STATEMENT FROM A IS FOR ON ANNIVERSARY OF DOBBS

It has been one year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eradicating half a century of legal precedence and ending our constitutional right to safe, legal abortion care. Vast swaths of the country have become abortion deserts. Fourteen states currently have total abortion bans in effect, and clinics across the South and the Midwest have ceased to exist. Abortion patients in these regions are now forced to travel hundreds, possibly even thousands of miles, to access the nearest legal abortion clinic. Maternal mortality rates continue to rise in the U.S., particularly among Black women. The landscape for reproductive health remains tenuous and ever-changing.

There have been times this past year when we at A is For have felt profound despair and fear, anger and heartbreak, at the state of abortion rights in the U.S. It has been hard, but it has only served to further steel our resolve to eradicate abortion stigma and create a world in which abortion care is centered, valued, and honored.

Since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, A is For has donated $26,750 to 18 abortion access organizations and activists to help those on the front lines are able to respond in the moment to this crisis. Thanks to an additional grant from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, in 2023, we have increased the amount we provide each month to our beneficiaries to ensure the sustainability of their work. Financially supporting these grassroots organizations is a fundamental part of our work, and we will continue to do so as long as we’re able.

But we at A is For also understand that we can’t simply react to this crisis; we have to continue to build the world in which we and every person who can get pregnant deserve to live. The pervasive stigma against abortion helped get the U.S. to this crisis point, shrouding abortion in secrecy and allowing even those who claimed to support it to avoid its full-throated embrace. 

We at A is For believe in the power of art to challenge preconceptions and push our society to grow. That’s why we are doubling down on our commitment to stigma-busting art, through our original Comic Book Series, annual Playwriting Contest, and all it takes is ONE ACT Play Festival. This work is our fundamental re-envisioning of how abortion is viewed in this country. We believe in that long-term cultural change project, and we remain committed to it.

Dobbs may have ended the constitutional right to safe, legal abortion, but it also unleashed a wave of support for legal abortion unlike anything seen in this country in decades. Abortion is health care and it’s a part of life. More Americans than ever see that. We at A is For will continue to create art that expands how abortion is seen, now more than ever.