15 Minutes: Kelsea McLain
I had an abortion in 2010, and there were protestors at my clinic in Florida. That prompted me to want to do something to make people feel supported. When I was at the clinic, I had a family member there to support me; but as I was looking around, I could see that people seemed to look alone and isolated in the experience. I heard women in the room talking about the protestors and how upsetting they were. I had heard about a group that volunteers at a clinic in Kentucky that does some harrowing things to support people accessing abortion, and I was inspired by their activism.
A Voice for Choice
"Before, I didn't understand how people could overlook their pregnancy," she says. "It seemed ridiculous to me that you could be pregnant and have no idea; I thought all pregnancies looked the same, felt the same, and were instantly recognizable." Even so, Chalifoux had no doubt about the right course of action for herself.
We Need More Than Roe v. Wade to Protect A Woman’s Right to Choose
The reality is that even with Roe in place, millions of women already face incredible obstacles intended to prevent them from obtaining the abortion care they need. These are multilayered barriers to access, at the state and federal levels. The women affected by these laws are women you know. They’re mothers, sisters, friends and colleagues. They’re women like Dr. Valerie Peterson, who lived in Texas. She needed an abortion at 16 weeks after she learned her unborn son was diagnosed with a lethal fetal anomaly and would not survive. Her only options were to wait to miscarry or end the pregnancy. Dr. Peterson had just learned the sex of her baby, and was excited for her two daughters to have a younger brother. Losing the pregnancy was a traumatic event on its own, and waiting would be too excruciating to bear.
How The “Abortion Road Trip” Movie Became An Instant Classic
“The other issue is several of the films show the white characters having abortions depending on their friends of color for emotional support, rather than showing the characters of color having an abortion,” adds Renee Bracey Sherman, founder of We Testify. “To be clear, friendship and models of love and support are an important aspect to depict, but they cannot and should not come at the expense and dimension of the characters of color.” While these three movies do a lot to portray abortion in a realistic way that can de-stigmatize the process, we have more work to do.
Roe v. Wade Might Be Overturned Soon — This Is Worse Than You Think
Angel Kai’s heart sank when she found out she was pregnant again. The 20-year-old had delivered her second child only three months prior. She was on unpaid maternity leave from her job in Amarillo, TX, and she’d just received a $130 electricity bill in the mail that she didn’t know if she’d be able to pay. “Everything that was happening financially was just bad,” she remembers. “I couldn’t have another kid. I knew getting an abortion would be the best thing, because I couldn’t walk up the street to get a soda if I wanted one at the time. We were that tight on money.”
This Is The Perfect Reason To Have An Abortion
There’s a good chance that you support abortion rights if you clicked on this story. You may already suspect that the title of the article is purposely attention-getting and even mildly tongue-in-cheek. You understand that there is no perfect reason to have an abortion; or, rather, that every reason is the perfect reason — as long as the person making the choice was able to decide for themselves, and follow through on that decision without unwanted interference.
WHY WE NEED TO END THE FILIBUSTER
We Testify, an organization that uplifts marginalized voices to share their abortion stories and destigmatize abortion, supports Fix Our Senate’s mission through coalition member Just Democracy. Executive Director Renee Bracey Sherman explained why: “We Testify is for abolishing any relic of slavery and the Jim Crow era, and that includes the filibuster, ICE, and the police.”
Get the Basics About Self-Managed Abortion
It’s been 20 years since the Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone, one of two pills used to end an early pregnancy with a medication abortion. Yet confusion around the medication and restrictions on its use in telemedicine, not to mention lies about it from Republican senators like Ted Cruz, continue to make access difficult.
The Reproductive Justice Activist Fighting for Black and Brown Women
With Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s recent passing and President Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to replace her, the Supreme Court could be weeks away from transforming into a solidly conservative judicial body. Reproductive rights hang in the balance. We have never needed activist Renee Bracey Sherman and her work more.
An Inside Look at the Harm Created by Insurance Bans on Abortion
For over 40 years, Congress has used the Hyde Amendment to keep abortion care out of the reach of low-income people.
