Minneapolis, MN – On Mother’s Day Sunday, May 10, the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) organized a pro-choice Mother’s Day protest across from what was an anti-abortion, Pro Life Action Ministry (PLAM) billboard.

A few days leading up to the protest, members of MNAAC learned the billboard was replaced with a local orthopedic billboard. Despite this change, they continued with the protest with about two dozen attendees to fight for comprehensive reproductive healthcare, oppose abortion restrictions and the attempts of “pro-life” organizations to influence legislation and to shame women.

MNAAC is actively fighting against the existence of “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs), or anti-abortion centers, in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, with activists demanding restrictions on the ability of CPCs to spread medical misinformation and demanding state and local regulations to require CPCs to disclose that they do not provide a full spectrum of reproductive healthcare.

CPCs convince unknowingly pregnant people in crisis to not have abortions by using scare tactics and promoting myths about abortion causing depression, cancer and infertility. In Minnesota CPCs outnumber abortion care clinics eleven to one, since there are 90 CPCs and nine abortion care clinics. Anti-abortion attacks continue at the federal level with the recent 5th Circuit ruling that seeks to block remote prescription and delivery of mifepristone by mail.

Activists shared their stories about what it means to have the ability to choose to become a parent and how American imperialism continues to harm mothers.

Jordann Hoff, a member of MNAAC, shared that blocking access to mifepristone via telehealth and delivery by mail will harm nearly two-thirds of people needing to have an abortion, since approximately 63% of all abortions are via medication.

Emily Newberg, a member of Women's Against Military Madness (WAMM) shared how Palestinian women are using tent scraps for pads and, without aid mothers, are continuing to take care of their children alone as the men have migrated away throughout the war.

River Road Townsend, a member of Twin Cities Coalition For Justice (TCC4J), told their story about receiving a lifesaving abortion during their first trimester because they still had children to take care of, and how they later were able to choose to adopt a child into their family. Townsend calls their family a family of choice; and that reproductive healthcare should not have to come through the intersection of luck and circumstance.

MNAAC is a grassroots, volunteer-based organization fighting for reproductive justice. The pillars of reproductive justice are the right to have a child, the right to not have a child, and the right to parent a child in safe and sustainable communities while maintaining personal bodily autonomy as a human right.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #MNAAC #AbortionRights #WomensMovement #LGBTQ

Milwaukee, WI – On Friday, February 16, Reproductive Justice Action – Milwaukee (RJAM) held a press conference outside of Milwaukee City Hall to call on Wisconsin Assembly Leader Robin Vos to hold a public hearing for the Reproductive Freedom Act.

RJAM Chair Lauren Forbush started off the press conference with a chant, “When reproductive rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” 

“We are outside City Hall this morning to call attention to the Reproductive Freedom Act. The Reproductive Freedom Act would expand access to abortion services statewide,” Forbush said.

Isabella Gargi of RJAM was the first speaker for the press conference. “This legislation has three parts. The first part restores the power of individuals to make their own pregnancy health care decisions by removing medically unnecessary restrictions and bans on abortion care, and removes inappropriate political interference from the doctor-patient relationships. The second part affirms the obligation of health care providers to provide medically accurate information to patients and creates a right for patients to receive medically accurate information from their healthcare provider; and the third part ensures that publicly funded pregnancy counseling services provide all options counseling and services.”

Maya Seshan from Medical Students for Choice used her speaking time to highlight the need for a public hearing for the Reproductive Freedom Act. “Voters across Wisconsin have affirmed the need and right to be able to access abortion care! Restrictive abortion laws affect patients, healthcare providers, and medical workers.”

After voicing her support for the public hearing, she went on to explain how the previous abortion ban has impacted pregnant people with life-threatening complications during pregnancy. One of these conditions is preeclampsia, which causes life-threatening complications to the pregnant person during pregnancy, and if they continue with giving birth they can experience life-threatening conditions postpartum as well. Preeclampsia is only diagnosed at or after 20-weeks of gestation, while the current abortion restrictions in Wisconsin only allow abortion up to 21 weeks.

“Under current Wisconsin law, this condition cannot be treated safely. All healthcare professionals and patients will experience uncertainty until the Reproductive Freedom Act is codified into law,” Seshan said.

The next speaker was Tracey Schwertfeger, a registered nurse and leader with the Saint Francis Hospital chapter of Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Local 5000. She spoke in favor of a public hearing for the Reproductive Freedom Act on behalf of labor activists in the medical field.

Schwertfeger stated, “Abortion access is access to healthcare and access to freedom. The denial of access is an undue burden on people, disproportionately affecting those who are already marginalized and facing socioeconomic challenges. Our duty as healthcare professionals is to advocate for equitable care ensuring that all people can exercise their right to make informed decisions about their reproductive health. By facilitating an open discussion on this matter, we have a democratic process that is for us, by us!”

