Updated 6/19/2019

Abortion rights are under accelerating attack in the United States, both on the federal level and in the states. Within the first five months of 2019, draconian abortion bans have passed in Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Georgia, and Alabama. Once the newly passed laws are enacted, legal abortion will be dramatically limited or completely prohibited, either altogether (in Alabama), after six weeks from the first date of the last menstrual period (in Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, & Georgia), or after eight weeks (in Missouri).

These attacks on reproductive freedom are increasing in frequency and intensity, and there is every indication that they will continue. The possibility of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade looms closer since the confirmation of Trump-appointed anti-abortion advocate Brett Kavanaugh. “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” (CPCs) continue to spread misinformation on the taxpayer’s dollar.

DSA chapters are deeply involved in fighting for abortion access and other aspects of reproductive justice, from fundraising a total of $137,472 for the National Network of Abortion Funds Bowl-a-thon this year to conducting campaigns against Crisis Pregnancy Centers and child detention centers. We must continue to build the resistance to the anti-abortion movement. It will take direct action and a mass movement to protect and expand access to abortion.

To this end, DSA’s Socialist Feminist National Working Group calls on DSA chapters to participate in an action in support of abortion access for a National Week of Action for Reproductive Justice from June 22-30, 2019.

Chapters can participate in the week of action in a variety of ways, as suits their local needs and capacity. Some examples are outlined below.

If you will be participating in the National Week of Action for Reproductive Justice, be sure to post about it on social media using #dsareprojustice and contact us to spread the word about your work! Remember that not all people who need or receive abortions are cis women, so be sure to use gender-inclusive language when talking about abortion access. Contact [email protected] to get involved with planning, ask questions, or let us know how your chapter will be participating.

Ways to Participate in the National Week of Action

• Conduct anti-Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) work
  • Flyer a Crisis Pregnancy Center
  • Use Expose Fake Clinics to correctly classify crisis pregnancy centers and other facilities that don’t provide abortions in Google and other search results.
  • Work with the Digital Defense Fund to match CPC locations from a list of names and addresses to their 990 data.
• Defend clinics digitally
  • Host an event to file public information requests to find out how police handled certain anti-abortion protests and any subsequent arrests.
    • This keeps police accountable to holding antis to the rules everyone has to obey outside a facility. You can do this without using a secondary service or MuckRock.
  • Collect Google search ads results for abortion referral and help the Digital Defense Fund gather documentation for the “bad ads” results that lead to anti-abortion sites that don’t provide the services they advertise.
  • • Use this thread on how to collect ad information.
  • Clean up Google business, Google places, and Yelp results for legitimate abortion providers to help them appear higher on search. Suggesting more complete info for the listing helps the clinic.
  • Spread the list of legitimate clinics at INeedAnA.
• Raise money for abortion funds
  • Find your local abortion fund through the National Network of Abortion Funds and host a fundraiser
  • Support funds in states that have seen recent bans, such as the Yellowhammer Fund in Alabama and Access Reproductive Care-Southeast

• Host an educational or story-sharing event
  • Host a speak out where people can share their abortion stories in the tradition of the Redstockings and the more recent Shout Your Abortion movement.
  • Shout Your Abortion is currently sponsoring book clubs reading their first book all over the country! SYA will send your chapter discussion/facilitation questions, some pro-abortion swag, and while supplies last, your group will be able to pay-what-you-can for the book ($0-24!). Email [email protected] for more info.
  • Organize a film screening and discussion about abortion rights. Options include I Had An Abortion, Trapped, and She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry.
    • DSA has an agreement to screen She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry. Click here for more information.

• Organize a training
  • Organize a mass training of volunteer clinic escorts from within your chapter by contacting your local abortion providers and funds.
  • Schedule a training of professionals in parallel services like social services, homelessness and youth services, teachers, and other kinds of healthcare workers to learn how to do abortion referral.

• Pressure your legislators
  • Some states have “Safe at Home” address privacy programs for public figures. Educate and agitate for state legislatures to expand these programs to include abortion providers and staff, so that they can get public records with a home address replaced with a free PO Box to protect their privacy from anti-choicers and other members of the far-right.
  • Some states are trying to update and improve their abortion legislation so that the right to abortion will be protected in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned. Get involved with efforts to pass that legislation.
  • Some states have passed bans or regulations meant to make abortion inaccessible for the working class. Pressure legislators to challenge and overturn those bills.

• Connect with local abortion access and reproductive justice groups
  • Build connections with your local abortion fund, grassroots abortion access group, or other groups dedicated to reproductive justice such as Reproaction, SisterSong, or New Voices, to work together to protect health care access and advance socialist viewpoints through an anti-capitalist reproductive justice framework.
  • Learn more about the reproductive justice movement and how it relates to abortion access and socialism. Reproductive justice is a comprehensive framework for thinking about and organizing around the right to have or not have children and to raise them in a safe, healthy environment, developed by and for Women, Trans, and Nonbinary People of Color. Learn about groups like Sister Song and New Voices and explore which groups are operating in your area.

• Plan for a general strike
  • NYC-DSA’s socialist feminist branch is calling on DSA chapters to plan for the implementation of a general strike if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court. Contact [email protected] to get involved.