Urgent Non-Abortion Interlude

Andrea Grimes
11–16 minutes

Plus: Arizona Repeals 19th-Century Abortion Ban, 15-Week Ban Stays In Place

Here’s another edition of Hard to Believe It’s Only Tuesday, a weekly roundup of the top headlines, tweets, toks, takes, and more in abortion news. You can always email me (andrea.grimes@gmail.com, or grimesandrea@proton.me for more sensitive inquiries) or DM me on instagram with action items, takes, and news clips. This post is probably too long for email, so click the headline above or head to the HTBIOT page to get the full read in your browser, because you don’t want to miss this week’s Goodnight and Good Dunk!

🚨 EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NON-ABORTION INTERLUDE 🚨

I’m part of a growing circle of content creators, organizers, and activists who are supporting families in Operation Olive Branch, a global, grassroots effort to amplify the needs of Palestinians who need financial assistance to move to safety, get medical treatment, and reunite with each other.

🚨 LEGIT, PLEASE Y’ALL READ THIS BEFORE WE GET TO THE REGULAR HOLLERING AND HEADLINES 🚨

I’m supporting Aya Musallam and her family. Right now, we’re working to get Aya’s sister Lara, her brother-in-law, and her nephews Ayham (2 years old) and Yaman (4 months old) to safety.

Screenshot from Aya Mussalam’s GFM page on 5/6/24

This is from Aya on their GFM page:

My sister Lara, her husband, and their two little sons Ayham (2 years) and Yaman (4 months), are currently suffering from different diseases including gastroenteritis and flu as a result of the bad environment in the shelter center they evacuated to in Rafah. Lara cannot protect her two little angels alone, the situation is just getting worse and her baby Yaman is still too young; his immunity is too weak and he did not receive most of his vaccinations. He was born a week before the war, so they urgently had to evacuate Gaza to get a better life hopefully.

Aya, her mom, and her little sister have made it to Russia, where their grandma lives. Aya’s brother and father have made it to Egypt. But we need to raise $13,000 to get Aya’s other sister Lara and her family to safety so they can be reunited with their folks. I know that sounds like a lot of money (or at least it does to me), but I just started posting about Aya’s family yesterday, and we’ve already raised $620 in a few hours.

So here’s what you do: First and foremost, donate. If you’ve got a couple bucks, it makes a difference. I’ve got about 11,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, where I’m already posting videos and updates about Aya’s family. I’ve got about 2,700 subscribers to this newsletter. If most folks who follow me on any/all of these platforms donated a few bucks, we could get Aya’s family to safety quickfast.

If you aren’t able to donate right now, you can help me juice the algorithms by bookmarking, commenting, and sharing/reposting my videos so they’re seen by more folks (and not suppressed by Mark Ding-Dang Zuckerberg). There’s an IG post here, or hype the TikTok:

@_andreagrimes

Let’s reunite @Aya Musallam with her family!! ✨ https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-aya-reunite-with-her-family-and-evacuate-gaza thx @Erin Hattamer 🍉✨🍉✨🍉 #greenscreen #fyp #foryou #operationpassthehat #operationpassthebucket #operationolivebranch

♬ original sound – andrea grimes

Essential to remember: supporting families separated by genocide is a reproductive justice issue. I know we’re facing an uphill battle in the US right now when it comes to abortion rights, and it feels like everything is too little and too late. But this is an opportunity to live our values — to ensure that anyone, anywhere, is able to create and sustain healthy families wherever they are. You really don’t have to give a dime — just help me lift up Aya’s family’s story so that we keep the real impact of these atrocities top-of-mind.

(And for other creators/etc.: If you want to help raise money to get folks out of the line of fire, literally, check out Erin Hattamer’s TikTok page and use the sign-up form to be assigned a family who needs amplification. OOB vets applicants and has a LONG, LONG list of folks who need our support, so every person participating in raising money makes a difference.)