The last speaker was Blake Jones of RJAM, who read off a statement from the authors of the Reproductive Freedom Act, Senator Kelda Roys and Representative Francesca Hong. The statement went on to reiterate the three components of the bill and emphasized, “A key piece is about ensuring Wisconsinites have access to evidence-based information to make the best decisions for themselves.”

To close out the press conference, Reproductive Justice Action – Milwaukee called on all Wisconsinites to demand Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to hold a public hearing for the Reproductive Freedom Act. Back in January, the Wisconsin Assembly on Health, Aging, and Long-Term Care held a public hearing for a proposed referendum that would enact a five-week abortion ban. These activists believe that if the committee held a public hearing for legislation to take away healthcare access, they must hold a public hearing for legislation to expand healthcare access.

You can help support this demand by participating in their call-in and email-in campaigns to demand the public hearing. Check out @reproductivejusticeaction on Instagram to find out more information about this ongoing campaign and RJAM’s fight to expand abortion access in Wisconsin.

#MilwaukeeWI #ReproductiveJustice #AbortionRights #AbortionAccess #RoevWade #WomensLiberation #ReproductiveFreedomAct

Minneapolis, MN – 30 supporters of reproductive rights rallied at May Day Plaza on January 6 to demand that the Supreme Court uphold the existing status of the drug mifepristone.

On December 13, 2023, the United States Supreme Court agreed to review a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit. If upheld, the lower court ruling would only allow access to the drug via direct prescription from a doctor – preventing online ordering, mail delivery, and pharmacy dispensing of abortion pills. It would also restrict the time to access pills from ten weeks to seven weeks.

“In the state of Minnesota – which is supposedly a sanctuary state for abortion – there are only eight in-person abortion clinics, five of which are located within the Twin Cities. Because of this, folks rely on the accessibility of abortion care through mail delivery,” explained Robynne Johnson, a member of the MN Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC).

Johnson further detailed the additional barriers to abortion imposed by the predatory practices of anti-abortion centers, commonly known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which deepens the crisis of abortion accessibility. Johnson continued, saying that CPS “are funded and operated by right-wing Christian organizations with the intent to guilt folks into not getting an abortion. They are not medically licensed professionals, and they do not adhere to prevailing medical standards. They have been proven to provide biased, misleading and inaccurate sexual and reproductive health information in service of their goals.”

Carolyn Hadke, a member of MNAAC and a menstrual health educator, spoke on the hypocritical goals of pro-life politicians, saying, “If they wanted us to be safe, we’d have paid parental leave, health care, childcare, clean drinking water for everyone. We wouldn’t have over 24 states banning abortion, unaffordable health care, people who are unhoused, a militarized border and our tax dollars funding Israel’s genocide in Palestine.”

The “Defend Mifepristone Protest” was organized by the MN Abortion Action Committee, with endorsements from the MN Anti-War Committee, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, the MN Immigrant Rights Action Committee, and several other organizations.

#MinneapolisMN #WomensMovement #ReproductiveJustice #AbortionRights #MNAAC

Milwaukee, WI – Nearly two dozen people gathered in front of the Farwell Women’s Care Center on Milwaukee’s East Side on the morning of Saturday, November 18, to raise awareness of local crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) throughout the state. Reproductive Justice Action Milwaukee hosted the picket and chalk-writing action to raise awareness and highlight the risks these centers pose to reproductive healthcare, by the CPCs masquerading as legitimate health facilities.

“Crisis pregnancy centers are tools of reproductive injustice. They place themselves in marginalized communities to purposely target oppressed nationalities and they lie about being able to provide long-term support to the pregnant person after they give birth,” said Lauren Forbush, the chair of the Reproductive Justice Action Milwaukee (RJAM). “The decision to have an abortion is not as simple as 'making a decision or having a choice.' Most times people have an abortion because their situation under capitalism doesn’t allow them to have a choice.”

RJAM held a traditional picket and chalk-writing, led chants, and had three speakers outside the center. Favorite chants from picketers included, “We are unstoppable, another world is possible!” and “Get up, get down, Milwaukee is a pro-choice town!” Chalk designs also included slogans such as “free lies inside” and “Anti-abortion clinic.”

Aside from Forbush representing RJAM, there were other speakers from the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Medical Students for Choice (MCW-MSC) and the Affiliated Medical Services Escorts. All three speakers outlined the various ways in which CPCs have directly impacted the community at large. A couple of speakers detailed their personal experiences either seeking care at a CPC or escorting at an abortion care facility across the road, while MCW-MSC highlighted the dangers and medical misinformation these centers have been known to give vulnerable patients. All speakers gave a call to action to demand the Wisconsin state assembly to vote “no'' on AB 344.

