Reflecting on our ‘It’s Your Choice: A judgement free guide to abortion’
Eight months ago, we launched a reproductive rights guide just as Roe v. Wade was overturned. Long-time Chayn volunteers Connor and Chloe share how the Chayn team planned and wrote this essential resource.
Hiya! Just saw the call notes and saw you’re looking at researching and writing up an outline for abortion and reproductive rights. Not sure when this is needed by but if you need help I can give some support this week.
- Chloe to Connor, December 2020
When this began, we’d still never met in person. We both joined Chayn around the same time in spring of 2020, and by the nature of Chayn’s global team — Chloe being Welsh and Connor being American — we only spent time chatting on Messenger or on calls. As we both grew closer to the Your Story Matters project, we began working together more and more, and through this a strong friendship started to form. Shared interests, shared experiences, and shared compassion came out, and slowly our conversations were constantly peppered with book recommendations, feminist movie critiques, and questions of existential crisis, as well as asking for the space to confide in each other.
This is the feeling we wanted to create for users of It’s Your Choice (IYC). A space where even if we aren’t physically with you — even if we’ve never met you — you feel supported in learning about and making your reproductive choices free of judgement. We know that sometimes when we need a friend, there isn’t always someone nearby who we feel comfortable confiding in, someone that we know won’t judge us and who will help us find the information we need. It can also be difficult to know what information is correct — especially when it comes to our reproductive rights which are often made intentionally confusing. We wanted IYC to be a global, trusted friend that would support you without bias, as you navigated your reproductive rights and decided on what was best for you. A friend that gave you information and advice on things you may not have had to think about before, and may not be able to bring up with those around you.
This guide was written by our global team, all of us coming with different stories and experiences surrounding reproductive rights — stories of supporting our loved ones through their reproductive choices and of making our own reproductive choices. Experiences of navigating abortion laws and bans and trying to find spaces where we wouldn’t feel judged, often struggling to find the information and support we needed. A lot of the resources we’d used in the past focused almost entirely on the medical and legal aspects of our reproductive choices — both extremely important — but often lacking in providing emotional support. We wanted this guide to include the empathy, respect, understanding, and knowledge that we often aren’t told and wished we could have had ourselves.
Planning and Writing It’s Your Choice
Would you be able to do a call tonight to chat about it?? I think brainstorming together might help.
- Connor to Chloe, February 2021
I’ll call now!
- Chloe to Connor, February 2021
We started brainstorming the structure of the guide by thinking about the steps of making reproductive decisions — considering the choices available when pregnant, navigating through these options, and processing our choice afterwards. But we wanted to use the knowledge our team had to create a more holistic guide. One that was sensitive to the fact that not everyone reading would have the same access to abortion. That not everyone reading would have consented to the sex that resulted in their pregnancy. That not everyone reading would all identify as the same gender. That not everyone reading would have access to gender-affirming care.
We also took this time to clarify what this guide was not supposed to be, as it is harmful to speak from places where we are not qualified. This guide is a friendly, comprehensive resource to provide non-judgemental information about reproductive choice and abortion from the perspectives of people who have experienced or have been close with someone who has experienced abortion. This guide does not provide legal information or advice. Instead, we have linked to sources like the Center for Reproductive Rights, who focus specifically on tracking and monitoring the status of global reproductive laws. We encourage all users to check their status in their own country or jurisdiction using reputable sources. This guide also does not provide medical advice, nor can it be used as a medical guide. All users are reminded of this and advised to seek medical attention for any concerns. Safety is always our first priority.
