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niyad's JournalAn Open Letter to Rep. Kat Cammack From a Medical Doctor: It's Abortion Bans That Make Doctors Afraid to Act, Not 'the
(and the WAR ON WOMEN continues apace)
An Open Letter to Rep. Kat Cammack From a Medical Doctor: It’s Abortion Bans That Make Doctors Afraid to Act, Not ‘the Radical Left’
PUBLISHED 7/10/2025 by Chloe Nazra Lee
A group of doctors join abortion-rights supporters outside the Supreme Court on April 24, 2024, during oral arguments in Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
I remember the day I heard about Dobbs. It was a summer morning during my final year of medical school. I’d awakened in the damp basement apartment I’d rented for a clinical rotation in Pittsburgh. As I scrolled through my news feed, my heart plummeted. There was a resigned and tacitly understood melancholy among the women in the hospital that day. A sisterhood predicated on shared despair was quietly forming during the upheaval of perceived judicial betrayal. Even those of us who barely knew each other might wearily exchange passing glances in the hallway, signaling, “Well, shit. Girl, I know. And it’ll only get worse.”
No woman may escape the cruelty of the nebulous and varying restrictions on reproductive healthcare in the post-Roe world—as Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) discovered in May 2024 when faced with a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy shortly after Florida’s six-week abortion ban took effect. Concerned by the lack of clarity in the wording of the law on the limits of intervention in pregnant patients, doctors reportedly delayed administering intramuscular methotrexate to terminate the pregnancy, out of fear of prosecution. The state of Florida offered clarification to healthcare providers in September 2024. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Cammack stated her belief that liberal “fear-mongering” was predominantly responsible for doctors’ fear and the resultant delay in care that could have cost her her life.
Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) leaves a GOP caucus meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Feb. 28, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
While I’m sorry for the terror you experienced during an hour of desperate need, Rep. Cammack, I must fervently disagree that this vague spectre of The Left is what’s scaring doctors. What truly terrifies us are real laws, real prosecutions and real threats that punish us for providing basic, necessary medical care.You may meet me—a pro-choice psychiatrist-in-training from un-apologetically blue New York—with skepticism, but I hope you, and other self-identified pro-life politicians, can appreciate the plea in this message. We have more in common than you might initially believe. We’re both professional women who want motherhood and who believe in protecting human lives and the betterment of our communities, though we may differ on the exact means of doing so. I hope this may help you understand the post-Roe fear through my eyes—a view shared by many young female doctors.
. . . .
Dr. Caitlin Bernard in Indianapolis on Sept. 28, 2022. (Kaiti Sullivan / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
. . . .
Did you think you would be an exception, Rep. Cammack? That if you “did everything right” as a woman, this wouldn’t happen to you? I don’t mean that condescendingly; I thought that way once. Raised very conservative, a Sunday school teacher, who invested heavily in my education and can keep a home quite well, if I do say so myself, I molded myself into the ideal woman, naively certain that life-altering terror couldn’t find me if I lived a Christ-like life. I was wrong. None of us is exempt from cruel circumstance. This vicious culture, hiding under a vapid veneer of “pro-life” hurts you as much as it hurts every other woman. I’ve seen the “FAFO” memes online about you and read about the threats you’ve encountered since publicly airing your story. I’m sorry for the vitriol, and would encourage activists in the pro-choice camp to offer more kindness. But I would also encourage you not to fan the flames of political polarization and to appreciate the true roots of doctors’ fears in the post-Roe world with intellectual honesty. My voice counts for relatively little. But Rep. Cammack, your voice and your story have power. I hope you use them to reintroduce nuance and common sense to the discussion on women’s lives. There are many of us who will extend a hand across the aisle and work together with you to right some of the senseless wrongs.
https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/10/rep-kat-cammack-medical-doctor-abortion-bans-that-doctors-afraid-act/
Inside Liberty University's Secret Maternity Home
(and the WAR ON WOMEN continues apace)
Inside Liberty University’s Secret Maternity Home
PUBLISHED 7/10/2025 by Ava Slocum
Former residents say Liberty’s Godparent Home used shame and faith to force adoptions.
