Social Feminists Working Group: Abortion Rights News

Hello comrades,

Abortion rights in the US are under accelerating attack. Abortion advocates in states like Iowa, Georgia, and Mississippi continue to battle against attacks on abortion access. The possibility of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade looms closer since the confirmation of Trump-appointed anti-choice advocate Brett Kavanaugh. Pregnancy crisis centers continue to spread misinformation on the taxpayer’s dollar. We must continue to build the resistance to the anti-choice movement. It will take direct action and a mass movement to save abortion.

DSA chapters and DSA’s Socialist Feminist National Working Group will be joining the Movement for Abortion Defense, a newly formed network of abortion defenders that includes members of Twin Cities DSA and NYC DSA, for their first National Day of Action for Reproductive Justice on April 6, 2019. We invite your chapter to participate in an action on behalf of reproductive justice and in defense of abortion on that date, demonstrating mass support in the face of attacks by the anti-choice movement on clinics through their biannual 40 Days of Life campaign.

Chapters can participate in the day of action in a variety of ways:

• Flyer a Crisis Pregnancy Center
• Organize a fundraiser for an abortion fund through the National Abortion Access Bowl-a-thon
• Host a speak out where people can share their abortion stories in the tradition of the Redstockings (50th anniversary of their speakout is this year!) and the more recent Shout Your Abortion movement
• Organize a film screening and discussion about abortion rights. Options include: I Had An Abortion, Trapped, She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry, etc.
• Organize a mass training of volunteer clinic escorts from within your chapter
• Ask your local abortion provider about options for strategic counter-protests of anti-choice clinic protests
• Work directly with your local abortion provider to ask how you can best support them and their work.

The Movement for Abortion Defense is united by the following principles:

1. We believe abortion is critical to reproductive freedom, and reproductive freedom is central to liberation.
2. We believe in an unapologetic demand for full abortion rights and for reproductive justice.
3. We fight for free abortion on demand as a critical part of the broader fight for universal healthcare, free childcare, and ending sexual violence.
4. We believe that anti-racism is central to reproductive freedom.
5. We believe in gender justice and bodily autonomy for all genders and all bodies.
6. We believe in opposing right-wing, anti-choice protests in the streets.
7. We believe in reclaiming space and confronting antis. We defend clinics to keep them open and ensure patients can get inside the door without harassment.
8. We believe that we can win.

The Movement for Abortion Defense Coalition currently includes:

Twin Cities Clinic Defense

Madison Abortion Defense

Seattle Clinic Defense

NYC For Abortion Rights

Jane Sidewalk Supporters for Choice (Everett, WA)

If you will be participating in the National Day of Action for Reproductive Justice, be sure to post about it on social media and contact us to spread the word about your work! Contact movementforabortiondefense@gmail.com or socialistfeminism@dsausa.org to get involved with planning or with questions.

In solidarity,
Interim Steering Committee, SFWG