SB 345 and AB 344 would allocate $1 million of taxpayer money to ChooseLife Wisconsin, which would in turn disperse these funds to the over 80 crisis pregnancy centers in the state. This is in direct opposition to state statutes that prohibit the same funds be used by legitimate medical facilities that provide or counsel individuals on receiving abortion care. SB 345 has already passed through the state senate in October.

Crisis pregnancy centers are run by anti-abortion organizations that prioritize birth over the health and wellbeing of the pregnant person. These facilities will use deceit, lies and shame in an attempt to coerce individuals into not seeking abortion care. Free ultrasounds and pregnancy testing are performed by predominantly volunteer workers with no proper medical training and routinely provide inaccurate dating of the pregnancy. They also provide counseling that contains outright false claims that link abortion to increased rates of breast cancer and suicide in an attempt to scare people aware from seeking abortion care. To make matters worse, these facilities also refuse birth control to patients and use more lies and shame to promote abstinence-only sexual “education.”

Forbush indicated that future actions, such as a call-in campaign, are in the works to contact representatives to vote “no '' on these bills, as well as future pickets in front of other crisis pregnancy centers.

#MilwaukeeWI #ReproductiveFreedom #AbortionRights #CPCs #RJAM

St. Paul, MN – On Sunday, November 5, members of the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee held a rally, decorated cars with signs, flags, and written slogans before driving the streets of Saint Paul, and then rallied again in front of a so-called “vigil for the unborn” organized by Pro-Life Action Ministries, a Minnesota-based anti-choice religious group.

This action was organized in response to the closing vigil of a 40-day-long campaign by Pro-Life Action Ministries, in which the anti-abortion group occupied sidewalks in front of the Saint Paul Planned Parenthood. Pro-Life Action Ministries calls itself an “interdenominational Christian organization dedicated to publicly defending the sanctity of human life,” and its members are a common presence in front of facilities that provide abortion in the Twin Cities. They harass people trying to enter in an attempt to dissuade them from receiving abortions, and their pamphlets are rife with scare tactics and misinformation, such as spurious claims that abortions put people at risk of breast cancer and infertility, or that the first dose of a medication abortion can be “reversed” by taking large amounts of progesterone, an untested practice that lacks FDA approval.

Pro-Life Action Ministries is currently suing the city of Minneapolis over an ordinance passed last year by the city council entitled “Security of Reproductive Healthcare Facilities,” which prohibits the act of blocking access to the entrance of a reproductive healthcare facility. The group claims that this ordinance infringes on their freedom of speech, though their presence often frightens and intimidates people seeking care at these facilities.

“Even though abortion is legal in Minnesota for the time being, the social stigma and misinformation alone are enough to make people feel like abortion isn’t an option, and that stigma is alive and well with groups like these,” said MNAAC member Kristen Bledsoe in a speech preceding the car caravan. “It’s our goal today to let them know that they are not welcome here! The Twin Cities are a pro-abortion town!”

Bledsoe went on to highlight the plight of unionized Planned Parenthood workers facing repression from Planned Parenthood management, saying, “As members of MNAAC, we know that workers’ rights are reproductive rights are human rights, and we extend our solidarity in their struggle for better working conditions and fair treatment.”

MNAAC member Sarah Murphy highlighted the dangers of groups like Pro-Life Action Ministries and “crisis pregnancy centers,” saying, “These 40 Days for Life people want to make it even harder for Minnesotans and our neighbors to access reproductive healthcare. Planned Parenthood is a less-than-perfect organization, but they provide real, accurate, low-cost medical assistance to people who need it. These people camping out front saying their little prayers need to go away!”

The connection between reproductive rights and Palestinian liberation was further illustrated by Bledsoe. “The right-wing Christofascist forces behind crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life groups are the same ones behind bills that seek to criminalize the existence of trans people and further increase U.S. spending on police and military,” she said, “and they are the same ones behind the enormous sums of money that the U.S. sends to Israel to aid in their genocidal occupation of Palestine. Our politicians are sending taxpayer dollars to Israel so they can continue bombing hospitals and refugee camps. And these decisions are influenced by ‘pro-life’ lobbyists, who claim to care about the sanctity of human life!”

After decorating cars with slogans like “Eight clinics is not enough for a sanctuary state” and “Abortion is healthcare,” attendees caravanned down University Avenue, attracting cheers from passersby, before driving to the Planned Parenthood and parking in front of a small crowd of anti-abortion protesters. Chanting “Abortion is healthcare! Abortion is essential!” and “Pro-Life? That’s a lie! You don’t care if people die!”, MNAAC members confronted the protesters for several minutes and successfully disrupted their vigil.

MNAAC continues its campaign against crisis pregnancy centers via education and outreach, protests outside of “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) and progress toward regulating CPCs at the city level. You can follow their work on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @MN_AAC.