Photo by Jeanne Menjoulet via Flickr/Creative Commons

The big takeaway: This is a truncated version of the usual abortion news roundup, because I’m prepping to take a week off before heading to Comstock Con in Boston — y’all can still sign up here to watch virtually! I’m moderating a panel on Tuesday, May 14th with some brilliant folks: The Nation‘s Amy Littlefield, the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Project’s Laurie Bertram Roberts, and Abortion On Our Own Terms’ Nancy Cárdenas Peña. (And ICYMI: I’m focusing my efforts this week on raising money to get Aya’s family reunited!)

But okay, for real: Gov. Katie Hobbs signed the repeal of Arizona’s 19th-century abortion ban after the state’s anti-abortion contingent was shamed and strong-armed into pulling the atrocious thing back following multiple tries. The state still has a 15-week abortion ban in place.

The Top Headlines

The Takes

The Tweets/Toks/Skeets/Grams

The Fuck Are We Supposed to Do About It?

  • 👕 SWAG OF THE WEEK! 👕
  • 🗣️ Anywhere: Women on Web is looking for Polish speakers to join their help desk.
  • 💸 EVERY-THE-FUCK-WHERE: It’s abortion fund-a-thon season, an annual bevy of bowl-a-thons, bake-a-thons, craft-a-thons, and basically every other kind of a-thon you can think of to celebrate and fund members of the National Network of Abortion Funds. Find your local event here!
  • 🎥 New York City: Join the New York Abortion Access Fund for a fundraiser screening of Mamma Mia on Sunday, May 12.
  • 🥂 Dallas: The Texas Equal Access Fund‘s First Bloom event is set for Thursday, May 16th.
  • 🥂 Iowa City: The Emma Goldman Clinic’s spring benefit is Friday, May 17.
  • 🫱🏿‍🫲🏾 Dallas: The Afiya Center is hosting the Texas Black Womxn Reproductive Justice Summit in Dallas from May 23-26.
  • 🪩 Brownsville, TX: The Frontera Fund‘s Drag-A-Thon is Saturday, May 25.
  • 🦺 St. Louis area: Illinois’ Hope Clinic is looking for clinic escorts. Here’s how to learn more.
  • 🐝 Anywhere: The “Pollination Station,” Apiary Practical Support‘s volunteer training series, is now taking applications.
  • 🚗 Kentucky: The Kentucky Health Justice Network is looking for volunteer drivers and case managers. Here’s where to sign up.
  • 📱 North Texas: The Texas Equal Access Fund is looking for bilingual Spanish-speaking volunteers for their text line. Here’s where to sign up.
  • 🤠 Texas: Local teen-friendly businesses in in Bryan, College Station, Lubbock, or San Angelo can become pickup spots for repro kits assembled by Jane’s Due Process. Here’s the application form.
  • ⛰️ Southwestern Virginia and Appalachia: The New River Abortion Access Fund is looking for volunteers.
  • 🗳️ Anywhere, U.S.: Hey Jane x Vote America helps prep voters to support pro-abortion policies and candidates
  • 💸 From your wallet:

Goodnight and good dunk — NOT EVEN CLOSE!! Via Susan Rinkunas on BlueSky:

That’s all for this week. I’m sure I’ve missed something you’d like to see featured in this roundup, for I am but one woman with a computer and an abortion-news-induced drinking problem. Holler at me — andrea.grimes@gmail.com or grimesandrea@proton.me for more sensitive inquiries, or DM me on Instagram, and I’ll try to add follow-ups as I’m able.

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2 responses to “Urgent Non-Abortion Interlude”

  1. Parnia Razi Avatar
    Parnia Razi

    <

    div dir=”ltr”>Thank you so much for sharing this fundraiser for this Palestinian family. It means a lot th

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  2. rbgfund Avatar
    rbgfund

    Andrea –

    <

    div>Thank you SO much for including the RBG Fund’s bracelets

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