With gratitude, I say goodbye to We Testify

To the We Testify community,

When I had my abortion, 20 years ago, I hadn’t heard stories like mine or knew many loved ones who’d had abortions. While my abortion was a beautiful and transformative experience, I still craved community. Through sharing my story, I was touched by others. I felt the power of our voices fifteen years ago, so I began organizing with abortion storytellers to not only share our stories on our own terms but together, with support and joy.

That work wasn’t easy, nor was it widely supported in the movement. Our experiences of abortion storytelling were often extractive, transactional, uncompensated, stigmatizing, and whitewashed. We were harassed and threatened; it was scary. I recognized that we had to not only advocate for abortion, but advocate for ourselves so as not to have our labor, safety, and emotional energy drained from us. I knew we could build something different. In August 2015, a foundation offered seed funding for me to start an organization exclusively dedicated to building the leadership and representation of people who have abortions, and advocating for our stories—centering our identities and experiences—to lead the movement into a new direction in which all people who have abortions and our reasons are honored, reflected, and celebrated.

The seeds of We Testify were planted ten years ago at a National Network of Abortion Funds staff retreat while in Mexico City, among the flora of Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul garden. We welcomed abortion storytellers of color, those from rural and conservative communities, those who are queer and trans, those with varying abilities and citizenship statuses, and those who needed support when navigating the financial, logistical, and legal barriers while accessing care. Beginning with our first storyteller retreat in 2016, the We Testify storytellers came to connect and share their stories, many of whom had never been safe or supported enough to share their story before, or who didn’t realize how impactful their very presence in the movement could be. In every cohort we became dear friends and our community grew. In 2020, we ventured out on our own with a renewed vision and an even more expansive set of programs.

Over the decade since I founded We Testify, we have trained hundreds of abortion storytellers and reached thousands more. We compensated abortion storytellers for their labor and ensuring they received emotional and physical support when sharing, building on a model I created in Saying Abortion Aloud, a researched guide I published in 2014. We demanded that all of our stories be told in full, without stigma or shame. We Testify storytellers have been featured in every major newspaper and at rallies, shared their stories with politicians and celebrities, consulted on television shows, films, and documentaries, and of course testified.

We made history in 2016 when we submitted Congressional testimony from abortion storytellers of color against a racist anti-abortion ban and again in 2021 when we submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case signed by a whopping 6,641 people who’ve had abortions. I myself made history by being the first person to share the self-managed abortion protocol before Congress in 2022. We Testify participated in a comic book anthology full of our stories. We produced Ours to Tell, an award-winning documentary featuring the breadth and depth of our experiences. We portrayed ‘Janes’ in the 2022 major motion picture Call Jane. We trained abortion storytellers in Africa, Australia, Europe, and Latin America. We changed the conversation when we declared Everyone Loves Someone Who Had an Abortion. We Testify became the gold standard for abortion storytelling.

I am proud to have led We Testify and to have worked with the storytellers and staff through this historic decade that has touched so many hearts. So it is with a full heart that I say goodbye as I move on to my next chapter. As many of you know, last year I published my first book LIBERATING ABORTION: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve with my co-author Regina Mahone, a journalist and friend I met through sharing our abortion stories. We interviewed over 50 people of color who’ve had abortions, including dozens of We Testify storytellers. The experience was life-changing and allowed me to dig deeper into the true history of abortion over thousands of years, the importance of our stories, and what it will take to liberate abortion with folks of color, queer and trans folks, and abolition at the center. Liberating Abortion and We Testify prepared me for my next venture; this fall I began a PhD program at American University’s School of Communications in Washington, DC to study the representation of people who have abortions in media, pop culture, and our communities. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to research the impact of our stories and my decade of work building We Testify.

I have been honored to work with We Testify storytellers to lead abortion storytelling from a niche idea to a critical political strategy and a movement. Abortion storytellers are my heart and always will be.

As we face some of the most difficult attacks on abortion, trans healthcare, immigration, and racial justice in our lifetime, our stories are more important than ever. Our stories are essential to liberation. Even from the origin of our name, (“When do we get to testify?” My utterance after abortion storytellers were left out of yet another Congressional hearing about our futures) We Testify has been about the power and defiance of abortion storytelling.

The abortion liberation and reproductive justice movements are always evolving. Some of us have been here for years, and some of us are new. Some of us find work in other fields and continue on as volunteers and donors. Some of us have reserves of energy that aren’t tapped yet, and some of us get so burnt out we can’t continue in the ways we did before. Some of us become leaders, creators, writers, and builders, for a time, and then we make way for new leaders, new organizations, and new ways of telling stories. I am departing in that spirit of healthy change and growth. I’m also departing because I believe the abortion movement needs some of us to shift from organization building into other areas like research and journalism to document our history and stories, and tell future generations about the people who shaped the world they live in.

It has been an honor of a lifetime to found and lead We Testify for ten years. I am eternally grateful to all who supported me and the storytellers along the way. Thank you to all of the We Testify staff over the years for their dedication and vision.

I leave We Testify in the hands of Nikiya Natale, who has served as the co-executive director for the past two years, and the brilliant and capable We Testify staff. I am excited to experience the stories that will emerge as We Testify’s journey continues.

As for me, you’ll find me with my nose in a book, in the streets protesting for liberation, and on the internet as always. Thank you for believing in me and my vision that abortion storytellers will lead us to liberation. I will forever be here to listen to your abortion stories and support you as you move into your power.

With love to all of us who have had and will have abortions,

Renee