Multiline
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Last week the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 50-year old ruling that granted protection for people to end pregnancies through abortion.

I’ve been in my thoughts since then, reading as much as I can from people who have been fighting this stupid, embarrassing fight for decades. Here’s what I have so far:

• There are many reasons to have an abortion. All of them are valid.
• My own experience with abortion was life-saving care. My wife had two ectopic pregnancies and one miscarriage that wouldn’t resolve itself; without the care she received each time, she would have literally died. I’m unapologetically grateful for the abortions that saved her life, and I always will be. All pregnant people should have the same safe, legal access to the care that she had.
• People will die as a direct result of the Supreme Court’s decision.
• My reaction to news of the decision was to despair and feel overwhelmed. With a few days’ distance, I think that’s because I don’t know how to solve the problem — namely, how to fight against an untouchable court imposing minority-held beliefs on a citizenry whose majority does not want to lose the right to bodily autonomy.
• No one is asking me to solve anything, though. Just to help, which I can do.
• The best way to help is to find the people and groups who have been working in reproductive justice for years and years and add a little boost to what they’re already doing.
• Offer money and extra hands, not fancy ideas, not new tools. Be a little more wind in their sails.
• Focus on helping local groups over national lobbying organizations; they have the greatest direct impact on individuals.

Sidenote

I’m a deeply shy person — in a group of more than about 5 people, I will absolutely stick to the wall like paper. It’s my own self-binding knot to unravel, but my shyness makes it very hard for me to volunteer for things that require talking to strangers, which is frustrating as hell.

Are you like this too? Have you learned any ways to trick your brain and get out of your own damn way to help people? I’d warmly welcome any tips or ideas you’ve discovered 🙏