A new partner. Your heart matters....Jill x Plan C....and a little history. (Patreon)

Hello my loves.

Greetings from my aborted (ba-doom-ching) attempt to take a week fully offline…and speaking of abortion, here’s why it’s so important to get on my phone even though I’m striving to barely touch it for a couple weeks in an attempt to regain my mental health after another strange strange school year on this planet we call earth.

I’m gonna keep it simple, and use help from my beautiful friend, James Fell, below.

Meanwhile....

TL;DR…the beautiful song that you crowdfunded and helped me write and record in 2018, “Voicemail for Jill”, has found a new purpose and is partnering up with (truly) moving images made by Plan C for a national campaign to get the word out about safe and legal abortion access.

Yesterday marked the two-year anniversary of Roe V Wade being overturned.

It's time to get louder.

You can watch it in the embed, and please, PLEASE, share it.

If you find yourself hesitating to share it, ask why. Then be bold.

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This is the direct Vimeo Link:

https://vimeo.com/948519904?share=copy

SHARE IT ON INSTAGRAM, OR SEND THIS LINK WHEREVER!!!!

https://bit.ly/planc_amanda 

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Suggested text? This'll fit in the X-box:

1. Abortion bans don’t stop abortion. People are finding access by mail and getting pills in advance at plancpills.org @plancpills #abortionpillsforever watch @amandapalmer’s new abortion video to Voicemail for Jill here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8ncXNJCCFL/  

2. Our hearts matter: check out @amandapalmer’s new video find pills at plancpills.org and repost so everyone around you knows about pills by mail and reclaiming abortion https://www.instagram.com/p/C8ncXNJCCFL/ @plancpills #abortionpillsforever

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And, my friends?

It’s getting more and more frightening here in Americaland.

Safe and legal access to abortion is disappearing. There’s ups and downs. But the slide downwards is happening. If Trump gets elected in November….let’s just register to vote, ok?.

So....more about all of this....this is PLAN C. https://www.plancpills.org/about

Plan C is a public health creative campaign, started in 2015 by a small team of veteran public health advocates, researchers, social justice activists and digital strategists.

Plan C transforms access to abortion in the US by normalizing the self-directed option of abortion pills by mail.
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Their Vision: A near future in which the ability to end an early pregnancy is directly in the hands of anyone who seeks it.

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I’ve said it many times now. And been called a narcissist many times for saying it.

I've had three abortions. And a kid. And a miscarriage. (And, come to think of it, taken Plan B - the “morning after” pill - twice).

Guess what?

Condoms break.

Guess what else?

Women of reproductive age spend 68 percent more on out-of-pocket health care costs than do men.

We buy and deal with IUDS, pills, patches, cups and all manner of weird shit in attempts to not get pregnant. Sometimes we get pregnant. Sometimes we get pregnant and decide we don’t wanna have a kid, or yet another kid.

It’s our choice.

Or should be. Currently, in America, that choice is going away rapidly.

I talked about most of those experiences from stage in 2019 - 79 shows; Wellington in March 2020 was gonna be show 80 - and I’m still tallying the emotional tax of that tour. Every night I worked with Planned Patenthood or another local abortion rights activism group.

I wasn’t punished by the press, mostly just ignored. But my desire to tell the stories of reproductive horror and joy - and what it feels like to be a person with a womb in the throes of indecision, and what it feels like to miscarry alone, and what it felt like to have a kid - was a bridge too far for many people I knew. It cost more than I expected.

I don’t regret it.

It helped people.

Maybe it helped you.

I never got to recover from that tour, or finish the film we made of the show in London, or release the three documentaries we made, or release the final music video. (Don’t worry. We have it all in a shoebox).

Instead of processing the tour, covid happened. My life plans went to shit, I ended my marriage, I let things collapse, I looked at my options and I turned my attention wholly - in a very poetic move, eh - to raising the one child I had birthed.

