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You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / ‘Don’t Mourn, Organize’ Open Thread: Wise Words

‘Don’t Mourn, Organize’ Open Thread: Wise Words

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Various coalitions of repro orgs have been meeting regularly for a long time, including religious coalitions, of which I have been a part.

Please look to these people for best practices and decisions, and follow the leadership that is happening. What is happening in these spaces is a result of deliberate choices.

For example: Before Roe, there was an organization called Clergy Consultation Service, made of rabbis and ministers, that helped people access abortion care. No, we are not starting up CCS in the same way now.

In large part because BIPOC communities–those most impacted–are organizing and leading in abortion justice spaces now in a way that they were not before Roe. The work now is different. The world is different.

We are not here to try to do some white savior stuff. We are here as part of a larger movement for liberation and we are here to be *useful*.

What people seeking abortion care want now is not to stay in your guest rooms.

They need money. What is needed now from anyone who can offer it most immediately, to have the most impact on those who are most harmed is MONEY.

If they need travel funds–yes, to travel out of state–they will get funded. If they need funds for their abortion, they will get those funds. If they don’t need money and they just need help figuring out what their best option is now for getting an abortion.

How you can help right now is as follows.
1) Raise money for abortion funds and advocacy orgs

2) Make your community a place where abortion is destigmatized, where we talk about abortion as a medical procedure that everyone can access.

3) Care for those who may need it now, whether or not they may need an abortion, whether or not they’ve had one (you know people who have had abortions, & know that some abortion experiences are difficult, some liberating, some full of other emotions–don’t presume)

But please trust the expertise of experts now. There are well-intentioned actions that can be harmful at this moment. We need all hands on deck but esp for those of us lacking in the melanin dept: white saviorism doesn’t help anything, my friends. Truly.

(Again: Black and Brown communities are disproportionately impacted by bans.)

And we don’t need people rushing in when some of us have been working & planning & strategizing in coalition for a long time & making choices as a result of that work.

Feel free to share.

And a PS about this whole “I will take you camping/I will offer you my guest room” business:

PEOPLE WHO NEED ABORTION CARE MUST GET SUPPORT FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE VETTED AND PROVEN SAFE, NOT INTERNET STRANGERS

You haven’t thought it through.
Let the experts do the work.

ETA: Another clever way to be helpful, from Quinn Cummings — sending people in trigger states the help they may need, anonymously:

Reader Interactions

69Comments

  1. 1.

    kindness

    I’m thinking those states/individuals that think they can go after people/physicians in a different state to claim damages/bonus dollars are all pissing into the wind. One state’s laws are not applicable in a different state, doesn’t matter how greedy the bounty hunter is.  (Specifically this is regarding people who travel out of state to receive abortion services.)

  2. 2.

    debbie

    If “camping” sounds an alarm, I can’t imagine an expression that wouldn’t. ‍♀️

  3. 3.

    Alison Rose

    Not sure if this was already dropped in the thread downstairs, but:

    Federal Agents Seized Phone of John Eastman, Key Figure in Jan. 6 Plan

    Federal agents armed with a search warrant have seized the phone of John Eastman, a lawyer who advised former President Donald J. Trump on a key element of the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to a court filing by Mr. Eastman on Monday.
    The filing, a motion to recover property from the government, said that F.B.I. agents in New Mexico, acting on behalf of the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, stopped Mr. Eastman as he was leaving a restaurant last Wednesday and seized his iPhone. A copy of the warrant included as an exhibit in Mr. Eastman’s filing said that the phone would be taken to the inspector general’s forensic lab in Northern Virginia.
    The seizure of Mr. Eastman’s phone last week is the latest evidence that the Justice Department is intensifying its criminal investigation into the various strands of Mr. Trump’s efforts to remain in power after he was defeated in his bid for re-election.

    Mr. Eastman, a California law professor, helped develop and promote a plan to justify having Vice President Mike Pence block or delay certification of the Electoral College results establishing Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the 2020 election. Mr. Trump and Mr. Eastman pressured Mr. Pence to put the plan into action when Mr. Pence presided over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Mr. Pence’s refusal to go along with the scheme helped fuel the violence that overwhelmed the Capitol that day, and became a bloody symbol of Mr. Trump’s efforts to subvert the outcome of the election.
    Mr. Eastman was also instrumental in advising Mr. Trump to create purported slates of electors backing Mr. Trump in key swing states that had won by Mr. Biden.
    The seizure of Mr. Eastman’s phone appears to have come on the same day that federal agents also seized the phone of Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who was central to Mr. Trump’s attempts to coerce the country’s top prosecutors into backing his false claims of fraud in the election.
    Both Mr. Eastman and Mr. Clark have been central characters in public hearings this month by the House select committee on Jan. 6. But the search warrants for their phones indicate that the Justice Department is also now interested in communications the two men may have had pertaining to a broad criminal investigation into Mr. Trump’s various attempts to stay in power.