Liberty’s Godparent Home began under the direction of Jerry Falwell, the fundamentalist Baptist preacher and televangelist. (The Liberty Godparent Ministry / Instagram)
Imagine you’re a pregnant teenager in 1972. Abortion isn’t an option, and you’re not ready to get married … so you might turn to a maternity home for unwed mothers. You’ll live there until the baby is born, then give it up for adoption to redeem yourself from the so-called sin of premarital sex. While they’re not well-known today in modern America, some people remember maternity homes from the 1950s through 1970s as places where mostly white, middle-class teenage girls gave birth in secret, then were forced to surrender their babies for adoption.
What even fewer people know is that these homes are not just a part of America’s Christian conservative past: They’re alive and well today. Many shut down in the 1970s after access to abortion became more widely available with Roe v. Wade. However, in the three years since the fall of Roe, the number of maternity homes in the U.S. has grown by 40 percent and now surpasses 450, according to reporting from The New York Times.
On June 23, podcast studio Wondery released the new series Liberty Lost, which investigates the well-kept secret of Liberty University’s Godparent Home, which opened in the 1980s and is still operating today. In the podcast, reproductive rights journalist T. J. Raphael explores the history of the maternity home on the campus of Liberty University, a private evangelical college in Lynchburg, Va. There, staff members coerce young girls into surrendering their babies for adoption by affluent Christian parents in exchange for a full-ride scholarship at Liberty.
Raphael told Ms. about her experience speaking with birth mothers Abbi Johnson, Toni Popham and Zoe Shaw, who lived at Liberty’s Godparent Home in the early ’90s and as recently as 2008, in Johnson’s case. “They report a culture of shame, fear, religious manipulation and coercion that drove them to try and separate them permanently from their children despite their repeated expression that they wanted to keep and parent their babies,” Raphael explained. “And I think that a lot of people believe that maternity homes were a thing of the past, but in some communities, they never went away.”
. . . . .
President Donald Trump and Jerry Falwell leave after Trump delivered the keynote address during the commencement at Liberty University on May 13, 2017, in Lynchburg, Va. Trump is the first sitting president to speak at Liberty’s commencement since George H.W. Bush in 1990. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
. . . . .
Raphael also pointed to a connection between maternity homes and crisis pregnancy centers or fake clinics, which currently outnumber real abortion clinics in the U.S. by about three to one. “A lot of women who are uninterested in abortion might find themselves going to a crisis pregnancy center for information, for help, and then they’re pushed towards maternity homes if they’re rejected by their family,” she said.
Maternity homes, many run by churches or Christian organizations, have historically operated under a culture of shame that tells young unmarried women they’re not fit to become parents. The first Florence Crittenton home opened in New York in 1883 as a place to reform unmarried “fallen women.” (The Florence Crittenton maternity home network still operates today.) Most modern faith-based maternity homes “explicitly have to share a Christ-centered message, and that often looks like espousing traditional values, conservative family values, that say that single women should not be parenting,” Raphael said. “The only right way to have a child is to have it grow up in a two-parent household, often heterosexual.” Many former maternity home residents share that staff told them—either implicitly or directly—that the best thing for them and their child would be permanent separation.
. . . .
