotional support, "one-on-one care during every stage of the abortion process," and a new crop of "abortion doulas" is emerging that helps before, during and after an abortion.

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I grew up in the abortion legalisation movement. My mother was an early abortion rights activist who marched for reproductive rights while she was pregnant with me.

flickr.com/photos/doctoro…

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The first time I ever appeared in the paper, it was in the company of Dr Henry Morgantaler, the heroic Canadian abortion-rights campaigner who was jailed and terrorized by the state and by anti-abortion terrorists.

flickr.com/photos/doctoro…

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I spent my teen years doing clinic defense, including at the Morgentaler Clinic - a clinic that was eventually torched by religious terrorists. Morgantaler's anti-abortion opponents were absolutely shameless.

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At one point, when he was seeking an injunction against people who'd repeatedly blocked access to his clinic, the anti-abortion side's lawyer accused him of aborting gentile babies to get revenge for his experiences in Auschwitz.

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When he was finally recognised with the Order of Canada in 2008, he didn't mince words: "It's an appointment I deserve, even if I say so myself."

cbc.ca/news/canada/mo…

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The erosion of reproductive rights in America - and the weaponising of a woman's fertility to whip low-information evangelicals into line (the same people who spent 50 years ignoring abortion as a "Catholic issue") has been an ongoing catastrophe to watch.

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The rise of a decentralised, indomitable, modern, militant pro-abortion movement of young people with new tactics to suit this moment is a ray of hope.

Image:
Rise Up Feminist Archive (modified)
riseupfeministarchive.ca/culture/button…

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ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2021/08/05/com…