Dear Meteor readers,

This Sunday, we have a special send for you. My friend and editor Megan Carpentier talked to reproductive rights activists and advocates from places where abortion was or is currently banned (including pre-Roe America). These women share advice with us on the long road ahead. Hope is important but elusive; these stories might provide some.

With love,

Samhita Mukhopadhyay

DEPT. OF HOPE

“We’re Stuck for a Minute… But it’s Just for a Minute”

Stories of strategy—and resilience—from people who have been where we are now

BY MEGAN CARPENTIER

A CELEBRATION OF DECRIMINALIZED ABORTIONS IN COLOMBIA, 2022 (PHOTO BY ELIZABETH PALCHUCAN VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

For many of us, the official news on Friday morning that the Supreme Court had overturned the landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade was a devastating loss.

That devastation was not helped by the knowledge that Justice Clarence Thomas, who the day before had authored the decision significantly restricting the ways in which states can regulate handguns, was also suggesting that the Court should revisit its decisions to legalize birth control, to decriminalize consensual sex between same-sex adults, and to legalize same-sex marriage. All those decisions were equally reliant on the Court’s prior interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

But the truth is that we’ve known this decision was coming since Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion leaked less than eight weeks ago. Plus, the anti-abortion movement has, for decades, been working on the state level to pass laws that could either restrict access to abortion within the confines of Roe— see also: Casey v. Planned Parenthood and Gonzales v. Carhart—or present the Court with an opportunity to overturn it.

And now they’ve done so.

So the question for Americans who value reproductive rights is: What happens now? How do we help each other, help our friends, and, ultimately, win back our freedoms?

But American women need not start from scratch on this new, old ground. Abortion restrictions exist around the world, and we asked leaders who have lived under them to share their advice and stories.

“What you need to do with that sadness—that rage—is to use it as a catalyst to keep on resisting.”

—Angie Contreras, spokesperson, Mujeres Vivas y Libres campaign in Mexico, where abortion was illegal until September 2021, when activists helped win a Supreme Court decision to legalize it

Abortions are going to continue existing whether they are illegal or not.

In Mexico abortions have always existed and, in states where they are prohibited, there are still abortions. That has been thanks to networks of women who have confided in other women, in other organizations, in allies, in collectives that are going to resist and inform them. Because the state cannot prevent us from exercising our rights over our bodies; only we can decide that.

This is a reminder that women won these rights for [themselves], and we have to continue defending them because we can’t always rely on the state.  We need to create networks among women to help each other to continue fighting for our rights.

It’s valid to be sad [after Roe] because they’re prohibiting the exercise of a right that women had already won. But what you need to do with that sadness—that rage—is to use it as a catalyst to keep on resisting. Women have historically always needed to resist. We were sad for a while too, but then we organized, and we are going to continue to organize because the reality is that we don’t need the state to continue having abortions.

Also, this is a good moment to learn about other strategies: In Mexico, we learned from our sisters in Argentina and Colombia.

And this is a reminder that we are not alone, because when we talk about a life free of violence and with the security of access to abortion, it’s for everyone. Not just for women in Mexico or in the United States. We want the same for all women—and, in Latin America, we know that it is possible to achieve this.

“Maybe it’s time for people in the States—for women particularly—to look at where you can find hope.”

—Catherine Heaney, director and chair, DHR Public Relations, and former chief executive of the Irish Family Planning Association, Ireland, where abortion was legalized by referendum in 2018

I started working with the Irish Family Planning Association around 2001 and, at that time, obviously, there was a ban on abortion—but the government had started making very small moves to be more supportive of women in crisis pregnancies.

Then, a key moment was the death of Savita Halappanavar [an Indian dentist living in Ireland who died of sepsis in 2012 after being denied an abortion during a miscarriage]. That was a huge shock to the nation. People really related to her…and that drove so many people out onto the streets.