A mobile billboard parked outside Caring Hearts, a crisis pregnancy clinic in Little Rock. (Courtesy of Mayday Health)
Former residents of these homes describe intense rules and restrictions, including needing to ask for permission before leaving the property, attending mandatory morning prayers and handing over food stamps to pay for communal groceries. Other policies, such as requiring residents to surrender their phones before bedtime and download tracking apps, are in keeping with the censorship and scrutiny that former Godparent Home residents describe. By shining a light on American maternity homes—an industry that frequently flies under the radar—Raphael’s podcast Liberty Lost highlights the grim reality of adoption coercion, an important and often overlooked topic in the national conversation surrounding reproductive rights. According to Raphael, the podcast explores “the ways that adoption in the United States is also about choice, but oftentimes the lack of it. I don’t think that in this country, we really think critically about why a woman would permanently separate from the child she gave birth to. It’s often a result of desperation, a lack of resources and support.”
https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/10/liberty-university-maternity-home-unwed-mothers-teenagers/
The U.N. Should Condemn the U.S.' Human Rights Record on Abortion
(What a woman-hating society this country is. the WAR ON WOMEN continues apace)
The U.N. Should Condemn the U.S.’ Human Rights Record on Abortion
PUBLISHED 7/9/2025 by Jaime M. Gher and Elise Keppler
The U.S. MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE on the world stage for its escalating attacks on reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.
Protesters rally on the three-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2025, in Los Angeles. (David McNew / Getty Images)
The periodic U.N. review of the United States’ human rights record is coming up in November. With the Trump administration’s far-reaching, intensifying attacks, the timing could not be more opportune. Never have U.S. institutions, funding and initiatives that promote the rule of law, faced such an abject threat. This is a moment to shine a light on U.S. abuses on the global stage. U.S. policymakers and the public rarely consider the experiences of U.S. residents through a human rights lens — but doing so is eye-opening. Abortion is a key case in point.
Health, human rights and reproductive justice organizations — including local organizations in Texas and Louisiana — recently joined to highlight the significant deterioration of individuals’ reproductive and bodily autonomy in the United States. As part of the review, during every four years of a country’s record, this U.N. submission was one among many submitted.
Forty-one states have banned abortion in some form since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Of these, 12 ban abortion altogether and another four ban abortion at six weeks — when many people do not yet realize they are pregnant. Another seven ban abortion at or before 18 weeks. Many state laws involve criminal and civil penalties.
Thousands of people rallied in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 18, 2025, for the People’s March, just days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. (Livia Follet)
. . . . .
The Trump administration’s attacks on reproductive autonomy throw oil on the fire he started in 2020. Less than three months since taking office, the Trump administration dismissed challenges to states that fail to ensure federally mandated emergency health-stabilizing care, which in some cases involves abortions. It also re-instituted the global gag rule, which bans foreign assistance to organizations if they provide, counsel, refer or advocate for abortion, even if the activities are legal in their country and supported by non-U.S. funds. His administration further de-funded the World Health Organization and drastically reduced USAID funding, which provided critical reproductive health resources globally for decades.
The U.S. is now a global regressive outlier (https://reproductiverights.org/maps/worlds-abortion-laws/) on reproductive and bodily autonomy. Yet experience shows that positive change is possible. Strategic intervention and perseverance have helped fuel major advances for reproductive autonomy in countries around the world, including in Ireland and across Latin America. The upcoming U.N. review is not a panacea, and the Trump administration will surely try to undercut it. But it is an important opportunity to document abuses — including and beyond reproductive autonomy — and keep the pressure on.
https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/09/united-nations-usa-abortion-human-rights-record-health-death/
A really ugly thought keeps running through my head, based on stories
from other regimes and pogroms and witch hunts (the REAL ones), and thinking about the seeming randomness of sone of their "captures". How many of them are based on anonymous "tips" from hateful or disguntled neighbors, acquaintances, rivals, etc.We all know how it worked during those terrible times. Is it happening again, here and now, in what used to be at least a semi-functioning not-dictatorship?
The Ugliest of Bills: How Republicans' Reconciliation Bill Endangers All Children
The Ugliest of Bills: How Republicans’ Reconciliation Bill Endangers All Children
PUBLISHED 6/11/2025 by Mary Giovagnoli
Beneath the gleaming name of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” lies a ruthless blueprint for starving, separating and silencing the most vulnerable children.
