Em-URGE-ing Voices

Posts Categorized: Abortion

Whose Tale Is The Handmaid’s?

Fan bases can really take a TV show and kill the buzz surrounding it. People (white feminists) are dressing up like handmaids from The Handmaid’s Tale at protests and rallies in support of reproductive freedom. I don’t understand the message they are trying to convey with this look.  Frankly, it kind of irritates me when people buy these costumes to “make a difference.” They are mistaking consumerism for direct action.  This TV show is held in the eyes of many as the feminist-iest show around because of its remarkable relationship to real life. The first season came out around Tr*mp’s new “presidency” and the second season came out when the #MeToo movement surged yet again earlier this year. I can see why it would be easy to see this show as the new… Read more »

Preparing to Live in a World Without Roe: What You Need to Know About Self-Managed Abortions

It is hard for my generation to picture a world before Roe. Even as we have faced draconian laws restricting access and watched clinics close, we hold in the back of our minds that if we were to need it, Roe would protect our access to abortion. We have never known a time when abortion was, legally speaking, entirely out of the question. With that, the image of the back-alley abortion feels far away. The coat hanger feels like an image of the past– one that we won’t return to, and that isn’t a reality anymore. Maybe we know people who have received abortions in this way, but we certainly do not know this reality in the same type of living color that past generations do. Of course, every community… Read more »

Anti-choice lies will continue to fly at “crisis pregnancy centers”

On July fourth, as my family draws to the dining room table, our conversation turns to politics. My mother mentions blocking hate speech on Twitter, resulting in users getting kicked off, my uncle feels attacked and argues, “if we say freedom of speech, that means all speech.” Why should we censor some speech and not others? Why is it permissible that “oppositional” speech be omitted? On June 26th, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a 5-4 ruling involving this matter in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra, Attorney General of California. The NIFLA v. Becerra case grappled with the regulation of speech at so-called “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” (CPCs) in California. The State, via the California Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency Act… Read more »

Building Community: The Power of Uplifting Local Stories

This week, the Rio Grande Valley’s URGE chapter hosted our first Abortion Speakout in collaboration with the 1 in 3 Campaign. The purpose of the Abortion Speakout is to uplift abortion stories in order to remind people that abortion is not just a matter of politics, but something that affects real people. The 1 in 3 Campaign uses storytelling as a way to shift the narrative around abortion and move past the stigma attached to it. This year, we hosted the Speakout in honor of Jane Doe, one of the young immigrants held hostage by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Our chapter in the Rio Grande Valley put together a zine to collect local stories, art, and poetry as part of our Abortion Speakout.   Stories from the 956: Abortion and Reproductive… Read more »

Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights Is Not Just a Slogan

To anyone that believes that Trump’s presidency isn’t causing any real harm, I’m afraid to tell you that you are terribly mistaken. The State Department recently released their annual human rights report, and the section on reproductive rights has been removed. A section that previously included an outline on access to abortion and contraception and detailed maternal mortality rates has been replaced with a section discussing “coercion in population control” which documents involuntary or “unethical” sterilization. This, along with new sections solidifying America’s compliance with countries with governments known to violate human rights, exemplify what the Trump presidency prioritizes and what it always has. Reproductive rights hadn’t even been included in the human rights report properly until 2011 under the Obama administration. The reasoning behind removing reproductive rights from the human… Read more »

Here’s How We Can Actually ‘Restore Life in America,’ Pence

On Feb. 27, The Hill reported that Mike Pence said he hopes legal abortion will end in the United States “in our time.” At a luncheon for the Susan B. Anthony List & Life Institute, Pence said “I know in my heart of hearts this will be the generation that restores life in America.” Pence has a track record of restricting reproductive health care access in his time as vice president and as governor of Indiana. He said to the luncheon attendees that “while we have made great progress, we have much work left to do,” noting the federal 20-week abortion ban bill that the House of Representatives passed earlier this year; that bill was not passed by the Senate. We have much work left to do to enhance and… Read more »

I Am Pro-Choice Because I Am Catholic, Not In Spite of It

Catholics around the country have come together to express their support of reproductive rights through the In Good Faith campaign, put forth by Catholics For Choice, an organization that is “on the forefront of national and international debates on the intersection of faith, women’s health and reproductive justice”. The beauty of Catholicism is that we are the original radicals- the first ones to question societal and cultural ideas and expectations. And I am here to tell you that I am a practicing cradle Catholic and concurrently, a pro-choice activist. In my own constructions and interpretations of theology, I believe that Catholics have a duty to be radically open to what is best for others. Even so, abortion can be undoubtedly hard to come to terms with for some Catholics. At… Read more »

Abortion Reversal is Not a Thing

Greetings, from your local policy nerds at URGE. We’ve got some news: “abortion reversal” is not a thing. You might be thinking “what the heck is that?”, or “those are some words I have not seen together before”, or “yeah, I already knew that.” Well, you know who doesn’t know that abortion reversal is not a thing? The Trump Administration. Scott Lloyd, head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), reportedly floated the idea of trying “abortion reversal” to stop the abortion of Jane Doe, a young immigrant held in ORR custody (don’t worry, Jane Doe got her abortion, despite the government fighting her every step of the way). Let’s chat for a minute about how messed up it is for the government to even suggest abortion reversal – namely… Read more »

Choice Is a Part of Life

Twenty years ago from Monday, terrorist Eric Rudolph bombed an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, killing a police officer named Robert Sanderson and a nurse named Emily Lyons. About a week or so before, the March for Life in Washington, D.C. was led by Alabama students and activists. Abortion opponents have been protesting just as long as its advocates, and I find it hard to believe that actions like those committed by Eric Rudolph would be morally admissible to activists who are fighting to preserve life. At least, that’s what they really believe they’re doing. I don’t mean to specifically target Alabama–though they are one of many states with a population that is majority pro-life. It was simply the coincidence of these events taking place that got me thinking more about the… Read more »