  9. 9.

    Alison Rose

    Bayraktar is a good company, hopefully there will be more coming

    ⚡️Bayraktar to donate drones Ukrainians wanted to buy after crowdfunding.

    After Ukrainian comedian, politician, and volunteer Serhiy Prytula organized crowdfunding and raised $20 million to buy drones for Ukraine, Bayraktar refused to take the money, offering 3 drones for free. pic.twitter.com/sm0Ga3Frzg
    — The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 27, 2022

    And to keep myself slightly on topic, thank you for sharing Rabbi Ruttenberg’s tweets. It’s important that people know not all religions want to take over management of everyone’s uterus. My people are much more chill.

  10. 10.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Alison Rose : I’ve followed her for a long time on Twitter; she’s always worth reading, and is one of the rare reasons I sometimes miss being away from there most of the time.

  11. 11.

    Matt McIrvin

    @debbie: When I saw that stuff start to appear I wondered if it was really possible, on open Internet fora, to use language that the intended recipients would understand but the cops wouldn’t. I mean, if I can figure it out after a few minutes…

  12. 12.

    Starfish

    @debbie: Well, the problem is that a bunch of people who have no clue what they are talking about are crowdsourcing operational security in public. They are using words like “camping” and “vacation,” and great, you have said in public that you are going to use “camping” and “vacation” to mean abortion as if lawyers have not figured out code words used by drug dealers for a long time.

  13. 13.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Thank you, AL. This post and your post last night are useful. Productive, even. I appreciate the two-pronged strategy of providing help for women and girls in need AND getting pro-choice legislators elected. Applause!

    [In addition to Illinois Nazis, I hate shit-stirrers.]

  14. 14.

    Kropacetic

    @Mnemosyne: Saved the link. I’ve been struggling to figure out how to decide between organizations, how to judge if enough money is going to the stated cause, and historically I have mainly focused on giving for elections.

    I want to help but have little and want to make sure it’s effective. Anyone out there more literate in this area have any advice?

  15. 15.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Starfish: @debbie:

    The other problem is, as the good rabbi alludes to, the people offering “camping” accommodations have not been vetted. You don’t know if they’re trying to entrap women, or if they’re well-intended but unaware of the rules and risks they’re taking, and potentially leaving the women in the lurch in case of police or legal action. Much better to go through a trained and equipped organization that’s prepared for this.

    Maybe not the perfect analogy, but the enslaved people using the Underground Railroad didn’t stop just anywhere. Extreme caution was needed.

  16. 16.

    Starfish

    @O. Felix Culpa: Yes. Over the past few days, people have been pointing all this out.

    I am torn about the behavior. Are people being legitimately concerned or overly paranoid about some of this stuff?

    I like that the clinics are bringing lawsuits to delay as much as possible.

  17. 17.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Starfish:

    Having lived adjacent to and visited authoritarian countries, I would view this as a legitimate concern. The Texas “snitch” law is already on the books. There’s more invasive shit to come.

    ETA: The Republicans have shown us for the authoritarians that they are. Believe them.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Feels significant that this is the DoJ Inspector General’s office… more bad news for that sad-sack loser Jeff Clark?

    Federal agents armed with a search warrant have seized the phone of John Eastman, a lawyer who advised former President Donald J. Trump on a key element of the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to a court filing by Mr. Eastman on Monday.
    The filing, a motion to recover property from the government, said that F.B.I. agents in New Mexico, acting on behalf of the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, stopped Mr. Eastman as he was leaving a restaurant last Wednesday and seized his iPhone. A copy of the warrant included as an exhibit in Mr. Eastman’s filing said that the phone would be taken to the inspector general’s forensic lab in Northern Virginia.

  20. 20.

    RedDirtGirl

    @O. Felix Culpa: I didn’t think that those offers of “camping” assistance were meant literally. I took them more as gestures of support. Heartwarming, but not an actual offer. I guess I was wrong about that.

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: (can’t edit) and when I say more bad news, more turns of the screws on this thumbs to get him to make a deal on whatever he was saying “Fifth” to, how many times?

  22. 22.