Two Haitian children play as they advance in a caravan toward the United States, in Huehuetan, Mexico, on Jan. 2, 2025. (Jose Eduardo Torres Cancino / Anadolu via Getty Images)
One of the many dangers of the budget reconciliation package currently before the Senate, which Trump is calling the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” is its audacity. It is so large, so ugly and so expensive—nothing beautiful to see here—that it can be hard to know how to fight back. So much is at risk that, even assuming some of the most talked-about measures, such as Medicaid cuts, are removed or modified in the Senate, it is likely that passage of This Ugliest of Bills (THUG Bill) would still fundamentally harm millions of people. Children—citizen and non-citizen—are going to be especially hard hit if this ugliest of bills passes. Focusing on their well-being and demanding their protection is one avenue for showing support across multiple issue areas and ideologies. This ugliest of bills disproportionately affects children, according to First Focus Campaign for Children. Three of the major programs serving children—Medicaid, the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—are slated for $1 trillion in cuts. Fourteen million children rely on Medicaid and SNAP for their basic health and nutrition needs.
. . . . .
Ugliest of all, the THUG Bill sets the stage for exploitation and abuse of immigrant kids by using fines, funding cuts and funding restrictions to gut measures that protect unaccompanied children in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. In a general swipe at asylum seekers, this ugliest of bills imposes a $1,000, non-waivable fee to apply for asylum, regardless of age or circumstances, and levies another $550 every six months for employment authorization. It restricts eligibility to visas for abused, abandoned or neglected children. It penalizes kids who are found between ports of entry, charging them $1,000 just for being in the U.S. It imposes a $3,500 sponsorship fee, and an additional $5,000 bond on parents or other sponsors trying to get their kids out of government custody. Altogether, this ugliest of bills would cost an unaccompanied child and their family $15,000 just to have a chance at reunification and protection, according to estimates from Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an unaccompanied children’s advocacy group.
. . .
Rather than protect children, Boyd says the bill will have the opposite effect, creating new opportunities for exploitation. At a minimum, those children who do make it through the labyrinth of new requirements are likely to remain in custody indefinitely, with few prospects for legal or other assistance. The pressure to give up and go home will be enormous, particularly because even asking a judge for a continuance to find a lawyer would cost $100 under the new scheme.
This ugliest of bills is a vendetta against all children. It goes after the most vulnerable of the vulnerable—unaccompanied children—because lawmakers think they can attack this population with no political backlash. That’s why it is critical to tell the Senate to protect children and reject those provisions that harm them. Children are children first. They should be fed and cared for, regardless of their immigration status. If we can’t stand up for that simple principle, the ugliness of the reconciliation package will shame us all. Contact your senators today and demand that they protect all children, including unaccompanied children.
https://msmagazine.com/2025/06/11/one-big-beautiful-bill-senate-republicans-trump-unaccompanied-minor-children-immigrant/
Pregnant in Power: U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen Confronts a System Built for Men
Pregnant in Power: U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen Confronts a System Built for Men
PUBLISHED 6/10/2025 by Bonnie Stabile | UPDATED 6/13/2025 at 8:15 A.M. PT
In Congress’ 236-year history, only 13 voting members have given birth while in office.
U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) holds her one-month old baby Sam as she departs during a series of votes at the Capitol on March 11, 2025, in Washington. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
In the fight for better policies for mothers and families, Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) has also had to fight to have her own voice heard on Capitol Hill. Last October, five months pregnant with her second child, Pettersen proposed a change to the House Rules Committee for “a narrow exception to the prohibition on proxy voting” that would allow members of Congress to vote by proxy while on parental leave, a push begun by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) after giving birth to her first child in 2023. This would have ensured, Petterson said in a recent interview with Ms., that as a member of Congress “you’re able to have your voice, your constituents’ voices represented” during a critical time for your family and health.
