After We March: Keeping up the fight for abortion justice

Toplines & Key Points: 

• After rallying at Women’s Marches nationwide, it’s important to continue finding ways to fight for abortion justice.
• Demand that lawmakers take critical steps toward protecting access to safe, legal abortion across our nation by passing federal legislation like the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) and the EACH Act to end the Hyde Amendment.
• Draw on existing relationships with your family to become an outspoken advocate. 
• Become civically engaged by volunteering as a Voter Deputy Registrar and committing to vote Abbott out of the governor’s mansion and out of our uteruses. 
• Pledge to stay involved and we’ll share legislative alerts, opportunities to take action, and election information. 

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream'' speech to more than 200,000 demonstrators who took part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march successfully pressured the Kennedy administration to make a civil rights bill a priority. In 1993, the LGBTQIA+ community marched on Washington demanding a slate of policies that included bills against discrimination, an increase in AIDS research funding, and reproductive freedom. In 2017, the Women’s March brought together the largest single-day protest in US history. 

Protest has played an important role in holding governments and institutions accountable, but movement building isn’t achieved through one day of empty slogans and organized herding. Now that we’ve attended nationwide Rallies for Abortion Justice, here’s how to keep up the fight long after we’ve gone home and shoved our pretty signs under our beds: 

Stay Informed

• Why are we marching? The Supreme Court rejected an emergency request to block SB 8, the Texas abortion ban, creating a path to overturning Roe v. Wade. We are demanding that Congress pass the Women’s Health Protection Act and the EACH Act to end the Hyde Amendment. 

• Reproductive justice is inherently intersectional. Being a valuable change maker starts with a willingness to challenge one’s own biases and oversights. Take the time to learn about how undocumented women are affected by SB8. Immigration is a reproductive justice issue. 

• Carry your passion for reproductive rights into the realm of voting rights, because many of the states losing access to abortion are coincidently having their voting access stripped away.

• Register for the Women’s March Feminist Future Series, eight interactive, story-based events that will expand upon feminism featuring influential scholars and activists like Alexis Gumbs and Barbara Smith.

Return to Your Roots

• At its core movement building is relational. Draw on your existing relationships with your family, friends and colleagues and work to educate them on why abortion access is so important. 

• This kind of community outreach is powerful because it relies on pre-existing ordinary structures. Support the hard work of abortion clinics and funds by sharing their informative content with your grandma on Facebook or guilt trip your family into donating to pro-choice organizations through holding a birthday fundraiser. 

• And lastly, be an outspoken advocate that doesn’t shy away from those tough conversations.

Support and Volunteer

• Poster your city or check out the other action resources over at Shout Your Abortion, a decentralized art collective that unashamedly tells abortion stories. 

• Follow everything The West Fund is doing to support abortion access in El Paso, Texas. 

• Volunteer and follow Raices, an immigration advocacy and legal organization that supports immigrants in Texas, including those who are seeking abortion services. 

• Volunteer your time with Lilith Fund with opportunities ranging from helping with art projects to volunteering to providing translation services. 

• Get involved with Jane’s Due Process, an organization that helps young Texans navigate parental consent laws and confidentially in accessing abortion and birth control.

Vote!

• Register to vote and sign up for a Voter Deputy Registrar training, so next time you’re at a protest you can register voters at the same time. 

• Get involved in a democratic candidate's campaign for governor. Let’s ensure that in November 2022, we kick Greg Abbott out of the governor’s mansion and out of our uteruses.

Don’t forget to take care of yourself. Living in a world where our bodies are used as blank pages for harmful legislation is a job itself. Self-care is fundamental to keeping up the fight to make abortion legal, accessible, affordable and free from shame and stigma.

Finally, pledge to stay involved. Sign our petition to receive updates and information about future events and opportunities.