My name is Molly Gaebe and I am with Lady Parts Justice League. As I write, our team is on tour for the second year, criss crossing the US, visiting these threatened clinics, helping them in any way we can. We call it, the Vagical Mystery Tour. We see how these independent clinics and providers save lives, how they uplift the community, how they are there to give healthcare to the people who need it the most. We also see that these clinics have been in danger for a long time now. These clinics whose doors are shuttered all the time, whose very existence is constantly threatened because vaginal crossing guards have been chipping away at Roe for years now. So far, they have made the most headway by asserting control over the most vulnerable people.
People like Jane Doe, an undocumented teen and a victim of rape, who knew she wanted an abortion, so much so that she took the US to court to prove it. But this wasn’t good enough for Brett Kavanaugh, who said that government should be allowed to “help minors navigate” these “major life decisions” by sending them to crisis pregnancy centers and delaying their procedures until it’s too late to legally obtain them.
I made one of these “major life decisions” two years ago, and was able to get the abortion I needed because I can afford it, and I am lucky enough to live in a state with access to abortion. This can all change on the drop of a dime, and that dime is perilously spinning on its head right now. States who have been passing the most restrictive and unconstitutional abortion laws will shutter more clinics, if not outlawing abortion completely. And when their doors close, people suffer, entire communities suffer. The most vulnerable populations suffer. As we all know, when abortion is outlawed or becomes inaccessible, abortions do not stop. Women start to die.
For seven years now, I have the honor of being an abortion doula, what that means is that I support people through abortion procedures. I have held the hands of hundreds of people with wildly different stories, backgrounds, families, incomes, experiences, fears and joys. But one thing thing that they have in common is that they need an abortion, and they do not need the opinion of the government to help them make this decision.
I am here to announce that today, I have made another “major life decision.” I have decided that healthcare is non negotiable, that healthcare is not just for the wealthy, that abortion isn’t a luxury for those that can travel to states that provide it.
Abortion is humanity. Abortion is dignity. Abortion is healthcare and abortion must be protected. Tell your senators to question Kavanaugh on abortion, and tell them that a non answer on Roe is a threat to Roe.
There are superheroes on the ground in independent clinics that have to spend half their time, energy and money fighting with the government to provide their own communities with healthcare. Join us at Lady Parts Justice League to to stand up for these independent abortion providers and read the daily takedown every day to keep up with the latest abortion laws and to stand and fight with us. Thank you!