Despite Republicans’ stated opposition to proxy voting, Pettersen and Luna scored a rare bipartisan win to move forward with the measure on April 1, representing an embarrassing defeat for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). In response, Johnson “adjourned the entire House for the rest of the week,” buying himself time to broker a deal to kill the effort that would have enabled remote voting for new moms in Congress.
Johnson leaned in to the Republican claim that proxy voting was unconstitutional, and elaborated that it would “reopen Pandora’s box,” doing “great violence to the institution.” When in effect during the pandemic, though, 80 percent of all House members voted by proxy, including, ironically, roughly 70 percent of the Republican plaintiffs in the McCarthy, et al. V. Pelosi et al. (2020) case, which argued that those very votes should be invalid.
Deploying further metaphor, Johnson called proxy voting for new parents a slippery slope, saying, “If you allow it for some situations, you’re ultimately going to have to allow it for all.” Calling himself “pro-family,” the speaker nonetheless demurred that the practice violated “more than two centuries of tradition and institution.” In that tradition, the U.S. Congress as an institution excluded women from its ranks for well over a century and has been slow to make accommodations to be more inclusive once they arrived. It wasn’t until 1916 that the first woman was elected to Congress (Jeannette Rankin, R-Mont.). Since 1789, only 3 percent of total House members have been women; and in 2025 28.7 percent of House members are women. In its 236 year history, only 13 voting members have given birth while in office—Reps. Pettersen and Luna most recently. It even “famously took until 2011 for female lawmakers”—there were 76 of them at the time—just “to get their own bathroom off the House floor.” And the quest for proxy voting for mothers like herself, Pettersen concedes, may have to wait until Democrats are in the majority again, though she is guardedly hopeful to be able to “come together on a solution before that.”
“It’s mind blowing just how hard it is to make very small changes in Congress, and the amount (sic) of people who fight for the status quo,” Pettersen observed.
. .
Pettersen is currently working to pass legislation to allow proxy voting for up to 12 weeks for members who have recently given birth or whose spouse has. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
. . . . .
But so does the Republican majority in the House, which supports Trump administration policies that go further than merely maintaining the status quo and seek to turn back the clock on inclusion, representation and reproductive rights. Their vision of what “make America great again represents,” said Pettersen, “is going back to the 1950s.” Trump’s Mothers’ Day Proclamation shows their hand. It celebrates the “selfless service of every mother in America” and expresses the desire for “families across America to grow” and “enjoy the highest standard of living on Earth on a single income” (emphasis added). Promoting measures that support women’s full inclusion in the workplace and public life is not part of their playbook.
https://msmagazine.com/2025/06/10/rep-brittany-pettersen-mothers-proxy-voting/
Southern Baptist Convention Calls to Ban Same-Sex Marriage
Southern Baptist Convention Calls to Ban Same-Sex Marriage
Sela Turkel | June 12, 2025
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the nation’s largest protestant denomination, gathered for their annual two-day meeting in early June. Discussing a wide variety of topics, ranging from transgender youth to gambling, the convention ultimately endorsed resolutions to ban same-sex marriages, calling for a reversal of the ten-year-old Supreme Court precedent. This decision signals the SBC’s goal of replicating their previously successful campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade. One resolution called upon legislators to uphold their duty in passing “laws that reflect the truth of creation and natural law” and opposing laws that contradict “what God has made plain through nature and Scripture.” Another resolution simply calls for the overruling of Obergefell, the 2015 precedent that equates same-sex marriage with opposite-sex marriage under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling also affirms the SBC’s definition of gender and marriage, solidifying the gender binary and opposite-sex marriage.
The SBC feels emboldened by the current administration and right-leaning Supreme Court. Their resolutions are well within the realm of possibility at a time where their allies hold major positions of power in our government. The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, a Southern Baptist himself, is placed third in line for the presidency. Additionally, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has already called to revisit Obergefell. Nancy Ammerman, a professor of religion at Boston University and attendee at the SBC, told AP, “…[t]here’s not a lot of room for people who don’t have the same understanding of who God is and how God operates in the world.” Southern Baptists are feeling confident in their place in society and feel as if they’ve been given an “opportunity” to “take back” their country.
