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Roe v Wade overturned - now what

Posted on 2022-06-24

Activism

Local (Kansas City area) Activism

Working locally, to help change policy or to just support direction action to support our communities.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions!

Local Politics

Go to the Missouri Ballotpedia page or the Kansas Ballotpedia page to look at the local elections coming up. Volunteer for a race for U.S. Senate or House of Representatives, but also look at local selections as well, because LOCAL POLICY affects our access to healthcare.

I live in Lee's Summit. Here is our local information...
(Missouri elections, 2022)

National

Protecting Yourself

Period tracker app: drip

Period tracker apps are handy, but WHY DO THEY NEED TO STORE YOUR PRIVATE DATA ON A SERVER SOMEWHERE?

Lately I've been using the drip app to track my cycle, among other things. It is OPEN SOURCE and it stores your information LOCALLY ON YOUR PHONE - NOT ON A SERVER. (Currently it is just available on Android, maybe coming to iPhone soon? Still, if you care about your data, iPhone is worse than Android, though Android isn't perfect, either.)

DO NOT use any proprietary cycle tracking apps that store data on servers. The data could be used to find out if your period was late, missed a cycle, or are having unprotected sex. The data could be used against you, since apparently the government is hell-bent on putting people in prison for making decisions about their bodies, even if they travel elseware to get the services they require.

See also: Should you delete your period tracker?

Messaging app: Signal

You shouldn't be using apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or other services provided by big social media companies as your primary messaging service. Your messages are not secure. You should be using Signal, which is an open source, end-to-end encrypted messaging app. You can use it as your primary SMS app on your phone, though the encryption only works if you're talking to other people who are also using Signal, so tell your friends they should be using it, too.

Blog post

This morning the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and Missouri effectively outlawed abortion.

What this means is that anyone who needs an abortion - such as for a pregnancy complication that could kill the birthing parent, or for LITERALLY ANY REASON - is unaccessible. Unless you have money. If you have money you can go anywhere in the country or world to get an abortion.

Those who need an abortion but don't have the money will be forced to die or forced to give birth to a child they know they are not equipped to support.

This would be a somewhat different scenario if we at least made sure to provide shelter, food, and safety to every person in this country, but we don't. It's too lucrative to have the working class be threatened by the potential to become homeless, so they are forced to keep working for shitty wages and under shitty conditions, because there is no other choice.

And if somebody without much money is forced to give birth, that keeps the parents and the eventual adult children stuck in the same cycle of a permanent server class, stuck in shitty roles and without the time, money, or other resources to train for something better.

Before abortion was legalized people were still getting abortions, whether that meant taking unsafe chemicals, abusing their body, or seeking an unregulated abortion procedure. Many people DIED gruesome deaths out of desperation.

ABORTION isn't being used as birth control in many situations. Everyone acts like a majority of cases is an "oopsy daisy had unprotected sex now I am pregnant." Honestly if that's the reason I'm fine with that too. But a LOT of abortions are from wanted pregnancies but with complications, or birth control failing, or nonconsensual sex where a r*pist isn't exactly making sure everyone has birth control before doing what they do. You CANNOT simply everybody's life into one stereotype, and by doing so you are actively harming people. Don't buy into fake stories created by right wing media to rile you up. Pay attention to the actual history that has occurred, the actual scenarios that have happened.

What do we do now? I've been asking myself this constantly for the past six years.

I just try to focus locally. Change local politics. But also partake in direct action. SUPPORT your community, take care of people. You don't need to be part of an organization to do that.

I don't know if there's anything we can do to change the federal government because it sure doesn't feel like it. They didn't give a shit about the Black Lives Matter protests. Maybe protest worked in the Vietnam era but it feels like those in power just don't give a shit anymore.

The only real power we have is collectively. Together. We make everything happen in this world. We create the necessities, we provide the services, we do ALL the work. And they keep us as poor as we will allow, pulling more and more away from us every year. They want us to be afraid of homelessness. They want us to be afraid to lose our jobs. It's all designed to maximize the profits of a few.

That's why we need to care for each other. Grow food together. Community Child care. Making sure everybody has food and shelter. Because if the government isn't going to provide it - heck, if they're going to hold us hostage by NOT providing it - then we have to do it ourselves. And if we take care of each other, we have more power to refuse to be a part of this exploitative system because we have a safety net. The more we can hurt them monetarily when we have a community making sure we have food and shelter.

And I know it's hard. This country CONDITIONS us to be INDIVIDUALISTIC. Individualism ONLY makes money for the rich. If we don't support each other then we have to pay for services like child care, meal delivery, and all the other things we don't have time for because we have to spend a majority of our time laboring away for someone else. If we had a community, we could make things easier on each other. Apart, we buy separate homes. We don't talk to our neighbors. We don't care about "the others".

That's the only way I see forward, is caring for each other, ACTIVELY. With actions, not just words. That's the hope I cling to.

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