Abortion, with love

It's just me in this episode, and I've included a letter that talks about why abortions are a radical act of self love. I warn you now -  it’s all the cheese and cliches that you’d expect from a Valentine’s Day Special, but I couldn’t pass the chance to dedicate an episode to love!

Links:

Support the Podcast: www.buymeacoffee.com/abortionlove /

Valentine's Day Special Playlist / 

Instagram: @abortionwithlove / 
Twitter: @AbortionWithLuv / 
email: [email protected] / 

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Yoga with Adriene ‘Breathe’ 30 Day Yoga Challenge / 

Satisfier Pro 2 (if any sex toy brands wanna sponsor me, send me a message!) / 

Abortion Book Club:  https://www.otherabortionstories.space (Twitter: @AbortionBooks_) / 

The Break by Marian Keyes / 

The Body Love Sketch Club (Instagram: @bodylovesketchclub) / 

Renee Bracey Sherman: https://www.reneebraceysherman.com/about/ / 

The internet can be a great resource for spreading information on abortion, it’s making information more accessible and equitable. Nevertheless, barriers exist in the digital world as well, limiting the reach of credible abortion information. In this episode, Sneha Nair & Claire Crossett share their experiences working in eHealth, telling us about the ways that technology and healthcare intersect, and the ways that they navigate the digital world in order to make information more accessible.

Sneha & Claire work for Women First Digital, a global eHealth social enterprise working to make sexual and reproductive health accessible to mass audiences. They’re providing reliable health information and services that are often difficult to access -- particularly in places where abortion is highly stigmatised and legally restricted -- and sharing them on digital platforms. Women First Digital operates three different websites: HowToUseAbortionPill, Safe2Choose, and Find My Method. 

Links:

Women First Digital: https://womenfirstdigital.org/

HowToUseAbortionPill.org (Instagram: @htuabortionpill / Twitter: @HTUabortionpill)

Safe2Choose.org

FindMyMethod.org

What do men have to do with abortion? How does societal expectations of masculinity impact abortion stigma? On this episode, Joe Strong will be helping us start answering these questions. Joe Strong is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics, where he is studying the relationships between men, masculinities, emergency contraception and abortion-related care in Ghana.  He'll also talk to us about the Abortion Book Club that he co-hosts with Dr. Rishita Nandagiri!

Joe Strong’s twitter: @JoeStrongDemog

Masculinity Project: https://www.masculinitiesproject.org/

Abortion Book Club: https://www.otherabortionstories.space/ / Twitter: @AbortionBooks_

Dr. Rishita Nandagiri (Twitter: @rishie_)

For further reading:

Renee Bracey Sherman, on storytelling and reproductive justice (Abortion, with love Episode 8: The Beyonce of Abortion Storytelling)

Professor Flora Cornish, on positionality in research (Twitter: @FloraCornish)

Raewyn Connell, on hegemonic masculinities (Twitter: @raewynconnell)

João Florêncio, on the concept of porous masculinity (Twitter: @NoisyBits)

Dr. Pam Lowe, on anti-abortion discourse (Twitter: @DrPamLowe)

Dr. Ruth Pearce, on trans pregnancy (Twitter: @NotRightRuth)

Loretta J. Ross, on reproductive justice (Twitter: @LorettaJRoss)

Sistersong, reproductive justice collective: https://www.sistersong.net/

On this episode, Renee Bracey Sherman, founder of We Testify talks about abortion storytelling and why it is so important to center the experiences of people who have had abortions, particularly those who have been historically marginalised in reproductive healthcare. In this episode, we’ll be discussing the intersection of abortion and race, challenging narratives of the anti-abortion movement in the USA, and looking at how abortion is represented in TV.

