Not All Heroes Wear Capes

Denying people medication that might cause a miscarriage, even when they aren’t pregnant? Trying to force pregnant preteens to give birth? Waiting until someone is at death’s door before treating an ectopic pregnancy? It’s barely been a month since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, and all of those things have already happened.

Yes, things are getting as bad as we feared even faster than we expected. But there are also beacons of hope to guide us through the darkness. We want to point out three that reminded us that people are stepping up for abortion access and bodily autonomy in a big way:

• As part of her testimony on July 19 before a US House committee, activist Renee Bracey Sherman described the steps of having a self-managed abortion with pills. By making this information part of an official hearing about the fallout of taking away the constitutional right to abortion, the founder and executive director of We Testify has made that information a permanent part of Congressional records.

• Seventeen pro-choice members of Congress walked their talk on July 19 by getting themselves arrested for abortion rights as part of a protest in front of the Supreme Court.

• The Indiana doctor who treated a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled from Ohio for abortion care is taking steps to sue Indiana’s attorney general for smearing her and her work on Fox News and elsewhere.

• On June 24 alone, abortion funds across the country received more than $3 million in donations from about 33,000 people who had never donated to abortion funds before. More than 4,500 of those folks made a commitment to open their wallets every month with recurring donations, which is critical to helping funds budget and plan. And the donations from events, fundraisers, and individuals are still coming.

Let these stories be inspiring and heartening, not intimidating. You can be a hero by giving a few dollars, volunteering for a few hours, pointing people to a website, or just going about your normal life in a comfortable t-shirt. You never know how big an impact your small actions might have!