MERJ Newsletter 12/18/2024
A man in a protest holding a sign that reads, “Real men protect womens [sic] rights.”
Photo credit: Erik Mcgregor/Pacific Press.
Three-Tiered End-of-Year Appeal
Option 1: International
Donate to Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), a respected non-profit organization that provides reproductive healthcare and other emergency assistance to women, children, and families in the midst of ongoing genocide in Palestine, as well as procuring emergency medical supplies for hospitals and clinics.
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Option 2: National
Donate to Elevated Access, a non-profit organization that enables people to access healthcare by providing flights on private planes at no cost. Their volunteer pilot network transports clients seeking abortion or gender-affirming care across the United States. They’ve facilitated over 1,000 flights in just two years!
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Option 3: Local
Donate to an organization working for reproductive justice in your area.
So that we can track this campaign’s impact, please send us a note telling us which Option you selected, and how much you contributed. Our goal is $10,000, and every little bit helps!
📖 6-Minute Power Read, from USA Today:
“‘Very clear’ or ‘narrow and confusing’? Abortion lawsuits highlight confusion over emergency exceptions.”
Written by N’DEA YANCEY-BRAGG. Updated Jan. 27, 2024, but still very relevant.
Excerpt: “A North Dakota judge’s recent decision to deny a request blocking part of the state's restrictive abortion law highlights an issue abortion-rights advocates say is impacting doctors nationwide: The exceptions in strict abortion laws can be vague, causing medical providers to question when they can perform an abortion in a medical emergency.”
📺 Video Power Watch (5-episode mini-season):
“Fractured: Stories from a Post-Roe America,” created by the State Innovation Exchange
From their website: “Fractured follows state legislators from across the country as they fight to defend abortion rights and expand access for all Americans after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Witness legislators in action during one of the most impactful periods in recent American history.”
Each short episode is 8-12 minutes long.
📚 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!
Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win, by Jessica Valenti
Published October 1, 2024; notes below from Penguin Random House website.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In a stirring and succinct examination of post-Roe America, “one of the most successful and visible feminists of her generation” (Washington Post) takes on what’s become the country’s most resonant political issue.
A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
In her most urgent book yet, New York Times bestselling author Jessica Valenti shines a light on the conservative assault on women’s freedom, cutting through the misinformation and overwhelm to inform, engage, and enrage. From the attacks Americans know about to the ones anti-abortion lawmakers and groups are trying to hide, Valenti details the tactics and horrors that she’s been painstakingly tracking in her acclaimed newsletter, Abortion, Every Day.
Award-winning writer and activist Jessica Valenti is the author of seven books, including the New York Times bestseller Sex Object: A Memoir. Her groundbreaking anthology, Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, paved the way for legislation of the same name, setting what’s now considered the gold standard for sexual consent. Jessica has also been credited with sparking feminism’s online wave by founding the trailblazing blog Feministing. She’s been a columnist for The Guardian and The Nation, and her writing has been published everywhere from The New York Times and The Atlantic to Bitch magazine and The Toast. After the demise of Roe, Jessica founded Abortion, Every Day, an urgent synthesis of anything and everything happening with abortion rights in the United States. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.
We recently completed, and strongly recommend, this easy-to-read and powerful book as well:
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.
