| Hello, Repro Nation readers,
This month’s newsletter felt impossible to write. It’s the first one since Trump began executing his white nationalist agenda, and like so many of you, I’m struggling to navigate this crooked room. In the past month, the president has blamed “DEI” for an aviation catastrophe, for “discrimination” in the private sector, and for why the US military has a recruitment problem, among other things, and gone on a firing frenzy. It’s all exhausting—and devastating to those civil servants being forced out, many of whom are Black.
It’s also Black History Month, and rather than spend too much time on the Trump team’s blatant racism, I’d like to take a brief moment to celebrate a few Black women who trailblazed the fight for reproductive freedom. Our history will not be erased, no matter how hard they try.
From former Representative Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for president in the United States, to Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the first Black woman to serve as surgeon general, to former Representative Barbara Lee, who was “the highest-ranking Black woman appointed to Democratic leadership” and is currently running for Oakland mayor, Black women have a long history of defending reproductive freedom. When Renee Bracey Sherman and I spoke with Representative Lee for our book, Liberating Abortion, and asked what had prompted her to publicly share her abortion story, she said, “Women around the country need to understand their members of Congress who see them and who have been in this fight a long time.” Lee explained, “I felt like it was the time to talk about it so other people would understand that they are not alone…and that there are those of us who look like them who are fighting for reproductive justice and the right for them to make our own decisions about our own bodies.”
Who are the leaders inspiring you? May we continue to see the light in them and in ourselves.
In solidarity,
Regina Mahone
Senior Editor |
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