Hello Repro Nation readers!
If you are committed to achieving reproductive justice, you're likely used to being disappointed by election results. Reproductive justice demands that we secure for everyone the right to maintain bodily autonomy, to have children, to not have children, and to be able to parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. So… we are (and have been) a long way off.
But this moment feels different. Voters reelected Donald Trump, the president who is responsible for the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade. Trump is now heading back to the White House to inflict even more damage, including, perhaps, enforcing the Comstock Act, which could make it illegal to mail abortion pills. With his administration promising to violently separate migrant and mixed-status families, to eliminate the federal agency protecting students' civil rights, and to make healthcare unaffordable for the most vulnerable populations, reproductive justice feels unattainable at this moment.
This feels particularly painful given that the election came breathtakingly close to going in the opposite direction. Vice President Kamala Harris ran a campaign in which, for the first time in history, reproductive freedom was a major element of a Democratic presidential nominee's platform, and the people affected by abortion bans were central to the argument for why we needed to protect and expand access to care. The Harris team even had several women speak at campaign stops about their abortion experiences. For activists who have been working on the front lines to defend abortion access, it was undeniably remarkable to see people who have had abortions spotlighted in this way, and to hear our truths told by party leaders and allies in such clear language.
But the truth is, this was never the radical progress it appeared to be. As We Testify founder Renee Bracey Sherman and I have argued in talks all over the country since the release of our book Liberating Abortion in October, real progress means not merely the right to an abortion—it means abortion liberation. This vision goes beyond begging politicians for crumbs and instead invites everyone to do the work of ending abortion stigma—which for too long has been the air we've all breathed—and build a world in which people are supported no matter their reproductive decisions, whether that is to have or to not have children. It means a world in which everyone receives all of the support and resources they need—including paid leave, a living wage, and affordable childcare, to start—to create their families and parent their children in a sustainable way.
What would it look like if we showed up with compassion and love instead of judgment and fear when a loved one tells us they are pregnant and are considering their options? How can we step up and support people no matter their decision, knowing that the majority of people who have abortions already are parents? That might look like offering to babysit for loved ones who need a multiday procedure, or spreading the gospel of abortion funds to all who will listen, or sharing your story when the topic comes up in conversation to normalize what is a quite normal procedure. What if, instead of falling into the trap of despair that the right wants us to succumb to, we doubled down on our commitment to ending abortion stigma in every possible way while demanding reproductive justice for all? We were never going to find liberation through an election, whether Harris won or not. But what if I told you that we can liberate abortion no matter who is in power, because the "power" is ours, if we choose to demand it?
In solidarity,
Regina Mahone
Senior Editor
This reflection on the 2024 election results originally appeared in the December 2024 issue, as part of a forum with the headline "Now What?"
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