Learn about anti-abortion centers, more commonly known as ” crisis pregnancy centers” or “pregnancy resource centers”, the “services” they provide, their affiliations, and history.
Category: Reproductive Rights
North Carolina Bans Abortion After 20 Weeks
Wednesday, Federal Judge Osteen decided to lift the injunction on North Carolina’s 20 week abortion ban. This now means that abortions after 20 weeks are illegal, unless there is a medical emergency. This decision defies the recommendations of all the named parties in the 2019 case.
“Neither this court, nor the public, nor counsel, nor providers have the right to ignore the rule of law as determined by the Supreme Court,”
Federal Judge Osteen
This ruling adds fuel to an already contentious midterm election year after the Supreme Court ruling propelled state-level politics into the spotlight. North Carolina Republicans in November will aim to snag the five additional seats they need for a veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature.
Republican lawmakers say a successful election season could open the door to further abortion restrictions when the General Assembly reconvenes early next year. Moore told reporters on July 26 that he would like to see the legislature consider banning abortions once an ultrasound first detects fetal cardiac activity — typically around six weeks after fertilization and before some patients know they’re pregnant.
What does this mean for people seeking abortion after 20 weeks in North Carolina?
Fundamentally, this law does not change much about abortion access in North Carolina; clinics in the state were not performing abortion care beyond 20 weeks. However, while abortions 20 weeks or later are rare (96% happen before 12 weeks of pregnancy), the enforcement of this law serves to criminalize those who are in need of abortions and those who help them obtain abortions.
Keep in mind, this law has been on the books since 1973. An injunction was placed on it and abortions were allowed up until viability, which is around week 23 or 24 of pregnancy.
“People seeking abortion later in pregnancy often do so because they face delays in accessing abortion care or dangerous complications with their pregnancy… Many need time to secure funds, time off work, transportation, and childcare, and often encounter other barriers in obtaining care, including medically unnecessary, state-mandated restrictions like North Carolina’s 72-hour forced waiting period.”
Jenny Black, President & CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic
With the variety of TRAP laws already in place in North Carolina such as 72-hour waiting periods, biased mandatory counseling, state and federal funding restrictions, and mandatory ultrasounds, the enforcement of the 20 week ban only serves to add yet another barrier for pregnant people seeking abortion in North Carolina.
It is up to us to vote in legislators that will protect abortion access and push current legislators to remove the current restrictions. Remember, there is no choice when there is no access.
If you or a loved one are in need of abortion, please refer to my post, Abortion Providers in North Carolina.
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Comprehensive Inclusive List Of Abortion Rights Signs (& Why Some Are Problematic)
Inclusive Abortion/Reproductive Rights Signs
- The 1950’s is calling..don’t answer
- Pro choice or no choice
- End the stigma
- Stop the war on marginalized communities
- Stronger together; Equal rights for all
- Vasectomies prevent abortions
- If I wanted the government in my uterus, I’d screw a congressman
- 1973; Protect Roe v Wade
- Reproductive rights are trans rights!
- Trans rights are human rights
- My body, My choice, My voice
- Public Cervix Announcement: Keep your laws off our bodies
- Keep your rosaries off my ovaries
- If you’re “prolife” where’s your advocacy for for universal healthcare, affordable housing, ending police brutality, ending the death penalty etc?
- If you’re not livid then you’re not listening
- Abortion is a human right
- Same shit, different century
- America: where a virus has more reproductive rights than people with a uterus
- I am more than my uterus/We are more than our uterus
- Pass the equal rights amendment!
- Pass the Women’s Health Protection Act!
- End the Hyde Amendment! It drastically effects WOC & low income women!
- Im a person, not a womb.
- I’m the pro-choice feminist they warned you about
- We shouldn’t have to be here
- Thank god the 675,000 dead from COVID/*insert gun violence statistic here* aren’t embryos, the republicans would be pissed.
- What laws regulate cishet men’s bodies?
- Abortion is 14x safer than giving birth
- Don’t like abortions? Don’t get one
- Men of quality do not fear equality
- If the baby is black/gay/trans/poor/an immigrant, will you protect its rights then?
- My arms are tired from holding this sign since the 1960s
- Woman’s rights are human rights
- If my birth control is taken, I’ll just make more feminists
- I understand a mask can be uncomfortable but so can pregnancy/child birth & the GOP doesn’t seem to have a problem forcing pregnant people to do that
- When did MY abortion effect YOU?
- Protect the rights of: black, indigenous, immigrant, poor, trans, ALL women
- We will be less activist when you’ll be less shitty
- Pro-choice (adj.) the radical notion that women are people and can make decisions about their own bodies
- Forced pregnancy is a crime against humanity
- When abortion is outlawed, a corpse has more rights than a living breathing person
- I am no longer accepting things I cannot change. I am changing things I can no longer accept -Angela Davis
- Girls just wanna have FUNdamental human rights
Creative Sign Ideas
- GOP: we can’t pass laws making it harder to get guns. there won’t be fewer guns, people will just find a way to get them illegally. Also GOP: if we ban abortion there will be fewer abortions (Do this one set up as a meme if you have a big enough board)
- We’re not ovary-acting ! / Don’t make us ovary-act!
