These are some preliminary thoughts on how to organise against the Right and for complete access to abortion. I’ll have more in the coming weeks.
According to most media reports, abortion is not a cut and dry matter in the U.S and, in fact, a significant number of people believe that abortion should be legal.
So how did we lose sight of abortion to this extent? How did nine people, out of step with so many, come to determine our lives in this way? In a forthcoming piece that’s more manifesto than opinion, I’ll have more thoughts on how we got here. But for now, I encourage everyone to drop their op-eds and think about how to organise like the Right.
And by that I mean: be as ruthless as the Right has been about organising several different bases at once, without giving in to its rhetoric and without being defined by its politics.
For too long, we’ve allowed the Right to define the agenda on abortion. We have capitulated to its constant story-telling about the “life of the unborn” by resorting to tragic stories about what happens to people who can’t access abortion. And so on. At every turn, we have chosen to “put a face on abortion” and “humanise” everyone involved.
Enough already. If you can’t convince people that a medical procedure should be allowed — for any reason at all — without bringing them to tears, you’ve already lost the battle before you begin. If your concern is to bring “everyone to the table,” your fight is already lost.
Organise like the Right. The Right may produce op-eds against abortion, but the arena of public and social media-driven opinion is not where it derives its power. The Right organises in real time and space, in churches, in meetings with legislators, and elsewhere. We, meanwhile, write fiery op-eds.
Organise like the Right. This is not a social justice issue: this is about who gets to gain political power. The Right sees all your op-eds about how it’s anti-woman, anti-Black, and heteropatriarchal and it allows us to get distracted by the idea that this is somehow about all of that. Of course it is, but only framing it that way has allowed groups like Planned Parenthood to continue to make it seem like abortion is a gift from privileged people to all those who can’t access abortion through expensive private healthcare. I’m not arguing for a class-only analysis (in fact, I abhor such) but I am saying that if we keep focusing on who is being targeted rather than why, we’re going to keep losing on this front.
An example: When Stacey Abrams ran for governor of Georgia in 2018, many insisted that Brian Kemp and the Republicans were trying to prevent an African American woman from taking the office. This is rubbish: Yes, of course, they were trying to prevent Abrams from becoming governor, and of course they were more than likely using racist means and rhetoric to do so but, in the end, the Republicans were working to elect a Republican governor. If Abrams had been a white, male Democrat they would have used different tactics, but they would still have been working to install a Republican governor. As long as we focus on the idea that Republicans care about identity in the same way we do, we’re going to keep losing because all of our energy is going to be focused on an aspect of political races that, for the Right, is just one part of the picture.
This is relevant to abortion: as long as we fixate on how the Right is actively working against women and every other minoritised community we can name, we will continue to lose. Of course it’s necessary to point to the many ways in which a lack of access to abortion will have consequences for different kinds of people but we neglect to make the argument about why abortion access is necessary for quality of life. Mostly because we’re terrified of making that argument, imagining that it will cast us as heartless. The Right isn’t afraid to seem heartless.
Organise like the Right. You don’t have to be the Right to do this: you just have to think about how to be more effective while your opposition gets mired in the distractions you throw around.
Be ruthless, be single-minded, get off the internet and think about how to change things in the real world.
Oh, and: burn those ridiculous Handmaids costumes. This bit of theatre may make you and your friends feel like you’re doing something brave, but this drama is pointless.
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Don’t plagiarise any of this, in any way. I have used legal resources to punish and prevent plagiarism, and I am ruthless and persistent. I make a point of citing people and publications all the time: it’s not that hard to mention me in your work, and to refuse to do so and simply assimilate my work is plagiarism. You don’t have to agree with me to cite me properly; be an ethical grownup, and don’t make excuses for your plagiarism. Read and memorise “On Plagiarism.” There’s more forthcoming, as I point out in “The Plagiarism Papers.” If you’d like to support me, please donate and/or subscribe, or get me something from my wish list. Thank you.
