Activist Tips from Words of Choice
– Help your local abortion fund. Abortion funds help women without financial resources to pay for an abortion. They need help staffing hotlines, tabling at events, doing social marketing and updating websites. Find one in your area at National Network of Abortion Funds. If there’s no fund in your city, consider starting one!
– Read Pro-Choice Blogs. One way to stay informed is to read feminist blogs. Here are a few to get you started:
– Write a song, a poem, a rap. Explore your thoughts using your artistic imagination. To start, write new words to a tune you already know (sort of the karoke in reverse). Check out Lauren Zuniga’s spoken word.
– Talk about abortion with your friends and family. Find tips at The Abortion Conversation Projects.
– Ask unassuming questions. For example, “Do you know anyone who has had an abortion in the past year?”
– Practice compassion. Every situation is unique and none of us are perfect. Be ready to listen and learn.
– Be prepared for the unexpected: people’s lives and opinions are complicated.
– Be willing to explain (gently). Stock up on basics on abortion at the National Abortion Federation , Guttmacher Institute and SisterSong Women of Color.
– Tell your abortion story. You can do so in person or online. Try FWHC.org (feminist health centers), We Testify, or The Abortion Diary.
– Know about pro-choice resources for friends in need:
- Pregnancy Options
- Abortion: Which Method is Right for Me?
- Emotional and Spiritual Healing After an Abortion
- The Good Women at Northlund video
– Tweet, Insta. Twitter and Instagram are easy, immediate and free ways to connect with other feminists and to get news.
– Show films. Good documentaries include: The Abortion Diaries; I Had an Abortion; Beyond the Politics of Life & Choice; 12th & Delaware; The Coat Hanger Project; From Danger to Dignity; and The Education of Shelby Knox. Some good dramas: 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days; Vera Drake; Fast Times at Ridgemont High; Citizen Ruth; The Cider House Rules; Dirty Dancing; Just Another Girl on the IRT; If These Walls Could Talk, Ask for Jane. A doc/drama mix: Words of Choice on DVD.
– Use creativity. Engage people’s right brains. See “Creativity Up,” the Words of Choice blog and info packaged with our DVD. Some ideas:
- Make an event display from abortion rights posters.
- Knit condom amulets.
- Make a video for YouTube about your reproductive rights & the obstacles to free exercise of them.
- Write letters to the new justices on the Supreme Court about the need for abortion.
- Post the pro-choice prayers created by FaithAloud.
– Expand your thinking. Good books on abortion providers: The Story of Jane: The Legendary Feminist Underground Abortion Service; This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor and Targets of Hatred. For the history of abortion politics, try Doctors of Conscience by Carole Joffe; Roe v Wade by Marian Faux and The Choices We Made by Angela Bonavoglia.
– Send us your new activist tips. We’ll promote them.
— Thanks to Steph Herold for development of these tips.
TELL WASHINGTON NOW: See the Words of Choice Video Campaign with other activist groups to stop an Abortion Ban for Patients Whose Health May be At Risk. Watch video here.
reprofreedomarts.org 