    Mnemosyne

    @RedDirtGirl:

    That’s how I took them as well. Though how Republicans think they’re going to punish Canadian and UK citizens who were making the offers is beyond me. I’m pretty sure those governments would laugh off any attempts at extradition. As would California, for that matter.

  23. 23.

    MisterDancer

    The “I’ll post on social media about ‘camping’!” approach underlines the “I can be the hero to solve Political problems” issue that I see sometimes — and, honestly, have to fight myself. I feel like, sometimes, we’re programmed by Western and esp. American culture to think of ourselves as Heroes. We’ll team up if needed, but we talk and even act as if we each, on our own, have enough power to make change and influence things.

    I think we struggle with the reality: we lack much power as individuals. Therefore, we often have to focus on trying to find ways to build connections to exercise what individual power we have, over learning from those who’ve already been in the trenches, and be part of existing efforts. Not to mention focusing, first and foremost, on local and community efforts over the media-driven Federal and National picture.

    Not really a criticism; like I said, I do this too! Just something I think about.

  24. 24.

    Scout211

    The California legislature just voted to put abortion protection on the ballot this fall.

    The California State Assembly on Monday voted to pass SCA 10, a resolution that would let voters in November decide whether or not to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.

    If passed by voters in the upcoming November election, an amendment would be added to the California constitution prohibiting the state from “denying or interfering with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions.” The amendment also prohibits the state from denying or interfering with an individual’s right to choose or refuse contraceptives.

  26. 26.

    Starfish

    Here is one of the documents about securing knowledge about one’s own pregnancy in the Washington Post.

  33. 33.

    Xavier

    Re: Griswold “about privacy” instead of “about contraception”. We need to start talking about a right to be left alone, without compelling social justification. That would encompass privacy, bodily autonomy and many other things.

  34. 34.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Kropacetic:

    I’ve been struggling to figure out how to decide between organizations, how to judge if enough money is going to the stated cause, and historically I have mainly focused on giving for elections.

    I want to help but have little and want to make sure it’s effective. Anyone out there more literate in this area have any advice?

    Charity Navigator is one resource. Just type in the name of the organization you’re researching. Sometimes you then have to sort through the possible similar-named orgs. to find the one you’re looking for. And some orgs. are so small, or so new, that they don’t yet have information available: Charity Navigator notes that.

    https://www.charitynavigator.org/

    If you want to get deep into the weeds, you can search for 990 (tax return for non-profits). Note: these often have a filing lag of 18 months to 2 years.

    https://candid.org/research-and-verify-nonprofits/990-finder

    If you want to get REALLY deep in the weeds, look in the 990 for the line item on which (ethical) companies report if they’ve had an embezzlement problem.

    It’s in Part VI, Line 5: “Did the organization become aware during the year of a significant diversion of the organization’s assets?”

    Part V occasionally has some good dish too.  :-D

  37. 37.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @RedDirtGirl: @Mnemosyne:

    I suspect those offers were both/and. Partly as a gesture of support; partly seriously intended (although maybe also hoping no one really takes them up on it, like inviting strangers to “come around and see us sometime”). I also suspect that those kind folks–and they are kind! I know some of them–haven’t really counted the cost or know what’s involved yet. They shouldn’t be discouraged from helping, but they should be trained and get proper support.

    Beyond that, MisterDancer makes a good point about wanting to be Heroes in difficult situations like this. None of us are immune, myself included. I think he’s diagnosed correctly an element of what those “camping” and “vacation” posts are about.

  38. 38.

    scav

    Not a clue what this means, but very much approve of the heaping it on on several fronts.
    Blow for Trump’s Truth Social as merger company hit by grand jury subpoenas: Disclosure of subpoenas for board members by blank cheque firm Digital World is latest blow to Donald Trump’s social media plans

    Digital World is a special purpose acquisition company (Spac), a blank cheque company set up to go public and then find a company to merge with. Spacs are not supposed to have a deal lined up before they go public.
    The SEC is investigating whether or not Digital World and Trump Media held serious discussions before the Spac went public last September and, if so, why those talks were not disclosed in regulatory filings.
    Digital World also said Bruce Garelick, chief strategy officer of Rocket One Capital, a Miami-based investment firm, was resigning from the board. Some of the information requested by the grand jury was about communications with Rocket One.

  50. 50.

    Kropacetic

    @H.E.Wolf: Charity navigator was one of the first things I found on Google. They rated Mnem’s organization rather highly, in fact.

    I did notice that the organization used about 42 percent on administrative and fundraising costs. I don’t have enough context to know how good this is in general terms.