I then watched from the sidelines of the mothercave as Roe V Wade was overturned.

I watched the darkness close in.

I did not march the day abortion rights took a turn for the woefully worse, two years ago, in my crashing country. I did not fight. I did not scream and cry.

I stayed on course in the mothercave and made endless PB&J sandwiches for a 6 year old.

My blood didn’t even boil. I just steadied myself and said: later.

Later is coming.

Later is NOW.

I’m getting ready to put my battle gloves back on after a long, painful rest. I gotta.

We all gotta do what we can, when we can.

How we can.

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A little bit about the song, if you don't know it.....here's the orignal video for "Voicemail for Jill". It dropped in 2019 and was the result of a massive film-making effort, directed by amber Sealy, starring Kate Adams and a TON of really talented actors....and all crowdfunded by this patreon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npq_ieGCzes

I haven't looked at this clip for a while - I'm so happy to see it has almost 400k views on youtibe.

And? I am really proud of the song “Voicemail for Jill”, period.

I wrote it based on responses from you all here on the Patreon, when I asked what you would tell a woman going to get an abortion; whether it was a friend, a partner, a sibling, or a former or future self. I read hundreds of comments and synthesized them into a song. I’m doing something similar with the currently album; pulling harrowing divorce comments from multiple posts and harvesting brutal song lyrics to braid into the tapestry of my own story (a songwriting technique that I expect will get me, again, into trouble, and I love it, and I don’t mind, it works. The voices of my community sing through me.

“Voicemail for Jill” felt like a collective message from me to myself, and from the community to itself.

That’s why it feels like such an honor than Plan C asked if they could use it - an instrumental version, plus a dash of voice - for this national campaign…and I was on some of the early phone calls regarding the script, the tone, and the casting. I

I’m so proud of the huge work this team at PLAN C has done.

Be proud. You helped fund this.

If you don’t believe in a person’s right to choose; and you’re “only here for the music”…I mean.

This is the music.

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More, for those who wanna go deeper:

I’m calling in James Fell here.

James is a hilarious, opinionated and extraordinarily gifted history writer, and we’ve made friends. His boldness, fervor and lack of apology and filter in his writing has deeply impressed me. He’s a truly brave soul with a ton of integrity.

He post this earlier:

Two years ago today was a dark day in history. Here is the story of Roe v. Wade:

In the case of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court said there couldn’t be excessive government restriction on abortion, which didn’t stop plenty of states from doing it anyway.

Who was Roe, and who was Wade? Jane Roe was a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey; she did not have a happy life. Raised by an abusive alcoholic mother, repeatedly raped by a cousin, then married to an abusive man at 16, she left her husband when she was pregnant with her first child. After giving birth she got into booze and drugs and her mother coerced Norma into giving her custody. A year later she gave birth to another child and put it up for adoption. Then in 1969 she became pregnant again, and Texas said tough shit.

Age 21 and living in Dallas, McCorvey was depressed and unemployed. Her friends said hey tell them you were gang raped by Black men and they’ll let you have an abortion. That’s what she did, which was shitty, but save some blame for those who made the draconian laws that drove her to it. The scheme didn’t work. Norma then attempted to obtain an illegal abortion without success.

Attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington were looking for someone seeking an abortion to argue on their behalf. McCorvey’s example became Jane Roe, although she didn’t attend any of the trials. The process took years, during which Norma was forced to carry the fetus to term, giving it up for adoption.

The Dallas district attorney was Henry Wade. His previous claim to fame was prosecuting Jack Ruby for killing Lee Harvey Oswald for killing JFK yes Oswald acted alone shut the fuck up. The case of Roe v. Wade was first argued in front of the Supreme Court in December of 1971. A preliminary opinion said this Texas law is bullshit, but the case needed to be reargued in October of 1972.

