Thread by @AbortionCare

ICYMI -

We’ve been on the frontline of ensuring abortion access and have been helping people get their abortions for decades. Here’s what you need to know as we await the SCOTUS decision.

A thread by @AbortionCare and @AbortionFunds 🧵

(1/12)

Let's start by saying, independent abortion clinics & abortion funds are SO grateful for the outpouring of support in the wake of the devastating SCOTUS leak.

Thank you for plugging in & spreading the word that #AbortionIsStillLegal no matter where you live in the US. (2/12)

When an awful and extreme abortion ban hits the news, there is an understandable and admirable tendency for people to jump immediately into action, and we appreciate that.

This is not the moment to sit by, be silent, or be stunned into inaction. (3/12)

However, rather than reinventing networks of support, the best thing you can do is to invest your time, money & resources into the existing networks of care that have been operating for decades in the specific cultural & legal environments of the communities they live in. (4/12)

Clinics & funds are uniquely positioned to assist patients in getting through obstacles to abortion.

Often hand-in-hand, funds & clinics have been fighting for increased access through policy change, breaking down stigma, & providing accurate info & compassionate care. (5/12)

Clinics, funds, and practical support organizations know how to protect the safety and privacy of all involved – patients, providers, and those who want to volunteer, donate, offer rides, and support. (6/12)

There is no need for you to create an 'underground railroad' to get people to their abortions. That very proposal and language is harmful to Black people & allies who operated the Underground Railroad & to BIPOC people navigating a racist abortion system today. (7/12)

We don’t need Handmaids bringing attention to communities newly affected by a lack of abortion access when the horrors evoked in fiction have actually been experienced by communities of color.

Lack of infant formula & sterilization are realities, not works of fiction. (8/12)

We don’t need Auntie Networks or anyone else seeking to recreate the wheel when abortion funds, independent clinics, practical support networks, & clinic escorts have been doing the work of supporting patients and providers for decades and continue to at this very moment. (9/12)

Before you jump in, we encourage you to find your local funds (abortionfunds.org/funds) & support efforts to #keepourclinics open (keepourclinics.org). We ask you to make a commitment to learn - as we are - from repro justice orgs (sistersong.net). (10/12)

Yes, we’re in an emergency, but we have been.
Funds & clinics have been sounding the alarm for decades. That means still have a moment to collectively pause, listen to those most affected & follow the lead of brilliant organizers, often BIPOC in the South & Midwest. (11/12)

We ask you to trust abortion funds & clinics. Let us all rethink our actions under duress; let us build a new way to #LiberateAbortion together.

Full statement in
@RewireNewsGroup: buff.ly/3NNHTcX

In sincere appreciation & invitation to our movement,
ACN & NNAF (12/12)