MERJ Newsletter 3/28/2024
Photo taken at a protest at the Supreme Court by the partner of a MERJ co-leader, 3/25/24.
💵 Amazing Organization to Support Today — by moving money, we can make an immediate difference!
The Brigid Alliance
“We get people to abortion care, whatever it takes.”
From their website: “For many Americans, the costs and logistical challenges of getting to an abortion provider are primary barriers to access, and it’s only getting harder. We book, coordinate and pay for travel, travel expenses, and child care, serving as a single, trusted point of contact for every step of the journey. Wherever someone needs to get to abortion care in the U.S., we find a way to get them there – through direct support and in collaboration with our network of partners.”
Please join us in supporting this worthy cause!
📖 9-Minute Power Read, from Slate.com:
“The Current Attack on Abortion Pills Will Fail. The Next One Will Be So Much Worse.”
Written by DAHLIA LITHWICK and MARK JOSEPH STERN. Published March 26, 2024.
🔊 Podcast Power Listen (1 hour):
“Amicus,” presented by Slate: “How the Mifepristone Case Reached SCOTUS,” 3/24/24
“Will this Supreme Court reward three decades of activism against abortion pills and ban the safest, most popular abortion method in the United States?”
Transcript of episode also available at this same site.
📚 MERJ Book Club!
If you’re interested in joining the MERJ Leadership Team in reading and discussing this book, email us at action@endthepatriarchy.org and we’ll be happy to invite you to our book discussions!
Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion, by Gabrielle Blair
Published in 2022; notes below from Bookshop.org
In Ejaculate Responsibly, Gabrielle Blair offers a provocative reframing of the abortion issue in post-Roe America.
In a series of 28 brief arguments, Blair deftly makes the case for moving the abortion debate away from controlling and legislating women's bodies and instead directs the focus on men's lack of accountability in preventing unwanted pregnancies.
Highly readable, accessible, funny, and unflinching, Blair builds her argument by walking readers through the basics of fertility (men are 50 times more fertile than women), the unfair burden placed on women when it comes to preventing pregnancy (90% of the birth control market is for women), the wrongheaded stigmas around birth control for men (condoms make sex less pleasurable, vasectomies are scary and emasculating), and the counterintuitive reality that men, who are fertile 100% of the time, take little to no responsibility for preventing pregnancy.
The result is a compelling and convincing case for placing the responsibility--and burden--of preventing unwanted pregnancies away from women and onto men.
Help and Resources to Share with Anyone Needing an Abortion: (from ifwhenhow.org)
Find a local clinic by using the National Abortion Federation map.
If you have questions about your legal rights and self-managed abortion, the Repro Legal Helpline is a free, confidential source for legal advice and information. Visit ReproLegalHelpline.org or call 844-868-2812.
If you are under 18 and need information about your rights to an abortion, you can message or call our Repro Legal Helpline at 844-868-2812. You can also read more about your rights on our Judicial Bypass Wiki.
If you have been arrested, contacted by the police, or fear you may be arrested for a self-managed abortion, our Repro Legal Helpline can provide immediate legal advice and support, and our Repro Legal Defense Fund can help with bail and legal fees. You can call our Repro Legal Helpline at 844-868-2812, and for help with bail and other fees, visit ReproLegalDefenseFund.org.
Medically-reviewed, step-by-step directions for how to self-administer a medication abortion using mifepristone and misoprostol can be found on the Hey Jane website.
