Each year, Freedom of Choice Ohio (FOCO) sponsors a Roe v. Wade Anniversary event to both celebrate the monumental court decision and provide insight of the work that still needs to be done. This year’s dinner featured Jennifer Baumgardner, an author and third-wave feminist activist. Jennifer is best known for creating the “I had an abortion” campaign to encourage women (and men) to "come out" about their procedures. The project included t-shirts that said "I had an abortion," and a book called Abortion and Life. This campaign also led to the creation of Jennifer’s film, Speak Out: I had an Abortion.

At the Roe anniversary event, attendees had the opportunity to interact with Jennifer as she introduced her film, and later as she answered questions about it. She told the crowd that she originally became interested in the project because as an activist, she felt “there was a disconnect between our beliefs and the way we told our own stories.” Pro-choice activists were talking about their acceptance of abortion, but no one was talking about their actual abortion experiences. Jennifer stated that during the Bush administration especially, she “became frustrated because there wasn’t a lot of movement on this issue, and frustrated with myself because I was contributing to this loggerhead.”

This frustration led to the creation of the “I had an abortion” project, as Jennifer realized that people can fight about abortion easily, but it’s really difficult to actually talk about it. By encouraging conversation about abortion experiences and taking the time to really listen to people’s stories, Jennifer says that this project “allowed me to reconnect to the political issue of abortion in a really authentic way.”

Speak Out: I had an Abortion shares the story of ten women who had an abortion, and the story that surrounded that decision. The stories span seventy years, and include women from diverse backgrounds. Jennifer later told the crowd that the most difficult part of making the film was deciding which stories would be included. One question from the crowd addressed that the women who had abortions post-Roe seemed to have more guilt than those who had had their procedures before the decision. Jennifer responded “My generation feels very responsible when they get pregnant. You get this sense of ‘I screwed up.’ I think this is too punishing – but I’m sympathetic that my generation feels that with greater power comes greater responsibility.”

Jennifer reminded the group that while there is much work to be done, the movement may be headed in a new direction. The terminology of “choice” is not a label that all activists feel comfortable embracing, and there has been a recent trend toward the idea of reproductive justice, which started with Loretta Ross and Sistersong. The “I had an abortion” project made the movement even more personal to Jennifer. She said that before the project, “I saw the movement in terms of bumper stickers and arguments. I don’t get into those fights anymore. When someone tells me they’re pro-life and they regret their abortion, I say, ‘Tell me your story.’”



-Tara