How Sharing Personal Abortion Stories Is Changing Today’s Fight for Reproductive Rights

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a landmark case challenging Texas abortion legislation. But Stephanie Toti, the 37-year-old lawyer for the Center for Reproductive Rights making her debut before the high court, is far from the only voice championing the cause at the moment. In amicus briefs submitted to the now-eight justices, in candid online testimonials, and in social media campaigns, women across the country are putting a personal face on an often abstract argument by speaking out—and, in the process, breaking down the stigmas of shame and secrecy that have long surrounded the issue.

“To the world, I am an attorney who had an abortion, and to myself, I am an attorney because I had an abortion,” wrote one of the 113 female lawyers represented by a particularly compelling brief; the actress Amy Brenneman and former Texas State Senator Wendy Davis (of pink-sneaker, 11-hour filibuster fame) reveal their firsthand experiences in others.

The unifying effect of such disclosures isn’t lost on the Girls star Jemima Kirke, who discussed her own abortion as part of last year’s Draw the Line campaign for the CRR. “I’ve always felt that reproductive issues should be something that women especially should be able to talk about freely,” the mother of two explained in the video. Paraphrasing a line from Andrew Solomon’s book Far From the Tree, the activist and writer Sarah Sophie Flicker puts it this way: “You can’t hate anyone whose story you know.” (Hers includes a teenage pregnancy that she chose to end, which, she says, paved the way for law school, marriage, and a stable foundation for her three children.)

“There is a power of personal storytelling in almost every fight we’ve had for equality and justice in this country, whether it’s the civil rights movement or marriage equality,” says Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the nation’s oldest such organization. For those, like Hogue, on the front lines, tapping into that power now is crucial. Since the 2010 midterm elections, states have enacted 288 abortion restrictions, including the 2013 Texas law now under review. If the court, likely ruling in June, upholds the two requirements—that abortion clinics meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers and that doctors performing the procedure have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic (restrictions opposed by organizations like the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)—only a quarter of the state’s 40 clinics stand to remain in operation. “We are facing this critical moment in which the rights for the next generation are at stake,” says CRR president and CEO Nancy Northup.

The country’s young leaders are paying attention. Lena Dunham, who hosted Planned Parenthood pop-ups in tandem with her book tour in 2014 and dressed as one of its doctors for Halloween last year, peppers her Instagram feed with words of support (yesterday’s message, with 30,000-plus likes: “Everyone deserves access to a safe and legal abortion.”). Her online newsletter, Lenny, also just published a conversation between Hogue and the filmmaker Dawn Porter, whose unflinching documentary Trapped (in limited release March 4) explores the on-the-ground implications of so-called TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws in Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas.

While recent news stories have highlighted a schism between old-guard and new-guard feminists, Hogue counters that “the generational divide thing is overblown,” emphasizing that the values—of empowerment, of agency—are shared and that legacy organizations like NARAL are “learning to speak in the sort of new-generation town squares, where folks are gathering.” Flicker often finds herself there, too, through her work organizing hashtags (#StephanieHasAPosse, for Toti) and viral campaigns for related causes, like the recent Paid Family Leave video featuring Kirke, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and others.

“There are so many more role models for young women than there were when I was a teenager and in my 20s,” says Flicker, reflecting on the inspiring people in her circle, from Lizz Winstead of Lady Parts Justice (“always hilarious and wise and super smart”) to 19-year-old Tavi Gevinson, who edits Rookie. “Every time I read at a Rookie event, I always cry,” Flicker admits with a laugh, “because [I] wish that that had existed [for me], and I love that it exists for my kids.”

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