When Congress tried to defund Planned Parenthood in 2015, Amelia Bonow logged on to Facebook and did something radical: She talked openly and positively about her abortion. Lindy West (a former writer at The Stranger and a current Stranger Genius) shared the post on Twitter with the hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion, and their movement to destigmatize and demythologize abortion began. Now Bonow and Tacocat frontwoman Emily Nokes are publishing a new book of personal essays (and cool photos!) from Angela Garbes (author of Like a Mother, and one of the very best people on this planet), El Sanchez, Viva Ruiz, and other brilliant women and nonbinary artists who have expanded the movement using their own particular talents and strengths. The book's launch party is TONIGHT at The Neptune Theatre at 8 p.m. There will be drinks, there will be stories, and there will a special SYA house band. Not saying who. You have to go to find out.
By the way, did you catch West talking about the beginnings of the SYA movement and the purpose of the new book on The Daily Show? She was very good.
West describes the book as "just people telling the truth about their experiences, experiences we've been taught to feel shame about and apologize for, which has really been engineered by the evangelical right." The writers tell stories, West explains, about all kinds of abortions, including situations where people had to terminate desperately wanted pregnancies and situations where people have had multiple abortions for whatever reason.
West closes strong: "Anti-choice people are not trying to stop abortion. They're trying to legislate who can and cannot have abortions. Because conservative politicians—their wives, and mistresses, and daughters are always going to be able to go get an abortion somewhere," she says. "Really, all anti-choice rhetoric does...is keep people trapped in poverty and drowning in poverty for generations. That's the goal. If it wasn't the goal, they'd spend their time and money on comprehensive sex education, free birth control, free contraception, and all the things that pro-choice people do spend their time on that actually do affect the abortion rate." Hear, hear.
And I'm sure you don't need the reminder, but, in case you do, things are very bad and dumb in the Department of Attacks on Our Constitutional Right to Have an Abortion. Thanks to the nominations of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, Roe v. Wade is on the chopping block. The Trump administration is still trying to defund Planned Parenthood and change the Title X family planning program to prevent doctors from referring their patients for abortions. Meanwhile, governors across the country are severely restricting access to places where people can get safe abortions. In fact, eight states have only one remaining abortion provider.
The only way to fight back against these attacks in the political realm is to vote pro-choice Democrats into office. But in daily conversations with people you meet at bars, at the grocery store, and around the dinner table on the internet, you need something else. You need a stable of stories to reference, convincing language to use, and strong arguments to support a position held by.....*checks notes*..... a vast majority of the population. You can find all that, plus gorgeous photos and very good writing, in the new Shout Your Abortion book.
