After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the federal right to abortion was eliminated and sent back to individual states. The United States is now seeing a state-by-state patchwork of laws, court challenges, and disparate barriers to abortion access. Garnet Henderson, independent journalist and host and producer of ACCESS: A Podcast About Abortion, sits down to talk with us about the on-the-ground chaos after the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and myths around adoption as an alternative for abortion. 

Clinic staff and abortion providers have been working overtime to try and see as many patients as possible before the eventual overturning of Roe, with some clinics even opening their doors earlier in the day. Texas’s robust network, working to help many people get funds to cover their procedure and transportation out of state, was shut down on the day of the decision. At a clinic in Alabama, 100 patients who had already jumped through the state’s unnecessary barriers and were pre-approved to receive care that day had to be turned away as soon as the Supreme Court ruling was released. Trigger bans and pre-Roe bans are being passed and challenged around the country, contributing to further, fractured confusion and differing levels of accessibility.

A popular anti-abortion talking point is to say that adoption is a suitable alternative to abortion. This is fundamentally untrue; first and foremost, not very many people at all choose to place a child up for adoption after birth, even when the pregnancy was not planned. In general, pregnancy is incredibly difficult and dangerous, particularly for Black people and other people of color. Adoption is an alternative to parenting, not to pregnancy—adoption doesn’t account for the outcome of someone who simply doesn’t want to be pregnant not being pregnant. Adoption can also be a very emotional complex and painful experience for the birth parent and the child, meaning that adoption isn’t an easy or given alterative to a wanted abortion. 

 Links

ACCESS: A Podcast About Abortion

ACCESS on Twitter

ACCESS on Instagram

Garnet on Twitter

What This Later-Abortion Story Tells Us About a Post-Roe Future

INeedAnA.com

Abortion Fund Donation Finder

 Take Action

Find ACCESS: A Podcast About Abortion here and follow on Instagram and Twitter. You can also follow Garnet on Twitter here.

If you can, donate to your local abortion fund, always! Independent abortion clinics also need your support right now—whether through donations, clinic escorts, or volunteers.

Be wary of offering a spare room for those seeking abortions. While intentions are good, many anti-abortion activists may see these opportunities as a way to act as an individual “crisis pregnancy center,” convincing people staying in their house to not access the care they need. Instead, uplift organizations and abortion funds that already vet people who are offering their spare rooms. 

For more information, check out This Week in Fandom History: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-fandom-history/id1663644692

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