Casting a shadow over the otherwise optimistic atmosphere of the SBC is the recent death of one of the most prominent whistleblowers of the Southern Baptists’ sexual abuse scandal. Jennifer Lyell went public in 2019 with her sexual abuse allegations against David Sills, her seminary professor while she was a student. Sills admitted to the misconduct and resigned from his post, but no details were made public. Lyell received devastating backlash from the public and media, including the SBC media outlet, the Baptist Press, portraying her claims as a “morally inappropriate relationship” rather than abuse. Lyell died Saturday, June 7, from catastrophic strokes. The SBC began on Tuesday, June 10, with no mention of Lyell’s passing. Relatedly, the SBC Executive Committee is seeking $3 million in convention funding for legal expenses for ongoing abuse cases.
. . . .
Despite recent controversies, the SBC was solely focused on their resolutions to prohibit same-sex marriage in America and design legislation “…based on what they say is the biblically stated order of divine creation,” an AP source reported. The current political atmosphere is allowing Southern Baptists to feel confident in their stances. They know that they have allies on the Hill, and although their resolutions may seem extreme to many, it’s important to take these ideas seriously. They are within the realm of possibility and it’s more crucial, now than ever, to protect those most vulnerable to far-right policies.
https://feminist.org/news/southern-baptist-convention-calls-to-ban-same-sex-marriage/
House Judiciary Committee Advances Bill to Repeal FACE Act
House Judiciary Committee Advances Bill to Repeal FACE Act
Stella Adams | June 12, 2025
On June 10, the House Judiciary Committee voted 13–10 to advance H.R. 589, which seeks to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Enacted in 1994 with bipartisan support after a wave of violent attacks, including the murder of abortion provider Dr. David Gunn, the law makes it a federal crime to use force, threats, or physical obstruction to block access to reproductive health facilities, places of worship, or crisis pregnancy centers. “We are considering this legislation for one reason,” said Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL), “to green light violence against abortion care in this country.”
Supporters of the repeal bill, including Rep. Chip Roy (R‑TX), argue the FACE Act is being misused against anti-abortion extremists. Rep. Roy claimed that “a peaceful grandmother spent years in prison for praying,” referring to extremist Eva Edl, who was arrested and charged with blocking access to a Tennessee clinic. The lawmakers also pointed to instances of vandalism at anti-abortion centers and churches following Dobbs, claiming these have not received the same level of federal attention as attacks on abortion clinics.
However, the Department of Justice has prosecuted multiple cases under the FACE Act targeting threats against crisis pregnancy centers. In one recent case, three individuals were charged after admitting to defacing several centers with threatening messages. The lawmakers supporting the FACE Act noted that every effort to challenge the act in court has failed. “There has been a coordinated attack on the FACE Act since it was passed, it was even mentioned in Project 2025,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA). But the act has been repeatedly upheld by the Supreme Court, and lawmakers like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D‑MD) and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D‑NY) emphasized that it regulates conduct, not prayer or speech. “No one is being arrested for praying,” Rep. Scanlon added.
. . . .
