As we start the third week since the Supreme Court opinion was leaked, we see people are responding. This past weekend thousands participated in the #BansOffOurBodies rallies. Prochoice organizations received record levels of donations. Washington DC and the blue states are legislating to protect reproductive freedom while the red states are scrambling to see who can get closest to a dystopian misogynistic theocracy. Soon, it may no longer be safe for some people to tell their #AbortionStories.

Providers are working out the kinks to provide telemedicine and abortion pills. We are calling for legislation. The camping memes tell people that even if we are forced into silence, we will find a way to help people who need an abortion. As much as I am in awe of the power of good people, I am angry that extremists have not only stigmatized our reproductive freedom to silence us but now will use our own words and experience to jail us. Silence will leave those in need even more isolated.

In this issue we share four abortion stories. Read the Essays Here:

• This beautifully written essay by Stephanie Londino has a very close point of view, taking us right into the clinic and into the writer’s thoughts and observations.

• Dr. Julia McDonald shares insights from her experience as a physician in Northern New England.

• Candice Kelsey shares an important mother-daughter moment when her daughter receives an unexpected letter in response to powerful prochoice artwork she created.

• Lena Kendricks’s first-person essay focuses on the time before and after Roe and the impact one’s reproductive choices has on their life. There are no easy answers.