- Boys will be boys (mark out boys) held accountable/decent people/educated better
- Make a diagram of a plant seed saying this is not a tree & one of an embryo/fetus saying this is not a baby
Problematic Protest Signs (& Why)
- References to the Handmaids Tale. Not only are they unrealistic (the US would never ensure ALL pregnant people are housed, have access to pregnancy care, properly fed, etc) but they are also disingenuous to all the black, indigenous and immigrant women of color that have already been experiencing forced sterilization, forced birth, and more pregnancy related atrocities throughout America’s history and even into today’s times.
- Coat Hanger References. Yes, it used to have more relevance during the movement that got Roe v Wade passed however, it also contributes to the idea that self-managed abortions are dangerous and deadly when in reality medicinal abortions, aka self managed abortions, are extremely safe when properly supervised. Coat hanger imagery only serves to fuel the stigma (and borderline misinformation) around abortions. With such medical advancements since the 1970’s and it’s safety record, the gruesome imagery of the coat hanger is unnecessary in this day in age.
- “If men got pregnant we wouldn’t be having this conversation” or similar rhetoric. This point excludes the trans men and masc-presenting non-binary and gender-nonconforming individuals who are capable of getting pregnant. It fails to include our trans and gender-nonconforming comrades, people who reproductive healthcare access also affects just as much as cis women.
- Rhetoric stating LGBTQ rights will be next. This ignores the fact that LGBTQ rights are under attack now. The more inclusive the movement and the sooner people acknowledge the intersectionality of different specs and move in such a way that also recognizes their problems, the more power we will have. Solidarity is everything; As Fred Hampton said “We don’t think you fight fire with fire best ; we think you fight fire with water best. We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity.” This needs to be applied to all issues if we hope to achieve true liberation for all.
References
- https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2019/11/self-managed-abortion-may-be-rise-probably-not-significant-driver-overall-decline
- https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/coat-hanger-abortion-meme
- https://blackfeministcollective.com/2018/12/08/why-the-the-handmaids-tale-is-problematic/
Pushing Back at the Rise in Anti-Abortion Laws & What You Can Do.
Since the passing of Roe v Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992), it has been heavily under attack by republican congress members. From January 1, 2021 to April 15, 2022, over 536 abortion restrictions have been introduced in 42 states; so far, 33 of those restrictions have been enacted in 9 states. When Roe is overturned, 13 states will immediately ban abortions & 13 more are likely to make it nearly impossible to get an abortion; thus leaving many in the South & the Midwest without access to reproductive healthcare for hundreds or even thousands of miles in some instances.
On Monday May 2, 2022, the SCOTUS draft majority opinion was leaked in regards to Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization — a case that could (& most likely will) overturn Roe v. Wade & Casey v. Planned Parenthood. Our current SCOTUS is majoritively, 6 out of 9, both conservative & Christian, meaning that our rights to bodily autonomy, privacy, & receiving healthcare will likely be taken away in the coming months.
What Can You Do to Push Back Against Anti-Abortion Laws?
- Follow your state legislature; they will keep attacking other rights once Roe is overturned.
- Contact your local representatives to vote for/against legislation.
- Join your local pro-choice coalition.
- Organize a panel to educate the community of the current threats to reproductive rights & the consequences that will come of them.
- See if your local abortion clinic has an amazon wish-list & buy something off it to support the clinic & those who utilize them.
- Get directly involved and volunteer with your local Planned Parenthood.
- Contact your local abortion clinic and see if you can donate your extra gas points to people traveling to your state seeking an abortion.
- Join a third-party organization such as Democratic Socialists of America, Socialist Alternative, or Party for Socialism and Liberation.
- Contact your local abortion clinic and see if you can donate your hotel room points to support people traveling to your state seeking an abortion.
- Write a letter to the editor of your local paper telling your abortion story.
- Host a video night featuring a reproductive rights film.
- Canvass your community to determine where local advocacy and education is needed.
- Find out what type of sex education programs exist in the schools in your community & advocate for comprehensive sex education.
- See which employers provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plans- if they don’t, advocate for them.
- Find out what hospitals in your area provide abortions, tubal litigation & emergency contraception.
- Vote in pro-choice candidates- not all democrats are pro-choice! Do you research on who you’re voting for.
- Donate to your local abortion fund.
- Go out and protest-this is only the start.
- Table at local events like converts, outdoor markets, street fairs, & college campuses.
- Tell your abortion story to destigmatize abortions & the people who get them.
- Telling your story helps evoke emotions & puts a face behind the statistics on who gets abortions and why they’re fundamental healthcare.
