ACADEMIC RESEARCH TO GRASSROOTS APPLICATION

Guess what, we did a thing! We made the research everyone said doesn’t exist. We’ve been working on a Community-Based Participatory Research project centering community-led abortion providers in Canada and the United States since 2018. We got data on various methods used in non-clinical abortions, not just self-managed with medication. 

 

It took hundreds of hours of (mostly) unpaid labor for participants to create and share this data, costing thousands of dollars to get it into an academic, peer-reviewed journal. We know the language used in these publications is often intentionally obtuse, making the information inaccessible to those who could benefit most. But, let’s be real, you’re our peers! And we want you to see it, to review it.

 

To get this crucial data to you, our community, we want to cast a wide net to make this info accessible and digestible using a multi-pronged approach. We're getting the journal publication; now we want a good, not-so-old-fashioned website alongside a community-made zine to distribute the directors-cut, unedited version of the paper.

 

The research documents over 100 community-led abortions from seventeen North American providers and collectives. It reports outcomes of various methods, including misoprostol-only, herb-only, extractions and combination methods.

 

While we are very excited to introduce this data to the medical, academic and research-driven circles, we know non-clinical abortions are not just theory and research. This is a reality for many people, and many more would perhaps choose to have their healthcare met in community if they knew it was possible. We want anyone who wants it to be able to access this groundbreaking data, and we fully understand that academic journals will not reach the people who would benefit most from this research.

 

Today, we are asking you to help make our work and this research widely available. We are seeking funds for a website, a community-created zine containing the director’s cut/ pre-edited version of the research paper “​​Supported at-home abortion: community-led abortion care in North America,” and a modest launch party to celebrate years of labor for the hardworking people who generated this research.

 

We want you, the general public, to know what is possible in community-led abortions. How skilled practitioners use diverse methods that center the wants, needs and safety of people seeking out of clinic care. These are your stories, and we need you to help get the word out.

 

While we sought (and received) institutional funding for the research, we completed it on a tight budget with no final funds left over for distribution. So far, we have been denied support when we asked for supplemental funding from larger advocate foundations and organizations. But that has never stopped us before. Grassroots activists and organizers often give their time freely because we consider this important work, and we know that belief is unsustainable and leads to burnout and/ or resentment. So we put the opportunity to you to support this work, to promote a narrative of safe, effective abortions within a network of resourced support systems.

 

Even without million-dollar budgets, we give. We give what we can because we know this information could change someone’s life.

 

Help us open these tightly closed circles of academic publication and privileges through the public distribution of what we know as sacred, ancestral knowledge. These are more than data points. These are community and cultural practices and traditions, and we believe the people deserve to see these stories as much and more than anyone else.

Please donate now and if you'd like some merch to let the world know We can be our own providers  check out the newest t-shirt design by Holistic Abortions; 100% of proceeds will be given to this project.