Repealing the FACE Act would remove a critical layer of protection at a time when threats and violence against reproductive health providers are rising. The law was enacted in response to local law enforcement’s failure to respond consistently to politically motivated attacks. Without it, there would be no uniform federal standard to prevent obstruction and intimidation, leaving providers and patients vulnerable to the same dangers that necessitated the law in the first place. “The act was needed in the first place because doctors were murdered,” said Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT), “if we repeal this, we are headed right back to that state of lawlessness.” Now heading to a full House vote, H.R. 589 would dismantle a key federal safeguard. Data and legal precedent affirm that the FACE Act continues to play a vital role in protecting access, without limiting peaceful protest or speech. As Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) put it during the mark up, “let’s not continue to play politics with women’s reproductive health.”
https://feminist.org/news/house-judiciary-committee-advances-bill-to-repeal-face-act/
Plan C's Road Trip Takes Abortion Access to the People
Plan C’s Road Trip Takes Abortion Access to the People
PUBLISHED 6/12/2025 by Carrie N. Baker
Now in its second year, the Plan C Community Road Trip is rolling through all 50 states with one clear mission: Make abortion pills visible, accessible and impossible to ignore.
Plan C and Knoxville Abortion Justice Alliance (KAJA) volunteers and staff at the Cattywampus Puppet Parade and Block Party on May 18 in Knoxville, Tenn. (Courtesy of Plan C)
In the wake of sweeping state-level abortion bans and restrictions, one defiant campaign is truly taking a different route—literally. For the second year in a row, Plan C, the intrepid grassroots campaign for abortion pill access, is hitting the road on a cross-country trip to spread the word about abortion pills: that they are safe, effective and available to everyone, everywhere. Plan C is teaming up with grassroots organizers in all 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico to share abortion pill information through “pop-ups, panels, performances, and bold community activations centered on truth, agency, and access.”
“The Plan C community road trip is our way of showing up organically and authentically in places we wouldn’t typically be in,” said Plan C community organizer Lauren Hattaway on the importance of collaborating with grassroots activists to reach people in local communities. “If it’s not coming from a trusted resource, it’s just information on a page. It’s also our way of highlighting the work that’s already happening on the ground, showing people that help is already here in your community.” At each stop, Plan C joins local advocates to amplify ongoing abortion access efforts already on the ground and shares information about the multiple avenues available to obtain abortion pills—including telehealth abortion, community support networks that distribute pills for free, and e-commerce websites selling abortion pills in all 50 states and U.S. territories. The Plan C website offers a state-by-state guide—cutting through legal confusion and political fear to outline available options.
A panel after a performance of The Turnaway Play. (Courtesy of Plan C)
The 2025 Plan C Road Trip launched on April 27 in Los Angeles with a powerful performance of The Turnaway Play, based on Dr. Diane Green Foster’s groundbreaking research on what happens when women are denied abortion care. From there, the team hit the road—stopping in New York City for the annual Physicians for Reproductive Health Voices of Courage Benefit (featuring John Oliver), speaking with theater students at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, joining for the Florida NOW conference in Orlando, collaborating with the Knoxville Abortion Justice Alliance (KAJA) Pop up in Tennessee and teaming up with Punk Rock Saves Lives in Boise, Idaho. With more than 100 stops—up from 76 last year—the tour is louder, larger and reaches deeper into communities across the county. Running through Nov. 12, the road trip transforms everyday spaces into sites of reproductive resistance. From comedy shows and tabling at farmers markets, to wine flight nights, craft nights on college campuses, Pride events, trivia nights and musical festivals like Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn., and Lallapalooza in Chicago—abortion access is showing up.
. . . . .
Plan C community organizer Lauren Hattaway. (Courtesy of Plan C)
. . . .
Physicians for Reproductive Health’s Voices of Courage Benefit in May in in New York City. (Courtesy of Plan C)
Plan C also provides information about how people are obtaining abortion pills in advance to have on hand just in case, as well as supportive resources, such as the Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline; Reprocare Healthline and Repro Legal Helpline. This information is a vital lifeline to women living in states banning abortion as well as those facing other legal, financial and medical barriers to abortion access in all states and U.S. territories.The Plan C Community Road Trip isn’t just a tour—it’s a radical feminist strategy to reclaim public space, draw abortion pills out of the shadows and make them visible, accessible and unignorable in every corner of the country.
https://msmagazine.com/2025/06/12/abortion-pills-plan-c-road-trip-summer/
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