On a very personal level, it was the first time I started to hear from relatives and people that I would never have discussed abortion with—even though I was a public voice on abortion for many years—that people were just outraged by it. Women were out in the streets, men were out in the streets and many of us brought our children out onto the streets around the time of her death.

[Waiting for the referendum results], I met somebody who was out there fighting for abortion rights 30 years before. She stuck with it and was there…and it was a joy. It’s really important to be resilient and stick with it.

America gave me great hope when I was at IFPA. Now maybe it’s time for people in the States—for women particularly—to look at where you can find hope. There’s a lot of really progressive stuff happening across Europe, not just in Ireland, on reproductive rights and health in general.

To me, I think there’s lots of potential to be hopeful, but it does require hard work.

ABORTION RIGHTS PROTESTORS IN BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND 2019 (PHOTO BY CHARLES MCQUILLAN VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

“I think there is a need for health care professionals in the U.S…to really band together and make their voices heard.”

—Rostom Deiparine and Ana Maria R. Nemenzo, steering committee members, Philippines Safe Abortion Access Network (PINSAN), Philippines, where abortion is illegal except where deemed necessary to save the life or health of the mother

Ana Maria: PINSAN — which literally means “cousin”—is a coalition of reproductive health, reproductive rights, and women’s groups that felt after the passage of the reproductive health law, that it was time to…expand the full meaning of “reproductive health” to address the issue of abortion.

Rostom: There are real restrictions on safe abortions [even when it’s legal]. Still, there is [an] understanding among women and health care providers that abortion is illegal under all circumstances, and not many providers are trained to provide safe abortions at all.

Ana Maria: The main campaign we embarked on was to demystify, destigmatize and decriminalize abortion. It took us quite a while to get women in the communities to discuss the issue [but] we thought it was time to bring it out into the open – discuss it, address it, face it – so that we can do something about it. And we really framed it as a public health issue. [There are an estimated 610,000 illegal, unsafe abortions in the Philippines every year.] But the Catholic Church has continued to oppose even the reproductive health law at every twist and turn for religious reasons.

Rostom: Personally, I feel there is a need for the American community, particularly women, to revisit and define and strengthen the community of care among themselves.

“It’s never only about taking away the right to abortion.”

–Jinna Rosales, executive director of Grupo Estratégico por la PAE, Honduras, where abortion is illegal

First, keep calm. Analyze the social context and acknowledge first of all that you’re in a country that has always had battles over reproductive rights. Remember, too, that this is a country that for years and years has had people who believed in these rights. So now it’s time to identify those political actors and call on them for assistance in the restitution of these rights.

It’s also really important to identify those actors who are working to take these rights away in the United States and ask yourselves: What’s behind this decision? And what are they really playing at with this? Because it’s never only about taking away the right to abortion—there are other themes that maybe we aren’t seeing and those are the things we need to keep an eye on, too.

I think organization is very important: In general, you need to have an organization that is intersectional—which is to say that they must include the experiences of both older women and young women in order to build strategies.

PROTESTORS IN NEW YORK, FRIDAY EVENING (PHOTO BY JOHN SMITH VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

“We can get past this because number one, we’re more educated now.”

—Donna Morris, senior director of administration, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, who was involved in abortion politics in the U.S. pre-Roe

Before it was Roe, we had a plan for Roe. So let’s get a plan for afterward. Let’s let women know there is light at the end of the tunnel. They’re not going to stop us. We’re badasses. And this is just a little bump in the road.

We can get past this because number one—to me, as a woman that is 73, getting ready to be 74—we’re more educated now. Back in my day, we were basically swimming without a raft—on our own. Most of us young women were more hip and educated than our mothers were because they were old school: “I’m just a mother, I’m just a wife.”

We are not that anymore. So, we can come up with some slick ideas, some creative things, some things to meet the moment that, yes, we’re stuck in for a minute…but it’s just for a minute.

You can still help those seeking abortions who need it most by clicking here or sharing this newsletter. 

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