This week abortion advocates scored a huge victory in Ohio—the first red state to enshrine abortion rights in their state's constitution. Over the coming days and weeks, pundits will pontificate, and the media will focus on what this winning streak means for the 2024 elections. But our conversations on abortion, however well intentioned, often become so political in nature that the immediate impact of these votes on real people's lives gets completely lost.
Abortion has become a pawn to win elections when it's convenient, but essentially ignored by politicians who carry outdated, internalized stigma and don't believe people are ready to support abortion without conditions. What else must be done to prove the need for proactive abortion policy, and convince politicians that people in America are ready to support it? The answers lay where they always have, in the experience and knowledge of abortion advocates on the ground.
Lexi Dotson-Dufault, program manager at the Abortion Fund of Ohio (AFO) wants us to feel the same urgency for anyone who doesn't want to be a parent as we would for a 12-year-old rape victim. Lexi was the only person answering the phones at her organization the day the Ohio's six-week abortion ban went into effect. Imagine the chaos, confusion, and fear from every single caller learning they could no longer access abortion care in their state. Now imagine being the one person fielding those calls. All you've ever wanted to do is provide help to people seeking access to fundamental health care, and now you have to break the awful news they have to leave the state to access it.
Advocates like Lexi are crystal clear on the true barriers to abortion and what they need from politicians and the Democratic base to best serve people who need their help right now. They have been warning us for years: stop playing into the anti-abortion playbook and start focusing on a positive and proactive narrative that embraces abortion as basic health care, regardless of the reason someone wants or needs it, and truly reflects the reality of people seeking abortion in this country. But our progress continues to be hindered by politicians who won't even say the word abortion, further perpetuating the harmful misapprehension that abortion is something to be ashamed of.
Just look at President Joe Biden's statement celebrating the victory in Ohio. He mentioned the word abortion once, and only in the context of voters rejecting "extreme abortion bans." Instead, he used his standard euphemisms, "fundamental freedoms," and "access to reproductive health." Why is it that a pro-choice president rarely uses the word abortion?
The anti-abortion contingent uses the word "abortion" four times more than our side. In doing so, they've claimed it in the media and political spaces, and have weaponized it. Mainstream Democrats are so afraid to say the word abortion, so fearful the associated stigma will lose us support, they are furthering that very stigma.
By using our tried-and-true campaign playbook, Democrats are winning. We know our mainstream messaging works. We know public opinion is on our side. But we are ignoring the reality that most people who seek abortion aren't doing so because of a fetal abnormality or because they're a victim of rape. So what if someone just isn't ready to be a parent? Or maybe they already have three kids and can't afford to grow their family. Are those reasons not good enough for us? If we really care about protecting abortion rights, we must stop whitewashing abortion. We need to become loud, proud, and unapologetic abortion supporters.
During the final week of the Ohio campaign, television ads featured women of color who had abortions, not for fetal anomalies, and no justification needed. This major deviation from most campaign ads is exactly the way we need to tell the stories that normalize abortion as a fundamental health need. The only way we can begin to loosen the anti-abortion chokehold on the narrative is by centering the voices of those with lived experiences.
The anti-abortion movement thrives on the shame and stigmatization of abortion. They falsely claim that people who have abortions are more likely to experience negative psychological impacts. But the evidence is clear—it's the fear of shame, rejection, and ejection from one's community that leads to depression and causes psychological harm. It's not necessarily abortion that's traumatizing, it's navigating the barriers and institutionalized shame surrounding abortion that is traumatizing.
Our failure to use the right language in order to destigmatize abortion allows conservatives to remain in the driver's seat when it comes to policy, ultimately exacerbating barriers that keep the most vulnerable among us stuck in cycles of poverty and forced birth. This is the fallout on the ground that people like Lexi are often left to deal with.
As we move into the 2024 election cycle, let's pause and reflect on how we talk about abortion, and trust the voters who have repeatedly and increasingly shown they are with us. Let's champion a new narrative that celebrates abortion as a powerful act of autonomy and freedom. The wisdom from abortion advocates and the path forward have been there all along.
Stefanie Clarke is a Colorado-based Democratic communications strategist and storyteller with a lifelong dedication to equality and social justice. She has been at the forefront of fighting for significant reform on gun violence prevention, criminal justice, and reproductive rights in Colorado and nationally.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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