Links:
Renee Bracey Sherman - https://www.reneebraceysherman.com/
Renee’s instagram: @reneebraceysherman
Twitter: @RBraceySherman
We Testify - https://wetestify.org/
What is Reproductive Justice? Sistersong - https://www.sistersong.net/reproductive-justice
Abortion Onscreen Research Project by Gretchen Sisson & Steph Herold: https://www.ansirh.org/research/abortion-onscreen
Movies & Series mentioned: Insecure, Dear White People, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Unpregnant, Little Woods, St. Francis, Please Like Me, Little Fires Everywhere, Scandal, Claws

Monika shares her experience of having an abortion in the Netherlands. 

Everyone has a fundamental right to sexual and bodily autonomy, including the right to decide whether or when to become a parent, parent the children we have, and to do so with dignity and free from violence and discrimination. However, trans people have historically been denied these rights, since pregnancy, parenthood, and abortion continue to be seen as something that only affects ciswomen.  On this episode, A.J. Lowik will discuss the ways that trans people have been excluded from receiving dignified reproductive healthcare, what trans reproductive justice looks like, and why it is important to ensure the inclusion of trans people in abortion politics.

On this episode, we use the term 'trans’ as an umbrella term to include transgender, transsexual, non-binary, genderqueer, gender neutral/agender, and gender non-conforming identities and experiences. We use the word 'cis-' to describe those whose gender identity matches with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Links:
A.J. Lowik’s website: https://www.ajlowik.com/

Trans Inclusive Abortion Care, Canada (2018)

A.J.’s instagram: @thegenderoffender

National LGBTQ Taskforce: Queering Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice: https://www.thetaskforce.org/reproductive-justice.html

Sister Supporter is a pro-choice, anti-harassment organisation  that campaigns for buffer zones around abortion clinics,  in order to protect people accessing clinics from harassment and intimidation. On this episode, Polly talks to us about what goes on outside of abortion clinics in the United Kingdom, why buffer zones are important, and the work that Sister Supporter is doing.

Links and Resources:

Sister Supporter website (with link to donate) - https://www.sistersupporter.co.uk/ 

Sister Supporter Whatsapp hotline: +44 07306358427

The London Irish Abortion Rights Campaign - https://londonirisharc.com/

Clinic Vest Project - http://www.clinicvestproject.org/

Maria talks to us about Ciocia Basia, the informal feminist, collective that helps people in Poland travel to Berlin to access abortion care. We’re going to talk about the protests happening in Poland, what it requires to travel for an abortion, and about what solidarity and community looks like in the fight for abortion access.

Links:

Abortion Without Borders: https://abortion.eu/

Ciocia Basia Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ciociabasiaberlin/

Ciocia Basia Donate Link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-ciocia-basia

On this episode, Karolina Więckiewicz from the Abortion Dream Team talks about what is happening in Poland, where people have been protesting ever since the government tried to pass a law to further restrict abortion. Karolina will talk about the protests, what the Abortion Dream Team has been doing, and what it's like to be an activist in Poland.

For more information:
Abortion Dream Team Website
Abortion Dream Team Instagram: @aborcyjnydream
Abortion Embroidery Instagram: @abortion_embroidery
Abortion Without Borders
Women Help Women
Women on the Net/Kobiety W Sieci

On this episode, Beth, an abortion advocate with many years working alongside healthcare professionals, will give us an introduction on the vacuum aspiration method, also known as in-clinic abortions or procedural abortions

**edit: after the release of this episode I learnt that using the phrase 'surgical abortion' to describe the vacuum aspiration method is misleading and inaccurate, because the procedure isn't a surgery and doesn't involve any cutting or suturing. In this episode we use the phrase surgical abortion, but from now on the podcast uses procedural abortion or in-clinic abortion to refer to abortions conducted through vacuum aspiration. To learn more, here's a note on language written by Rewire News Group: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2020/04/16/notes-language-stopped-using-surgical-abortion/


Resources:

Euki app: an app that provides accurate, complete, and unbiased information about sexual and reproductive health (SRH); 

World Health Organisation (WHO) Abortion Factsheet; 

Ibis Reproductive Health: Later Abortions; 

Guttmacher Abortion Factsheet; 

Guttmacher Institute: Later Abortions; 

2+ Abortions: a resource that aims to destigmatise having more than one abortion