NARAL’s Summer of Resistance is coming to a close, and coming with it, our reflections on three and a half months packed with grassroots organizing by our million-plus members.
The last few months haven’t been easy — Donald Trump and his misogynist administration have made good on their promise to attack our reproductive freedom on every level. From attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, defund Planned Parenthood, and put contraception coverage for millions at risk, to the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and a shady anti-choice blogger to a federal judgeship, to GOP-led special sessions targeting abortion access in states across the country; there has been a lot to fight back against.
In spite of these unprecedented threats to our healthcare and our reproductive freedom, NARAL members have risen to the challenge spectacularly. All summer long, our members have made their voices heard across the country by marching in the streets, attending town hall meetings, calling, faxing, and even hosting action parties in their own homes. Our incredible members have embodied the power of grassroots activism in its truest form. After months of resourceful Resisting, they’ve sent their message loud and clear: women are never backing down from this fight.
One member who has taken up the call to action is Joely F. from Connecticut, one of NARAL’s youngest (and most motivated) volunteers. Joely is a 16-year-old that just started her junior year of high school. She doesn’t have her license and, like many high schoolers, can’t drive herself anywhere yet — but that hasn’t stopped her from organizing in her own community.
Joely’s feminist activism in high school led her to care deeply about reproductive freedom. After Trump was elected, Joely became deeply concerned about Trump’s promises to put abortion access on the chopping block, so she decided to leverage her voice and take action.
Joely stressed that while she didn’t feel worried about losing access to her own reproductive healthcare, she knew many other women were more at risk than ever before under a Trump administration and with an anti-choice Congress: especially LGBTQ women, women of color, and women who can’t afford family planning services.
“I know I’m lucky. Connecticut is one of the better states on reproductive rights,” Joely said, referencing NARAL’s Who Decides, an annual summary on the status of reproductive rights in every state. “But I know women who have had abortions. I know even more women who are on birth control.” Without access to these services, she said, women would be forced to return to using dangerous methods to induce an abortion.
With these threats to reproductive rights on the horizon, Joely jumped into action and immediately looked into ways to volunteer.
“After Trump was elected, I started researching ways I could get involved using a computer or phone,” Joely told us, explaining that in order to go anywhere, she needs to coordinate a ride from her working mother. Using technology to get involved instead was her answer.
After signing up to be a volunteer for NARAL, Joely started making phone calls into states across the nation to encourage NARAL members to get involved. She spent weeks of her time off school making calls from her house and showing people the tools they needed to mobilize their communities, especially in the form of action parties. Joely even hosted an action party herself back in March, when she invited her friends from school over for authentic conversations about how they could defend reproductive freedom themselves.
To her, the most rewarding thing about volunteering with NARAL is empowering people to get involved, no matter that their circumstances are.
“When I tell people my age about the work I’m doing, sometimes they have a light bulb moment where they realize getting involved doesn’t have to be hard,” Joely explained. “For my peers who are busy with sports practices, for people limited by a physical disability who can’t always leave their house, or people in any other situation — if you want to get involved, you can do it.”
Joely’s right: there are always ways to get involved, and we have never needed that kind of activism and energy more than we do today. Her work is an example of how one person can make a major difference at a time when our healthcare, our reproductive freedom, and our pursuit of an equal place in society are quite literally at stake. After a successful Summer of Resistance, NARAL members are moving forward into the next season of resisting with a renewed sense of resilience to endure what’s to come, and an ever stronger determination to keep fighting.
