June 24, 2022

We are too numerous to lose

By Rebecca Amsellem (Les Glorieuses) and Megan Clement (Impact)

Today, it is not just American women who have been let down by their institutions — the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade is devastating for women and trans and gender non-conforming people all over the world.

Women in the US have been stripped of their rights to control their own bodies, and that concerns all of us. We stand solidarity with them, knowing that the years ahead will be difficult and full of struggle.

It may seem that resistance has failed us. But the opposite is true. We know that resistance is effective — think of those who fought for the decriminalisation of abortion in Colombia and Ireland, who brought down Harvey Weinstein and kicked off the #MeToo movement, those who won the right to political representation, and to love and marry whoever they chose. We just have to keep resisting.

This backlash is brutal and painful, but it is not automatic. The backlash exists because of the gains activists have already made — now we must turn those gains into a revolution.

In the words of Susan Faludi: “The demographics and the opinion polls are on women’s side. Because women’s hour on the stage is long, long overdue. Because, whatever new obstacles are mounted against the future march toward equality, whatever new myths invented, penalties levied, opportunities rescinded, or degradations imposed, no one can ever take from the American woman the justness of her cause.”

To our friends in the US, in Malta, in Poland and in El Salvador, to all of our friends who live in countries where you are denied the freedom to use your body as you wish: you
are not alone. We will continue to fight alongside you.

And remember this: we are too numerous to lose.

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If you need an abortion and you live in a country where it’s not legal, help is available at the following places:
Women on Web
Women Help Women
Plan C
Abortion Without Borders

If you want to donate help people get the abortions they need:
US abortion funds
Women on Web
Abortion Without Borders