    I also noticed on my Act Blue donation this morning, it line itemed everything that came out of my bank account. 87 percent to candidates, 13 to ActBlue. Are they somehow exceptional? Different fundraising model? I don’t know.

    I’ll take my time but you’re right, it does look like charity navigator is giving me useful info. And I definitely like that Mnem’s recommended org distributes across multiple organizations. Simplifies things.

  51. 51.

    CaseyL

    @scav:

    I’m having trouble figuring out what the purpose of a Spac even is.  To merge with another company implies you are a company that has, or makes, something worth merging with.

    Are Spacs a fancy-dress form of LBO/hostile takeover?  All they have is funding?

  52. 52.

    Dan B

    @Xavier: Precisely.  The authoritarians want to spy on individuals to ferret out and punish “impurity”.  This can include incorrect political beliefs but would focus on sexual immorality.  For LGBTQIA+ it’s existential.  For women it’s being labeled and punished as a jezebel and baby murderer.  Punishment used to include banishment, essentially a death sentence.

  53. 53.

    livewyre

    @MisterDancer: That one’s an oof. Tendency to seek the Big Answer feels like one of the biggest drawbacks of my philosophical approach and it’s tempting to worry that I’m trying alone to fix things for everybody. But maybe my recent activity here is an antidote to that rather than an application of it. Or if both, here’s to progress.

  58. 58.

    Spanky

    @Baud: Well, whoever it is will have some connection to the insurrection. The Committee wouldn’t be wasting its cred.

  59. 59.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: Yeah, that sounds like a bit of a stretch.

    I’m boring, I think it’s that documentarian.

  63. 63.

    Immanentize

    No matter who it is, the Cmmt has raised the expectations! Whether people are disappointed or not, watching will happen.

    (I know I didn’t need, “or not,” but I liked the repetition.)

  65. 65.

    Geminid

    @Spanky: Anthony Pasquale “Pat” Cippolone is going to appear and demand we stop mispelling his name.

    More seriously, I think it could be Cippolone, even if a reporter for the Guardian says it’s not. Just reading what what one of his subordinates, Mr. Herschmann(sp?) told the Committee makes me think even more that Cippolone has a lot of beans to spill. Some have described Cippolone as a “hostile witness,” but I see him more as a reluctant one.

  66. 66.

    Feathers

    @Kropacetic: The overheard figure for charities is incredibly problematic. One issue is that the amount allowed for salaries is a below living wage. This means that charities either have to hire young people in their first out of college job, people who don’t need the income, or have the sort of overhead numbers that make people like you doubt that they are legit.

    My father was on the board of the local interfaith homeless/food bank/day care organization. It drove him crazy that they essentially had to let really good people go when they got married or had kids and needed an adult middle class salary, because the board was afraid to push their overhead number up. Apparently this really does affect how many people pledge to you through United Way and articles which talk about several local charities.

    So I don’t know about this group, but it could just be them paying their entry level workers a living wage.

  67. 67.

    Kropacetic

    @Feathers: Like I said. I don’t have the proper context. Navigating charities is new to me. And in the end, if it gets the money where it needs to go, the overhead is likely worth it.

  68. 68.

    Feathers

    @Starfish: I was also taking it as cementing loose ties. I live in a blue state, but I saw some camping offers from people I could get in touch with IRL and know that their pro abortion and decent person cred is real. I know some red state folks and if someone got in touch with me, I might very well get in touch with a localish person who I know through a hobby and have met in person a few times.

    Back in my writing days, I used to go to the local Mystery Writers of America meetings because they had the best guest speakers. One of them was a guy who helped people disappear. People with stalkers, violent partners, whistleblowers. The issue is that his method takes a lot of money.

    But what struck me was his saying that what he had clients do is make a list of everyone in their past who they hadn’t seen in 5-10 years. Guy who lived down the hall in college, woman from another department on the softball team. Someone who was a best friend as a kid who moved away. He’d research them, but this was the sort of person you wanted to ask for help.

    Of course this was just as social media was getting started, so it would be much harder now. But this was what went through my head as I saw all the camping and vacation posts.

  69. 69.

    Starfish

    @Feathers: You are absolutely right. There have been more discussions about this.

    How is a non-profit fighting against domestic abuse if it is paying women that work at its non-profit less than $15/hr. Lack of funds is why women don’t leave their abusers. By doing this, the non-profit is propagating the problem it claims to want to fix.

    We have another non-profit that works on emergency housing, and because their goal is to prevent homelessness, no paid employee makes less than $15/hr.

    Keeping administrative costs low means that non-profits are not paying their people well. It is especially gross because clueless wealthy people start a lot of these non-profits.

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