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Are you looking for a safe place to unwind and meet other folks in your community who are also pro-abortion? Join us for a Repro Happy Hour!

Over the past several months, the team at Abortion Forward has hosted ten Repro Happy Hours – from Akron to Dayton, we’ve been all over the great state of Ohio visiting fun local bars and meeting great folks like you. These events have brought organizers, students, teachers, and activists together to connect and form a community.

Whether you’re looking for more pro-abortion friends, to network with other progressive folks, or just need a safe space to laugh and relax, Repro Happy Hours are the place for you. Hope to catch you at the next one!

Last November, Ohioans voted to enshrine reproductive freedom in our state constitution. Ever since this victory, many of us have been asked, what is there left to do?  

“Since abortion is legal, isn’t your work here done?” 

No! Of course not! Although our win was monumental, there is still so much work to do to ensure that all Ohioans have equitable, stigma-free abortion access.  

Ohio still has many medically unnecessary barriers in place that intentionally make it more difficult for folks to get the care they need in a timely manner, including the 24-hour waiting period that our friends at the ACLU of Ohio and Planned Parenthood are currently in court to overturn.

Under anti-abortion governors Kasich and DeWine and their countless restrictions and TRAP laws (targeted restrictions on abortion providers), the majority of Ohio’s clinics were forced to shut their doors and in 2024, our state only has *9* abortion clinics remaining. This has resulted in patients having to wait days or even weeks, or in some cases having to flee to nearby legal states to get the care they need.

In case that wasn’t enough to convince you, our state legislature continues to provide millions ($7 million in 2024 alone) of dollars to anti-abortion centers, or “CPCs”. CPCs are unregulated “medical” facilities that exist to spread fake information and discourage folks from having abortions – and our state government bankrolls them to do exactly that. 

As you can see, we still have lots of work to do! These examples barely touch the surface of anti-abortion debauchery that exists in this state and Ohio’s anti-abortion politicians continue to enact horrendous legislation that takes away the bodily autonomy of Ohioans. It’s up to us to stop them. So how do we do that? 

Volunteer with us! 

Join us in the never-ending fight for abortion access in Ohio. We have many volunteer opportunities coming up! Help us spread the word at a community event or festival and have real, stigma busting conversations. Or join a phone/text bank or door canvass and help us elect pro-abortion candidates to all levels of government. 

Find different volunteer opportunities on our event page! More are added all the time so check back periodically: https://abortionforward.org/take-action/events/ 

Have an event idea? What to get more involved and don’t know where to start? Reach out to your local field organizer and we’d be happy to talk to you! 

Mya Ray (they/them), Northern Ohio – mya@abortionforward.org 

Aubrey Crabb (she/her), Central and Southern Ohio – aubrey@abortionforward.org  

Abortion is not a dirty word. And when we treat it like one, we harm women. It’s time for politicians to get out of women’s doctors’ offices, and focus on the things that will protect our communities. pic.twitter.com/TG42XGr1wR

— JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) July 19, 2024

This abortion section in Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s speech at the Ohio Dem’s Family Reunion event on July 13 was so spot-on that our staff got texts during it asking if we wrote it for him. We did not. He understands the issue better than any other male elected official we’ve ever heard discuss it.

Take notes, guys. This is how it’s done.

“This is her. This is Kellie. She was key to the ballot initiative!” — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker talking to New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker with Sen. Sherrod Brown

Last weekend, the Ohio Democratic Party recognized the hard work of everyone who worked on the 2023 Issue 1 abortion rights ballot initiative. They presented the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Award to Kellie Copeland on behalf of the Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights coalition. Abortion Forward Executive Director Kellie Copeland served as the treasurer of the OURR coalition.

Kellie Copeland accepting the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Award, joined by PPAO VP Lauren Blauvelt.

At a reception before the program, Kellie met with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who is a proponent of abortion rights work at the state level. The team at Pritzker’s organization, Think Big America, worked closely with Kellie and the campaign throughout 2023. At the event, Pritzker made a point to introduce her to New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.

Kellie and Gov. Pritzker

Of course, we were thrilled to see our favorite Ohio reproductive rights champion, Congresswoman Emilia Sykes. There’s no better example of a public servant committed to defending her constituents.

Kellie and Rep. Sykes

Maya Angelou: “Believe people when they tell you who they are. They know themselves better than you.”

As Republican candidates try to claim that they don’t really believe in abortion bans heading into the 2024 election cycle, let’s learn this lesson from Ms. Angelou and believe these politicians the first time. We need to see through the sham statements being made today.

First up, former President Trump now wants to pretend his judges on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade aren’t to blame for 1 in 4 women in the U.S. living in a state where abortion is banned. Don’t forget that he famously said during the 2016 presidential election that “there must be some form of punishment” for the woman if abortion is illegal. When the Dobbs overturned Roe and nearly 50 years of legal precedent, Trump gloated that he was the one that achieved a goal the Republicans had been fighting to achieve for decades. “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone.” He continued by taking credit for the dangerous abortion bans taking effect across the country following the overturning of Roe, “Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro-life movement would have just kept losing.”

Earlier this week, Trump nominated Ohio Senator JD Vance to be his running mate. Vance following in Trumps footsteps has tried to sound more moderate on abortion in the last few weeks, but again that is complete BS. Vance spread lies last year about the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment (Issue 1). In the last few months has voted AGAINST protecting access to birth control and IVF services. He may be running from the truth now, but he can’t outrun his record on abortion.

Bernie Moreno is also part of this club. He is running against strong abortion rights supporter Sen. Sherrod Brown. Time after time, he proves he is completely unfit for the job. Moreno’s views on abortion are completely out of touch with Ohioans, he supports a federal abortion ban which would overrule the will of Ohio voters who overwhelmingly passed the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment last year. You would think someone who is so strong in their beliefs about abortion would want to make sure everyone knew about it. But, last week Moreno staged a photo op saying that he was available to “take tough questions” but as soon as he was asked about abortion he refused to answer.

We see the same pattern in congressional races as well.

Former state representative and state senator Kevin Coughlin is running against abortion rights champion Congresswoman Emilia Sykes in District 13 (Akron area). Last month Coughlin tried to run from his LONG record of voting for bills that restrict abortion access, even co-sponsoring a resolution in the Ohio Senate opposing any federal protections for abortion access. Now, however, he claims that he doesn’t support a federal abortion ban. He is banking on us forgetting about this quote from the primary earlier this year: “I had a strong pro-life record in the legislature for the 14 years I was there. I’ve either co-sponsored or voted for every allowable Roe v Wade state restriction.”

In Northwest Ohio, Derick Merrin is running against incumbent Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District. Merrin is an original co-sponsor of Ohio’s 6-week abortion ban. He was also an original co-sponsor of a TOTAL abortion ban, the famous bill that required embryos from ectopic pregnancies to be re-implanted into the uterus (spoiler alert: that is not actually a thing). The day after the passage of the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment, Merrin doubled down and tweeted, “House Republicans will look at all available avenues to defend the unborn moving forward. We will not give up.”

Abortion rights supporter Congressman Greg Landsman is running for re-election against Orlando Sonza. In 2022, Sonza said that he both supported overturning Roe and would support a state and federal ban on abortion. Like all of his other Republican buddies, he is now trying to run from the truth and pretend that is not what he believes.

Ohioans are smart, we won’t be fooled by these candidates pretending they don’t want to ban abortion. We know the danger these candidates pose to abortion access. A federal abortion ban would override the overwhelming vote to pass our Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment. We cannot allow that to happen.