To Resist Trump, We Will Be Bold

There has always been resistance in the face of hate and oppression. When the ugliness of Jim Crow arose across the American south, black women and men resisted, fought back, and are still fighting for equality. When migrant farmworkers in the 1950s were mistreated by bosses and the U.S. government alike, Dolores Huerta led the movement to organize and build power. Before Roe v. Wade, when abortion was outlawed here, women, clergy, and doctors created a secret infrastructure to help women get safe--if not legal--abortion care.

"We're not going to collapse into a defensive crouch--in fact, we're going to stand taller, speak louder, and be BOLDER as we demand not only to protect the gains we've made, but to continue our forward progress toward the day when each of us can get the abortion care we need, without politicians interfering, and wherever we live, work, or get our insurance."

No matter the challenge, the people of this country --often led by women and people of color--have risen to decry injustice, to call for human rights, and to challenge those institutions and individuals that seek to drag our country back to a past that was less free.

As Donald Trump arrives in Washington, D.C. this month to take office, along with his anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-health care buddies in Congress, the women of this country are facing the most hostile landscape for reproductive rights in a generation.

What Trump may not know is that we have woken up, we are organized, and we are ready to prevent him, Pence, and the anti-choice Congress from pushing their agenda to make abortion legal in name only.

We are ready to work with our champions in Congress--who've already written to Trump to demand an end to the bans that deny abortion coverage, to stand against policies that shame, bully, and punish poor women who seek abortion care.

We are ready to hold accountable those politicians who would stand between a woman and the health care she needs, either by banning safe abortion care, targeting providers, or denying insurance coverage just because she is poor. We're ready to call out and show up when Paul Ryan proposes a budget that takes away the stability and security families need to thrive. We're ready to demand explanations when members of Congress use women's health as a bargaining chip or political ploy.

We're not going to collapse into a defensive crouch--in fact, we're going to stand taller, speak louder, and be BOLDER as we demand not only to protect the gains we've made, but to continue our forward progress toward the day when each of us can get the abortion care we need, without politicians interfering, and wherever we live, work, or get our insurance.

When Trump gets here, he and Congress will be greeted by messages that expose their agenda of punishment: in newspapers, in taxis, on mobile billboards, and in digital and social media ads targeting DC's thought leaders. He'll also be greeted by a network of women, young people, and people of color across the country who are part of this movement to defend reproductive freedom, protect our families, and uphold our human rights.

Whether he tries to defund Planned Parenthood, ban abortion, or make the Hyde Amendment permanent, we'll be fighting him every step of the way. And, if he manages to roll back our rights and get any of this passed - we'll be caring for our communities to blunt the impact of harmful restrictions while our colleagues take those restrictions to court. We will not let him drag our nation backward: we've fought too hard and for too long.

After all, just a few months ago, the highest court in the land proclaimed in Whole Woman's Health v Hellerstedt that a woman should be able to get abortion care with dignity, compassion, and respect and without undue burdens and obstacles. We'll happily remind Trump of this at every opportunity, and that anyone who ignores that edict is on the wrong side of history.

We are not your mother's pro-choice movement. We know what it means to fight impossible odds because we are led by women of color and young people, and we're knocking down stigma and stereotypes that try to shame women for their decisions about pregnancy.

We are bold, we are united, and we aren't going anywhere. We aren't leaving anyone in our communities behind, and we aren't reining in our bold vision for change. We still believe that that each of us, not just some of us, must be able to make the important decision of whether to end a pregnancy without interference. We still believe that those most affected by restrictions on abortion are in the best position to fight for our collective liberation and access for all who need it.

I have some more bad news for Trump. I'm sure he's gone his whole life avoiding women in positions of authority, threatened as he is by any woman who might stand up to his disrespect. And I'm sure he's proud of always being his own boss. But he works for the American people now: half of us are women, and millions of us are women of color. And together, with our communities by our side, we're about to show Trump who's boss.