#StPaulMN #AbortionRights #ReproductiveFreedom #MNAAC

Orlando, FL – On Saturday, August 19, a panel of progressive organizations organized by Las Semillas was held at the Orange County Public Library. The purpose of this panel was for progressive organizations to network, present the work they are doing in their communities, and have a discussion about pressing political issues. All of these activities contribute to the goal of building a united front against the DeSantis administration and the deterioration of material conditions, especially for the working class of Central Florida. “Florida’s on fire in more ways than one, so we’re glad to be in concert with anyone trying to put the pieces together,” stated the social media post promoting the event.

The topics discussed at the panel ranged from economic and food justice to combating the assault on trans rights and how to move beyond 2024. One of the highlights of the panel involved a discussion on the current anti-trans legislation in the U.S. and contrasting it to the recently passed Family Code in Cuba. From the content of the laws, expanding the legal protections in Cuba, to the process of the actual drafting of the legislation, where thousands of meetings were held to discuss the thoughts of the Cuban people, Cuba is showing what a true democracy means for the people.

The organizations present were Las Semillas, March for Our Lives Pine Hills, Freedom Road Socialist Organization Orlando, The Umbrella Brigade, The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, Black Men Build Orlando, FL Student Power, Orlando DSA, and Ladies In Full Effect (L.I.F.E.).

The next panel hosted by Las Semillas will be in October. As part of this panel series, the location changes neighborhoods for each event, allowing different voices and organizations to be highlighted. Seven Charlestin, an organizer with Las Semillas, stated, We’re in a political moment across the globe right now, and if we don’t fight back we risk incorrigible damage to our planet and our civil liberties.”

Follow Las Semillas at @las_semillas_20 on Instagram for more information.

#OrlandoFL #ImmigrantRights #WomensMovement #LGBTQ #Antiracism #Antifascism #GovernorRonDesantis #AbortionRights

Orlando, FL – On August 10, an emergency rally was held in Orlando to address Governor Ron DeSantis’ recent dismissal of State Attorney Monique Worrell.

The attacks came as an affirmation by the DeSantis camp that they are an enemy of oppressed nationalities, the working class, women and LGBTQ people.

At the rally, the charges against the Tampa 5 were discussed by Anna Eskamani as a part of DeSantis’s attacks on education and African Americans. Progressive forces attending the rally understand the need to develop a strong united front against DeSantis and his clique of reactionaries. When democratic rights are under attack, the people are becoming ready to organize and fight back.

#OrlandoFL #ImmigrantRights #LGBTQ #Antiracism #Antifascism #GovernorRonDesantis #AbortionRights

Milwaukee, WI – On July 11, Reproductive Justice Action Milwaukee (RJAM) held a press conference in front of Milwaukee City Hall concerning the recent updates to the lawsuit being pursued by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul against the 1849 state statute 940.04. This lawsuit was launched by Kaul on June 28, 2022, in response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision and came in the wake of mass protests across the state.

If this lawsuit wins, the next hurdle to abortion access will be from a different state statute, 940.195, which says that anyone who “causes bodily harm to an unborn child by an act done with intent to cause bodily harm to that unborn child, to the woman who is pregnant with that unborn child or another” is guilty of a misdemeanor and several felonies. This was included as a part of Wisconsin's Abortion Prevention and Family Responsibility Act of 1985. The law is vague by design and keeps the door open to criminalize women and others seeking abortions as well as those medical professionals who provide the services.

On July 7, Dane County Judge Diane Schlipper said in a ruling, “There is no such thing as an ‘1849 Abortion Ban’ in Wisconsin. A physician who performs a consensual medical abortion commits a crime only after the fetus or unborn child reaches viability.”

“In short, this doesn’t mean abortion access will be immediately restored,” said Blake Jones, propaganda chair of RJAM, during their July 11 press conference. “However, this ruling will most likely be referred to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to vote on sometime after August 1.”

After the Wisconsin Supreme Court decides on this lawsuit, Wisconsin would revert to the more recent state statute 940.15. “This statute includes banning telehealth consultations, requires parental consent for an abortion, and a mandatory 24-hour waiting period,” said Jones.

During the press conference, RJAM recognized the importance of 940.04 being made obsolete, but also recognized that the fight for abortion access is not over. The organization is calling for abortion access on demand, with no mandatory waiting periods, access to telemedicine consultations, and rural access to abortion services.

“We, along with other grassroots organizations, are committed to fighting for the expansion and protection of reproductive healthcare, to protect the right to bodily autonomy, and to ensure that right can never be threatened again in the state of Wisconsin,” said Jones.

#MilwaukeeWI #AbortionBan #AbortionRights #reproductiveJustice