The decision took over three months. A sticking point was the “cut off” for how late in the pregnancy an abortion could be performed. Justice Harry Blackmun pushed for 12 weeks, but the others in favor of Roe pushed for it to be double that, based on when a fetus was hypothetically viable outside the womb. Blackmun was swayed, writing in his decision that some “may refuse to face the fact of pregnancy and … not get around to medical consultation until the end of the first trimester …” or later. The case was decided for Roe 7—2 on January 22, 1973. And yet, regressive forced birth states enacted bullshit laws to violate it. Fucking Texas. Fucking Mississippi. And fucking Alabama and a bunch of other places too.

In 1987 McCorvey admitted that the rape claim was bogus. Sadly, in 1995 an evangelical forced-birth fucknut minister used McCorvey, bribing the desperate woman with cash to get her to campaign against abortion. Norma confessed as much on her deathbed in 2017.

On June 24, 2022, some dickass hamsterfuckers in the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

You can - and should - buy his book “ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY SHIT WENT DOWN” at JamesFell.com/books.

Also give him a follow on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/bodyforwife

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More....from PLAN C:

We teamed up with artist and songwriter Amanda Palmer to create a short film using her powerful song about abortion, “Voicemail for Jill.”

Often in the movement to protect abortion rights and access, we don’t have time to speak on about why we do what we do: it’s inherent, assumed, foundational. We do it because having the ability to access abortion aligns with our values, our desire for a more liberatory world, our belief in body autonomy and self-determination, our vision of a more equitable future. 

As we approach the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, and wait to hear the decision on mifepristone access in another baseless SCOTUS case - worthy of the rallies and the rage - we can also acknowledge the brave hearts behind the scenes. We hope this video offers a pause, a chance to slow down, remembering the tender hearts in both the abortion seekers and the activists, and all that they are holding. Remembering all that folks are doing to overcome barriers to care, pushing through protesters and misinformation, navigating fear and confusion, to find answers and reclaim their futures. All that providers and activists are doing to help ensure seekers can find care in the moment they need it. 

Behind the work of providers and abortion organizations and numbers of abortions in the US, there are real people. Their hearts also matter, and so does yours. 

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AGAIN??? AGAIN!!!!

SHARE The video on IG: https://bit.ly/planc_amanda 

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More Resources:  

💊@plancpills for pills by mail in all states 

📱@ma_hotline mahotline.org for medical support. 

📢 @shoutyourabortion for ways to take action
💵 Help fund access to pills at plancpills.org/fund-pills    

#KnowYourPlanC

#AbortionPillsForever 

#plancpills

This video was created by Runaway Train Productions under commission from Plan C and with permission from Amanda Palmer for usage rights. 

A note on bans: even if self-managed abortion is a basic right, and very few states actually attempt to target the individual abortion seeker, we know any legal risk will more directly impact people who already face systemic oppression and discriminatory obstacles to care—Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, the LGBTQI+ community, people with disabilities, people in rural areas, young, undocumented and those experiencing financial hardship. The Repro Legal helpline (reprolegalhelpline.org), and the Miscarriage + Abortion (M+A) Hotline (mahotline.org) exist to provide free, high-quality care and support.  

MORE....If you share this online....:

Key Messages:

• Despite SCOTUS rulings and bans to care, abortion pills are safe and effective, they’re used all around the world to self-manage abortions, and they’re still available by mail in all states. 

• You can also get pills in advance, to have on hand just in case, no matter where you live.

• The Plan C Guide lists ways people are accessing pills from any state: plancpills.org as well as FAQs and self-managed resources as well as links to free medical and legal support.

• Any criminalization of healthcare is unjust and a major human rights violation. No one should be criminalized for managing their own healthcare. 

• Your heart also matters: and right now behind the statistics and the news headlines, there are real people navigating real decisions and activists and providers working to create new systems of care.  

• In a landscape that feels dystopian, your heart matters - and we can find hope in pills by mail and in activists caring for abortion seekers no matter where they live.   

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More soon.

I love you all.

Hang in there.

Please make sure you’re registered to vote for November.

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