Before taking a deeper dive into abortion specifically, we wanted to ensure that we explored all of the available choices for pregnancy, including abortion, adoption, and parenting, affirming that no matter what we chose it should be our own choice. As we built out the guide, our knowledge of reproductive rights and some of our team’s lived experience of abortion meant that we had the unfortunate advantage of knowing what was there to catch us out and make us feel guilty about our choice, hiding under the banner of providing support and services. We wanted to focus on identifying and navigating Crisis Pregnancy Centers — or centers that masquerade as abortion or pro-choice health centers, but instead try to convince the pregnant person to keep their child, potentially using false or misleading information to do so. The guide equips readers with the tools to identify these centers and other common misleading ideas about abortion that may be shared with us under the guise of support but actually are intended to reduce our choice. Additionally, we noted some facts about abortion and myth-busting of common misconceptions or societal pressures surrounding abortion. We know how anti-choice rhetoric and harmful social norms can confuse and pressure us, so we felt it was important to dispel falsehoods.
Prepping readers for what to expect was an important element we wanted to include. We discuss what questions we may get when seeking an abortion, what to bring with us, what we can expect when we are there, what kinds of questions we might be asked, what kinds of questions we shouldn’t have to answer, and what plans we might have to or want to make. This might be from planning travel and lodging to making a relaxation plan following the abortion.
We also wanted to discuss communicating about our reproductive choices; our team wanted to really consider the many aspects that may impact our choice to confide or share our process or decision with others. We discuss not only figuring out if we want to share, but also considerations we might take into account based on the relationship we have with the person we are thinking of sharing with, such as a partner we don’t feel safe with or a parent or guardian figure if we are teenagers. The note also helps us to structure the conversation — including questions to think about and tips on how to share in a way that still centres our agency. Finally, we know that some might be using IYC to learn how to support a loved one who has shared their process or choice with them. We wanted to include a note specifically to ensure we knew how to be there for our loved ones, including tips on active listening and what not to say.
Finally, the guide as a whole aims to consider the emotions of our readers. Abortion has been heavily politicised and stigmatised and the weight of navigating these legal and social avenues of a fundamental human right can be emotionally exhausting. We wanted to include moments for reflection for everyone who uses the guide to explore how they may be feeling at each turn. The guide is designed to gently encourage introspection so we can discover what is best for ourselves, whether that is to choose parenting, adoption, or abortion. We understand that many of us face difficult and even dangerous political and social climates when it come to our agency over our reproductive rights, but in the guide we continuously affirm that what we do with our bodies is our own choice — that no one should force or pressure us to do something we don’t want to do. We additionally make clear that our emotions are valid, whatever we are feeling. Stigmatisation around abortion can often make is seem like we need to feel shame, but it is also normal to feel neutral or content that our decision was right for us.
As a team, we were really pleased with how the written content was turning out. Then we took some time to review it, and it was during this process that Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights
So abortion as a national right in the US just got overturned and I can’t be expected to work for the next few hours.
- Connor to Chloe, June 24, 2022
(She didn’t keep working, she immediately left to protest.)
I was thinking of you straight away when I had the update!
- Chloe to Connor, June 24, 2022
Right before we launched the guide, the United States Supreme Court overturned a nearly 50-year-old ruling that had solidified abortion rights nationally. The fall of national abortion rights in the United States was the result of decades long campaigns from anti-choice activists, who have whittled away at reproductive rights while simultaneously planning a Supreme Court who agreed with their views. This happened even though it is fundamentally unrepresentative of the country and will lead to higher deaths of pregnant people, disproportionately so for people of colour. The overturning of national abortion rights in the United States led to each state deciding their own abortion laws, and in a few triggered total or near total bans. Communities hit worst by this continue to be already marginalised populations. As the United States becomes a mixture of confusing legal regulations, it highlights the fragility of what should be a safe and accessible human right globally. We do, however, see hope as other countries around the world have shown immense progress in their abortion laws, including Argentina, Colombia, South Korea, and Ireland. Yet it is important to remember that legal accessibility has to be mirrored by social accessibility and acceptance to ensure the right can properly be exercised.
IYC was created to be the global, trusted friend that supports you without bias as you navigate your reproductive rights and decide on what is best for you, that gives you information and advice on things you may not have had to think about before, and may not be able to bring up with those around you.
You can read the guide here.
