MERJ Newsletter 9/29/2026
(Tom Williams / Getty Images, source)
A letter from MERJ’s co-founder
MERJ Is Building!
Dear MERJ Community:
Exciting news! We’ve built relationships across four states, and are bringing together clinicians, reproductive justice advocates, faith leaders, and community members to build a stronger movement for bodily autonomy.
In August, MERJ partnered with Faith Choice Ohio to build 1,000 abortion care packages. That hands-on work is becoming a broader strategy: Connect people, build political education, and turn relationships into action.
This fall, we’re returning to Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus for three conversations at the intersection of faith, healthcare, and reproductive justice. We’re working with people across these communities to develop a set of demands to help make that change possible. So far, we have:
No waiting periods when seeking an abortion
Eliminate financial barriers to receiving reproductive healthcare
Strengthen the reproductive healthcare infrastructure in faith communities
The Men’s Organizing Ecosystem
MERJ was invited to the Perennial Sunflower Project’s 7th Convening, focused on donor organizing and building up white men’s organizing for racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice.
We’re proud to be part of a growing field creating an answer to a simple question: What does it look like for men to take meaningful responsibility for building a more just world?
MERJ Supports Gender-Affirming Care
In Colorado, MERJ is working with Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and coalition partners to oppose anti-trans Propositions 134 and 135. These ballot measures would ban medical care for transgender youth and ban transgender kids’ participation in school sports (unless authorities perform “invasive gender checks”). We’re educating communities and encouraging Colorado voters to vote NO on both measures.
Reproductive justice is about more than abortion. It is about who gets to make decisions about their bodies, healthcare, families, and futures.
Want to help us keep building? You can contribute to MERJ’s work by making a donation HERE.
In Solidarity,
The MERJ Team
📖 5 Minute Power Read from Abortion, Every Day:
“Abortion and Democracy Are on the Ballot”
Excerpt: “You’re sick of hearing it, but it’s still true: abortion is on the ballot—everywhere. Including states like Tennessee, where a slate of candidates challenging anti-abortion extremist U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn for governor are criticizing the state’s ban. … Beyond 2026, candidates are already lining up for Kentucky’s 2027 gubernatorial election to replace outgoing, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear—a steady pro-choice voice in the Republican state. … That top candidates for governor in the state are distancing themselves from their anti-abortion records and coming forward as pro-choice isn’t surprising, according to Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. ‘Abortion access is a Kentucky value, period. Voters rejected Amendment 2 in 2022 — in a state Trump carried by 30 points,’ Wieder told the Herald.”
🎥🍿 Power Listen Recommendation:
The Richard Eeds Show podcast, August 13, 2026 (18 minutes)
Featuring MERJ Co-Founder Justin Haas and Friend of MERJ rev. jessica young chang as interviewees!
“Justin Haas and Reverend Jessica Young Chang discuss men's role in reproductive equity, masculinity, responsibility, being pro-choice, pro-abortion, and helping others.”
💸 Amazing Organization to Support:
From their website: “The Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (KRCRC) includes people of faith and conscience, working together to ensure access to family planning, reproductive health services (including medically safe abortion), and comprehensive sexuality education. Planning one’s family is a fundamental right and a key factor in determining the physical, social, and economic well-being of individuals, families, and communities.
Our mission is to advocate for the right of all Kentuckians to exercise reproductive and religious freedom consistent with their beliefs. We use advocacy, education, and outreach to support access to reproductive health services, including abortion, and we make available information necessary to make informed choices. We oppose government interference in personal health decisions.”
MERJ is proud to encourage and stand alongside KRCRC in their important and inspiring non-profit work. Please donate to support them today!
📚 MERJ Book Club!
If you’re interested in joining one of our future book discussions, email us at action@endthepatriarchy.org, and we’ll be happy to invite you!
Originally published March 17, 2026; notes below from bookshop.org web page.
A powerful decade-long study of adoption in the age of Roe, revealing the grief of the American mothers for whom the choice to parent was never real. Adoption has always been viewed as a beloved institution for building families, as well as a mutually agreeable common ground in the abortion debate, but little attention has been paid to the lives of mothers who relinquish infants for private adoption. Relinquished reveals adoption to be a path of constrained choice for those for whom abortion is inaccessible, or for whom parenthood is untenable. The stories of relinquishing mothers are stories about our country's refusal to care for families at the most basic level, and to instead embrace an individual, private solution to a large-scale, social problem.
Other books we’ve read, and strongly recommend:
Men and Abortion: Lessons, Losses, and Love, by Arthur B. Shostak, Lynn Seng, and Gary McLouth
Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty, by Dorothy Roberts
Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win, by Jessica Valenti
Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion, by Gabrielle Blair
Comics for Choice, ed. Newlevant, Taylor, and Fox
You’re the Only One I’ve Told: The Stories Behind Abortion, by Dr. Meera Shah
Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice, by Silliman, Gerber Fried, Ross, and Gutiérrez
Reproductive Justice: An Introduction, by Loretta J. Ross and Rickie Solinger
Birthing Liberation: How Reproductive Justice Can Set Us Free, by Sabia Wade
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.
