Ottawa Abortion Doula Collective

What are medical abortion and self-managed abortion? How safe and effective are they? How has COVID-19 impacted self-managed abortion? Check out this new resource from Ipas and Center for Reproductive Rights. Available in English, French and Spanish, it answers some frequently asked health and human rights questions about medical abortion and self-managed abortion.... Find it here https://reproductiverights.org//medical-abortion-self-mana

Happy Trump-is-out-of-office-day! :) *TW! the video is great, but the language isn't inclusive!*

Visitez notre site www.lespasseuses.ca pour connaître les modalités d'inscriptions de notre nouvelle formation !

Hi! A quick reminder that the Ottawa Abortion Doula Collective is still here if you need us. While we have some limitations due to COVID-19, we are still offering support over the phone, online, and providing drives (with safety precautions). We'll also be available throughout the holiday season. You can contact us by email at [email protected] or fill out a request for support on our website!

A peek into the bag of an abortion doula! Every doula carries different things that they find useful in supporting clients. Some of my go-to items include: bottled water, pain killers, gum or mints, hand sanitizer, and a magazine or crossword. Any suggestions on what we should add to our bags? This could include items to support clients or items to add to the care packages we give to clients following their abortion. Add your suggestions here!

Check this article out! One of our doulas explains how abortion was made more difficult to access during COVID-19.

September 28 is #InternationalSafeAbortionDay. Grassroots organizations and individuals are mobilizing to mark this day. You can learn more via this link and su...pport the grassroots voices: http://www.september28.org/about-us/ At Planned Parenthood Ottawa, we believe that everyone deserves access to safe abortion services. Contact us for support and information on abortion, and/or other sexual and reproductive health topics: (613) 226 3234 ext. 100/[email protected]. #ISAD2020 #28Sept Image credit: rawpixel.com

SisterSong and Ipas are hosting a conversation on the reproductive justice movement and how we can work to strengthen the movement to ensure the health, rights and liberation of all. The event will be live streamed on Ipas and SisterSong’s Facebook pages on Tuesday, September 15th from 3:00-4:00pm ET.

If you can, please give to the Ontario Black Doula Society to help them cover start-up costs!

T H I S is what we are pushing back against! Talking about your abortions shouldn’t have to be as hard as it is for so so many. Talking about abortions shoul...d be natural and commonplace. Part of that is taking away the fear and unknown for OTHER people. By showing what abortions are really like, we hope to make space for people to speak about their abortions without fear of what others might say back to them. We are so grateful to the people that have let us in to support them and document their experiences for this project! Posted @withregram @shoutyourabortion ..,I know my decision was the right one, but sometimes it’s hard to convince myself of it. If it was anyone else I wouldn’t dare to think they made the wrong decision, but sometimes I wonder for myself. Sometimes I wonder if it was unnatural, or immoral. It’s terribly hard to talk about abortion out loud. It can be a very isolating experience. All the people I know who have had one keep quiet (including myself). I’ve been told it’s just one of those things you keep to yourself. And living in a conservative state, I’ve definitely felt like I couldn’t talk to anyone. Not even my counselor. It would kill me if someone told me the things I already tell myself regarding the abortion. Don’t get me wrong, I would still get an abortion. But the amount of pain that comes with it, really has changed me. I will never look at a baby the same. I have a weird fear of infertility. I wasn’t comfortable in my body for months. I didn’t recognize it. But I do know one day, I’ll be pregnant at the right time (for me), and I will have a baby. It just wasn’t the time. This was my experience, and everyone goes through it differently. Some emotionless, some like me. For some it’s easy, for some it’s very hard. No matter how you handle it, it will always be 100% right and valid. You’re not obligated to feel a certain way about YOUR decision. #shoutyourabortion #abortion #proabortion #humanrights

"The continued attacks on access to abortion care is not just a woman’s issue, and they do not just impact straight women. It is the LGBTQ2 community, especially Black and brown LGBTQ2 people who endure additional disparities in health and reproductive care, who are also harmed by these blatantly unconstitutional laws that aim to control a pregnant person’s body with impunity. Fighting for and standing steadfast in support of the LGBTQ2 community is to fight for abortion rights and reproductive justice; fighting for and standing steadfast in support of abortion rights and reproductive justice is to fight for the LGBTQ2 community."

Abortion is essential health care. It's past time that we eliminate barriers to access.

The Turnaway Study was a large-scale five-year study of the lives of nearly 1,000 U.S. women who sought abortions, some of whom received them and some who were turned away and carried their pregnancies to term because they were past the clinic’s gestational limit. The study looked at physical health, mental health, employment, contraceptive use and emotions about pregnancy and abortion. To learn more about the study findings and these issues, you can watch their lecture series videos here:

Hats off to the care providers who mobilized to ensure patients’ abortion access would not be interrupted by COVID-19! It was never a question of if we were going to provide [abortions], it was a question of how. - Dr. Renee Hall

Refinery29 Canada speaks with abortion doula Shannon Hardy of Abortion Support Services Atlantic on barriers to accessing abortion in Canada and how regular people are stepping up where governments are failing: "So doulas like Hardy fill in the gaps. There are nearly 300 of them across the country. They are not an NGO: they’re a community-based group of volunteers funding this care with their own money and money they fundraise."

Notre site Web a finalement été traduit en français! Allez y jeter un coup d'oeil et partagez avec votre réseau francophone! Our Website has finally been translated into french! Go check it out and share with your francophone network!

READINGS & RESOURCES ON ABOLITION & REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE It's important that we understand that barriers to abortion access do not exist in a vacuum. They are innately tied to race, class, ability, indigeneity, white supremacy, and systemic racism, such as that of the prison system. Learn more by checking out this amazing resource created by Young Womxn of Color for Reproductive Justice, a project of Advocates for Youth.

Abortion Support Services Atlantic is offering TWO online trainings on trauma-informed abortion support. Check out the event page for details.

Do you know where the term "reproductive justice" came from? Read on to learn more! From https://www.sistersong.net/:... What is Reproductive Justice? SisterSong defines Reproductive Justice as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. The Herstory of Reproductive Justice (RJ) Indigenous women, women of color, and trans* people have always fought for Reproductive Justice, but the term was invented in 1994. Right before attending the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, where the entire world agreed that the individual right to plan your own family must be central to global development, a group of black women gathered in Chicago in June of 1994. They recognized that the women’s rights movement, led by and representing middle class and wealthy white women, could not defend the needs of women of color and other marginalized women and trans* people. We needed to lead our own national movement to uplift the needs of the most marginalized women, families, and communities. These women named themselves Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice, and RJ was born. Rooted in the internationally-accepted human rights framework created by the United Nations, Reproductive Justice combines reproductive rights and social justice. The progenitors of RJ launched the movement by publishing a historic full-page statement with 800+ signatures in The Washington Post and Roll Call. Just three years later, in 1997, SisterSong was formed to create a national, multi-ethnic RJ movement. Learn more about reproductive justice here: https://www.sistersong.net/ SisterSong Art by Repeal Hyde Art Project

Medical abortion 101