The Feministing Five: Reproaction

For this week’s Feministing Five, we spoke with the co-founders of Reproaction, a new direct action group forming to increase access to abortion and advance reproductive justice!

Despite the four decades that have passed since Roe v. Wade, abortion access and reproductive justice remain under attack. While presidential candidates promise to erase access for millions of folks, state and local governments continue dismantle laws and programs that give folks access to a large variety of reproductive care.

Erin Matson

Pamela Merritt

Reproaction was co-founded by Erin Matson and Pamela Merritt (a Feministing alum!) in order to engage people across the US to fight for reproductive justice. As a new organization, they have already made some big waves, including calling out DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz with their hashtag #DearDebbie. We are so excited to see what’s next!

And without further ado, the Feministing Five with Reproaction!

Suzanna Bobadilla: Thank you so much for speaking with us today. To get us started, could you describe the background behind Reproaction? What was its inspiration? 

Erin Matson: The inspiration behind Reproaction is obvious. The reproductive justice movement has been losing for way too long. We’ve been in a defensive crouch, too in bed with a political party that mines us for votes but doesn’t necessarily pay it forward in the policy arena. We are tapping into anger and frustration but also hope and longing for something better that has been bubbling up around the country for a long time.

SB: Earlier this month, Reproaction was one of the key voices behind #DearDebbie, a hashtag that pushed against DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz‘s comments on the complacency among young women after Roe v. Wade. Why do you think young folks’ activism has been viewed with such dismissal? 

Pamela Merritt: I struggle to find any benefit that people who profess to be pro-choice and pro-reproductive rights in finding shaming, discounting, dismissing the rules of young women and women of color in the reproductive justice movement. Part of me thinks that it is sourced in how groups traditionally view the struggle for reproductive rights–in a very siloed frame. Reproductive justice is very intersectional like the work of young women and women of color. We, at Reproaction, find this fantastic.

If you are looking for a vision for find for reproductive justice that looks like something from the eighties or the seventies, well, no. This is a different era and the tools and the passion and the approach has grown. It’s time for people who are in a leadership position to acknowledge that. It’s also important to recognize why women of color and young women are approaching the movement in different ways. We have been losing, we have been accepting compromise as victory, and young people that I work with are not having that.

When I look at the #BlackLivesMatter movement–as a St. Louis native it is very close to me–it is led by young queer women of color. That is reproductive justice work in its most beautiful and pure definition. Women and queer people are fighting for their lives and they fighting to raise their children without violence and oppression. Within that, folks are fighting for their bodies and the right to safeguard their bodies. If someone doesn’t see that as the reproductive justice work as it is, they need to look inward and not judge the activists but instead consider how they themselves have been approaching the movement and how that work has not been successful.

SB: I’m a huge fan of the word ‘rabble-rousing’ and I was happy to see it in Reproaction’s self-description. What type of rabble-rousing are you hoping to carry-out with Reproaction? 

Erin Matson: The first thing I’ll say is: all of the rabble-rousing. Every single day, Pamela and I are saying how grateful we are to be doing this work and for us to have a space to call for exactly what needs to be done. We have been really proud of the #DearDebbie responses that we have gotten on Twitter. I’m very proud to have hand-delivered those responses to her office this morning.

We have also held numerous people on the Left accountable for terrible statements on abortion and the movement. For example, we are very proud of an alert that we sent after Vice President Biden said that there is always room in the Democratic party for those who oppose abortion rights. That’s in direct contradiction to the Democratic party’s platform which has strong support for abortion rights, regardless of ability to pay, something that the party has failed to deliver on its promises for decades. We see holding both sides accountable, both our traditional friends and our opposition.

On our opposition side, I’m incredibly proud of a digital ad campaign that we recently ran that called for an end to pro-life hate speech.  We’ve spotlighted remarks like Randall Terry and others who are accepted within the mainstream pro-life movement but who are calling for violence against abortion providers. Troy Newman is another example. He was recently deported from Australia because of his violent threats, but the mainstream movement claims him for one of their own.  We are not just here for doing the difficult work to hold the progressive movement accountable, but we are also here to hold our opposition accountable for the hatred that they spew, for the lives they threaten to destroy, and for their deep seeded prejudice. It’s time to take off the kid gloves and make sure that we are standing up for what we believe in.

Moving forward, we are proud to be a direct action organization. Direct action involves taking demands directly to power, not asking someone to take action on your behalf, like lobbying. We draw inspiration from organizations like #BlackLivesMatter, immigration groups, and LGBT organizations. We as a reproductive organization are committed to elevating these tactics and working with others who are using these tactics to ensure that every single person in this country as access to abortion, no funny business.

SB: We just celebrated the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, but we are faced with that reality that, for many people, abortion access has been drastically restricted in the last few years. How can feminists across the country help restore abortion access? 

Pamela Merritt: That’s another great question. I live in Missouri and it’s unfortunately a test state for a lot of restrictions on abortion access and all sorts of reproductive freedom. As a Missourian, the number one thing that I want to hear folks who live in less hostile state is that they support and acknowledge that we exist. I don’t live in Fly Over Country; I live in the Midwest. A lot of people live in the Midwest are committed to our communities and to building communities that serve the people that live there.

We need to recognize that the solution to the attacks on abortion access and reproductive justice is not for people to move. The solution has never been for me to move. No matter how hard it gets, we need people to respect and affirm our right to live here. The cost of living in a hostile state should not be that you are somehow living in a whole different decade in the United States of America.

Another thing that is helpful is for folks to lift up the work that is happening and to not buy into the false premise that everyone is rolling over. Since starting Reproaction, I have met and talked to red state activists who are doing outstanding work and who are fighting like hell to maintain and expand abortion access in states like South Carolina, Alabama, North Dakota, South Dakota. These are places where folks just assume that everyone is just going to take it or everyone must be happy with the status quo. What we have encountered is the exact opposite.

This is about supporting and listening to activists who are doing amazing work and to give them tools to encourage them to continue their work. As activists we hear the phrase “I believe that we will win,” and sometimes I’ve seen people roll their eyes at it. It really does apply to the work that we do. I grew up in Missouri and it was completely different state. I’m not so old that what has been done cannot be undone.

I believe 100% that we have the power as activists to maintain and expand access to abortion in every single community and territory that is hostile. We need people who have the benefit and the privilege who are not facing those fights in their home state to believe that as well. We need people to stop perpetrating the myth that all hope is lost. I know that it’s not true and the people in my community know that it’s not true.

SB: Let’s pretend that you are stranded on a desert island and you can bring with you one drink, one food, one feminist. What do you choose? 

Pamela Merritt: I would bring a vodka-cranberry because it is the drink of the century. I’d bring collard greens with real cornbread. I would bring Angela Davis or my co-director Erin Matson as a close second.

Erin Matson: I’d bring Taco Bell, I’d bring a beer, and I’d bring Pamela with me. However, if I was on the island with Pamela, I’d apologize that she didn’t get her first choice, Angela Davis.

Images from Reproaction.org