Hyde blocks federal funds from Medicaid, a joint federal and state health insurance program, from being used to cover abortion costs. The amendment’s federal spending ban has trickled down to state funding bans and attempts to bar private insurance from covering abortion as well.
How Medication Abortion Access Has Changed Over 20 Years
A few years after my first abortion, I realized I was pregnant again. I was living in North Carolina and working for an abortion provider; I asked my boss how I could get an abortion from her. I had to receive an ultrasound even though I knew exactly when I conceived the pregnancy, and I knew I had no signs of an ectopic pregnancy. I had to hear the state-mandated script about the risks, even though I worked with a provider and regularly provided options counseling. Then I had to wait an additional three days before getting my medication abortion, because the state said so. The whole process was sobering, insulting, and really drove home how demeaning and demoralizing these added barriers are.
Medical Abortion Targeted By Trump Administration 20 Years After Its Debut
When Maleeha Aziz had a medication abortion, the 26 year-old says she traveled from Texas to Colorado to obtain the medicine. She received the mifepristone in a Colorado Springs clinic, then took the misoprostol when she was back home in Dallas.
What It’s Like to Get an Abortion During COVID-19
Nik Zaleski was pulling into the parking lot of a Planned Parenthood in northern California on March 17 when she received a text message from a close friend: “Governor Newsom is about to announce this shelter in place order. Get everything you need before the city goes on lockdown.” Of course, Zaleski’s friend had no idea that what she needed, at that moment, was a medication abortion.
Tejas Made: What Reproductive Rights Look Like For Latines In Texas
“I was not in a situation where I could afford even a $50 increase, much less one of a couple hundred dollars,” Gomez explains. “And I needed a ride, so I was at the mercy of the person who impregnated me [and] was abusive. I was on his schedule and if [it] did not line up correctly, it wasn’t going to happen. And I said that I was not going to be pregnant. I didn’t want to be pregnant.”
How My Abortion Strengthened My Faith
I felt God with me in the room when I had my abortion. My Christian faith had given me the strength to seek the care I needed and free myself from a violent relationship three years ago. My faith also empowered me to free myself from the shackles of our white supremacist society, which is hellbent on denying Black women like me agency and power. I am who I am today because of the decision I made to choose faith and choose to have an abortion.
Why Only the Republicans Are Talking About Abortion
The Democrats are “trying to have such a big tent that they’re forgetting that they are leaving a whole lot of us out of this conversation,” said Renee Bracey Sherman, a reproductive justice activist who started a campaign during the 2016 presidential primary to encourage discussion of abortion. “They say Black women are the base of our party. Well guess who has abortions? Black women. The majority of people who have abortions are women of color.”
I Did My Own Abortion Because Texas Used COVID-19 as an Excuse to Shut Down Abortion Clinics
The day I found out I was pregnant, I saw all over Facebook that Texas was going to be shutting down the clinics. I thought I’m not going to be able to have this abortion. I thought that I didn’t have a choice—I was going to have to just live with it. It was very scary because I couldn’t tell anybody. I was trying to get as many hours of work as I could.
How abortion became an issue in the racial justice fight
“For years, anti-abortion politicians have co-opted Black Lives Matter, not to listen to what black people need to thrive, but to curb access to abortion,” said Bracey Sherman, founder of the group We Testify, which supports women speaking openly about their abortions.
Compassionate Strangers Made My Abortion Happen
When I realized I needed an abortion, I didn’t realize that it would be a destination abortion. I didn’t realize how many barriers—how many people—would be in my way just so I could get the abortion I wanted when I wanted it.
How crisis pregnancy centers are pushing women to have abortions later
Beth Vial, who wrote about her later abortion for Teen Vogue, detailed the numerous lies a crisis pregnancy center told her. There were no nurses on staff at the center. She was sent to a different location to get an ultrasound, she was lied to about how far along she was in her pregnancy, she was told abortions were dangerous, and she was hassled at home by the crisis pregnancy center workers, who she said called her "day and night." She didn't learn she was actually 26 weeks pregnant until she went to a nearby hospital.