- Call up to your local abortion clinic and see if they need any clinic escorts to help keep abortion seekers safe from harassers while arriving to clinics.
- Become a clinic escort to ensure pregnant people can securely access abortion care.
- Get yourself some birth control, emergency contraceptives, and abortion pills to have on hand-if you do plan on getting extra try online rather than in stores to help ensure those who go to said store can have access to them.
- Adopt-A-Clinic through the Abortion Access Front to support abortion recipients.
- Write a letter to the editor of your local paper about the attack on Roe.
- Contact your local representatives to pass reproductive healthcare protections in your state or to vote against restrictions attempting to be passed.
The Abhorrent Effects of Texas’ 6 Week Abortion Ban.
On September 1, 2021, Texas’ six week abortion ban went into effect. This outlaws any abortions once a fetal “heartbeat” is detected and does not allow for exceptions, even in cases of rape or incest. Rather than the state prosecuting abortion seekers and/or providers, S.B.8 allows for private citizens to sue abortion seekers and/or providers for $10,000 per abortion.
Fetal heartbeat abortion bans are a basic human rights violation and a crime against humanity according to the UN. Most people, unless they are actively trying to conceive, don’t realize they’re pregnant until week 7, meanwhile fetal “heartbeats” can be detected as early as 6 weeks. The term “fetal heartbeat” – especially before 6 gestational weeks – is misleading in the sense that it’s merely electrical cells (that would later form to become the heart), and what’s actually heard is actually the sonography machine at that point.
S.B. 8. has subsequently brought about detrimental effects to people who’ve became pregnant. This law has since caused physical, psychological and mental distress, trapping people into a cycle of poverty, forcing children as young as 11 carry a fetus to term, compelling chronically disabled people to carry a fetus to term, making people have to drive hundreds of miles to receive medical care, forcing people to preform back-alley abortions, overall strong-arming these people into carrying their pregnancy to term, whether or not they capable of bringing it to term.
Planned Parenthood released a briefing of 33 interviewees (view entire brief here) only 1 month and 10 days after the bill was enacted into law by Texas representatives and Governor Greg Abbott. The brief outlines the grave, horrific realities many pregnant people, even children, have gone through and will continue to have to go through unless this law gets repealed. Some women were petrified when they found out about their pregnancy because they weren’t sure how they were going to get out-of-sate for their abortion due to various factors like being on probation, undocumented, sexually assaulted, etc.
*All initials are pseudonyms to protect interviewees’ privacy.
-T.K. suffers from a chronic disease for which she has been unable to get
medication for eight months. She fears the stress of the pregnancy “would
probably kill [her].”
T.K. said she is not financially stable enough to raise a child. Having grown
up in poverty, she “[doesn’t] want that cycle to happen again.” She noted that
baby formula costs $18 per canister but she barely earns over $20,000 a year.
As a child, T.K. was sexually abused in the care of extended family. She
would not trust anyone to care for her child given the abuse she suffered. She was
relieved to secure an out-of-State abortion, but was worried that because of SB8,
“they’d be waiting to drag [her] off to jail when [she] got here because [she’s] from
Texas.
-Nurse practitioner T.W. saw a young teen who came from Texas to
Oklahoma after being raped and impregnated by her father. Unfortunately, the
family member taking care of her lacked the guardianship forms to be able to
consent to the abortion, and they had to turn her away.
-J.T. is in her mid-thirties with seven children, and recently lost employment
when they contracted COVID-19. She explained that she “can’t have another
child” and that her “seven children come first.”
J.T. was too far along to have an abortion in Texas and considered buying
“pills” online. With Mississippi appointments booking nine weeks out, J.T. woke
up at 4 a.m. to drive six hours to Oklahoma. She split up her children among
various caretakers. She said that hotel, food, and gas “took away over half of what
I make in the month…”
-I.O., in Houston, spoke of a twelve-year-old patient who came in with her
mother, a single working mother with other children. The mother said they could
not travel out-of-State—they had barely made it to the Texas health center. The
twelve-year-old said, “Mom, it was an accident. Why are they making me keep
it?”
Laws like Texas’ six week abortion ban are a dangerous and slippery slope that will lead to unnecessary traumatic and lethal consequences. Abortion bans prevent people from getting the necessary [and sometimes even life-saving] medical care they need. When a bounty is added on top of a ban, this traps people in a cycle of poverty, force them into parenthood no matter the readiness and/or desire to become a parent, and can enable domestic abusers (by holding either the abortion or the child, once its born, over the domestic victims head).
Laws like this must be fought against. In an effort to help save reproductive rights, right to privacy, and right to bodily autonomy: donate to your local Planned Parenthood (or any other reproductive health/abortion center), find a local organization that advocates for abortion rights, and urge your congress-member to pass the “Women’s Health Protection Act” and to repeal any legislation that prohibits abortion access.
Craftivist The Activist 
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