Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America | 
This book should be required reading. Along with the documentary called The Janes on HBOMax. I am devastated and still trying to come to terms with what has happened and where we go from here
It is a dark day in America today.
If you care about womens health and safety I recommend these 2 books
Post Roe is in it's second edition and now has a teal cover that looks very similar
6/24/2022: SCOTUS has overturned Roe v Wade. Please remember: if you are using any period tracker apps, delete them NOW. Use the encrypted app Signal for messaging, and the encrypted email Proton for email. For a safe search engine, only use Duck Duck Go.
Avoid fake clinics (crisis pregnancy centers) at all costs—your info will be given to authorities and you will be tracked.
See ya‘ll down on the illegal road.
FIGHT BACK!!!
May 3, 2022
SCOTUS
I remember when the author first put out her tweet for this book, asking for clinic escorts and defenders who had experience with it back in the really scary days, the 80s-90s. I immediately reached out to my friend and veteran escort (left), because I knew she had seen a lot. I‘ve read so much about those days, and it never gets any less scary. We may have FACE Act now, but it isn‘t really enforced. This book tells the story that isn‘t often
Abortion is, at its core, about life, just not in the way that abortion upon its claim. Everything that surrounds getting an abortion—from the decision to the cost to travel and getting in the door—is about someone‘s life, The course of that life, the value of that life. The life of the pregnant person is the point. The course of their life is the point. The realities and complexities and hardships and accomplishments: they matter. Their actual
The patients we serve stay with all of us, because that‘s the spirit of what we do. In those 60 or so seconds before they get inside the door, clinic escorts are possibly the only source of human connection and visible support that some of these patients and their companions experience. For that moment in time, the human connection supersedes everything. It‘s about a fundamental human need to be seen and valued, particularly in the face of
Every time I feel burned out or think about giving up on this fight, I remember that putting my body on the line for another person, as painful and difficult as it was on the worst days, has always been worth it. Every patient we get in the door is a woman‘s life, a person‘s life, that is going to unfold the way that person wants it to, no matter what choice they end up making.
Shown: one of the first bad days for me when I started doing this…
Everyone loves someone who has had an abortion. And if you think you don‘t, they just haven‘t shared their story with you yet.
Let‘s talk about it! Story-telling is the most powerful way to end stigma! Have you ever heard ‘my abortion saved my life‘? I‘m one of those peoplx 🌻
Abortion is about more than just bodies on the line— it‘s someone‘s future, their dreams, their lives.
Shown: me telling my story at the SC Statehouse in Columbia, February 17th, 2022–to fight back against anti-abortion bills.
The central theme of all these activities, from volunteering as a clinic escort to funding abortions to booking travel for abortion patients, is community. The work of community building around abortion care, of the destigmatizing and humanizing people who have abortions, can‘t be the sole responsibility of embattled clinics and providers. Telling stories, driving patients, paying for gas money, walking someone from their car to the clinic—these
This happens everywhere. This is not some random, a couple of crazy people at one clinic. This shit happens everywhere in every state and it will continue to happen until people decide that they‘re going to reclaim their communities.
Shown: Matt Brock and his bullies on a ladder to see and scream at pats over a 6 foot privacy fence at Greenville Women‘s Clinic in SC. UNFUCKING ACCEPTABLE!!!
Because when I put it on, I thought, *This is my armor*. It‘s only made of polyester, and it‘s not bulletproof, but it‘s hate-proof and its judgment-proof.
This is what being a clinic escort is all about. Being the face of love in the face of hate. Shown: endurance at my local clinic
You don‘t need a big group of protesters to do damage. We could be out there and have one aggressive protester who just says the most vile shit to someone and that will make them cry…that‘s the thing—one of them out there is too many.
It‘s WEIRD & CREEPY to stand around at someone‘s doctor appointment. Shown: Christians and Proud Boys outside my local clinic
… more than sixteen years after Roe v. Wade was decided, a clinic in a liberal city like Ann Arbor had to covertly smuggle patients in through a side window, just to have a legal health-care procedure. And that was considered a victory, no less.
•It is truly astounding, the level of nightmare that pregnant peoplx endure just trying to access their medical appointments. Why is this allowed? This isn‘t ‘1st amendment‘, nor is it ‘support‘.
Our first line of defense for protection of reproductive rights is self-defense. We cannot rely on the courts, police, or legislatures to protect our fundamental rights to control our bodies and reproductive options.
Shown: one of my escorts and a team of clinic defenders.
