A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TOBY’S FUND FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH EQUITY
Like many of you, I am grieving. It is a combination of rage, fear, numbness and, again, grief. The U.S. national election was a referendum on Reproductive Rights for all. It didn’t go well and there is real fear that communities of people capable of getting pregnant will be harmed.
Continued polling still shows that the majority of Americans support abortion and that is worth recognizing. But it is also cold comfort when we face what happened in the election.
The real fear is that a hostile federal administration will make abortion much, much harder to get – no matter what protections the states implement. Everything is on the table: removing FDA authorizations for mifepristone; weaponizing the Comstock Act to prevent sending abortion pills by mail; and passing a national abortion ban.
Self-preservation is an act of political resistance.On days like this, we try to remember to breathe and lean into our community. Hold your people close, and allow yourself to be held tightly in return.
After we have made space for our grief we must continue. There is too much at stake to give into despair, that final act of oppression that seeks to silence our voices and strip us of our power.
Take what time we need, and then we continue to fight.
In Solidarity,
Barbra