Introduction
“I want to talk about my complicated feelings and how I was treated during my abortion procedure,” a Texas 20-something declared as theyFootnote 1 hoisted themself out of the pool’s deep end. Three others considered the proposed topic and quickly tiptoed across the surrounding hot deck toward the shaded chairs to join the conversation. The 22 Texans lounging around the pool deck were part of We Testify’s first state-based abortion storytelling cohort, We Testify Texas, held at a small retreat center in Mineola, a rural town east of Dallas in 2019. The We Testify Texas program sought to strengthen the state’s robust reproductive justice organizational advocacy infrastructure by training Texans who have had abortionsFootnote 2 to share their stories and engage with advocacy efforts to preserve and expand abortion access and challenge hostile criminalization efforts in Texas. Although storytelling has been a tactic integral to feminist and social justice organizing (Fernandes Reference Fernandes2017; Ganz Reference Ganz2024; Polletta Reference Polletta2022; Ross Reference Ross2008), nonprofit organizational efforts primarily focused on the production of stories for public consumption, rather than engagement with the storytellers as local experts and organizers. This creates a transactional relationship between advocacy organizations and the people most impacted by the issue, separating storytellers from their stories and leaving storytellers as an untapped resource of testimonial expertise in communities. How can social justice movements and advocacy organizations center people who have had abortion experiences to lead cultural and state-based policy change work? This Notes from the Field reflects on the We Testify storytelling model as implemented through the We Testify Texas program, including the national-local partnership, programmatic activities, impact of the cohort, and how such a program could be replicated in similar political climates and distinct communities.
We Testify is a national advocacy organization focused on strengthening the leadership of people who have abortions. Core to this work is developing/supporting/cultivating their role as abortion storytellers,Footnote 3 with the goal of shifting the status quo narratives about people who have abortions in news media, pop culture, and policy advocacy. I founded We Testify in 2016 as a program of the non-profit organization the National Network of Abortion Funds. From the beginning, the program has maintained an economic and racial justice ethos rooted in reproductive justice values (Price Reference Price2010) and been part of the larger movement which situates the demand for abortion rights within a larger demand for the right to have children and raise children in safe environments. We Testify’s employment of a reproductive justice lens supports abortion storytellers’ ability to share fuller aspects of their experiences, including their abortions in relationship to other pregnancies, socioeconomic status, varied emotions and experiences with stigma, and structural inequity and political analysis.
Recentering the Storyteller in the Story: The We Testify Way
Storytelling by national reproductive rights organizations has traditionally focused on sharing the stories of survivors of sexual violence, people impeded by anti-abortion activists, or those experiencing significant health complications during their pregnancies. These organizations have also tended to elevate a disproportionate number of storytellers who are white, married within heterosexual relationships, economically secure, pursuing or having completed college education, and monolingual English speakers (Bracey Sherman and Mahone Reference Bracey Sherman and Mahone2024; Kaplan Reference Kaplan2023; Ludlow Reference Ludlow2008; Sisson and Kimport Reference Sisson and Kimport2014). These stories of justifiable abortions by people with socially normative identities paradoxically produce a stigma for abortions that the general public deems less acceptable (Cockrill et al. Reference Cockrill, Upadhyay, Turan and Foster2013; Dubriwny and Siegfried Reference Dubriwny and Siegfried2021; Kumar, Hessini, and Mitchell Reference Kumar, Hessini and Ellen2009; Ludlow Reference Ludlow2008).
By the time of We Testify’s founding, storytelling had grown to become a respected tool of the reproductive justice movement (Ross et al. Reference Ross2008). We Testify emerged as a power player in abortion storytelling efforts by centering its programming on individuals representing the majority of abortion patients and focusing its efforts on building up storytellers as leaders with testimonial expertise (Berny Reference Berny2024; Bracey Sherman Reference Bracey Sherman2021; Lindberg et al. Reference Lindberg, Maddow-Zimet, Mueller and VandeVusse2022; McQuade et al. Reference McQuade, Banwarth-Kuhn, Trujillo and Truehart2024; Rios Reference Rios2025; Winderman and Knutson Reference Winderman and Knutson2023). My goal for We Testify was to increase the number and diversity of abortion storytellers and offer them leadership development training, allowing them to become movement strategy decision-makers. In particular, I wanted abortion storytellers to understand theories of intersectionality (Crenshaw Reference Crenshaw1991) and Black feminism (Collins Reference Collins2000) and have the ability to articulate how power, privilege, and structural oppression impacted their individual experiences and the experiences of the people in their communities. I believed that while the increasing visibility of abortion stories in the public sphere was important, without a critical race and gender analysis, the stories would not fully eradicate abortion stigma or critique the underlying white supremacist and pro-natalist ideologies fundamental to anti-abortion policies (Goodwin Reference Goodwin2020; Kaplan Reference Kaplan2023; Roberts Reference Roberts1997).
In contrast to other abortion storytelling efforts, We Testify’s aim was not to solely create a “story bank” to extract the stories, thus separating the testimony from the testifier. My vision for We Testify was to train storytellers as anti-oppression organizers who shared their abortion stories as a rallying call and acted as local leaders training peers and reducing community- and individual-level stigma. This was a shift to force the pro-choice movement to engage with the people who have abortions rather than extracting our stories for financial and political gain. Within We Testify, the social change comes from the storyteller, not the presence of stories.
We Testify Texas
In 2018, several Texas-based We Testify storytellers from earlier national cohorts requested a localized cohort to support the broader advocacy infrastructure built by Texas abortion funds.Footnote 4 The fourth We Testify cohort was the first state-based model, partnering with nine Texas-based abortion funds (The Afiya Center, The Bridge Collective, Clinic Access Support Network, Frontera Fund, Fund Texas Choice, Jane’s Due Process, Lilith Fund, Texas Equal Access Fund, West Fund). Abortion funds were engaged as partners on the program: We Testify provided the curriculum, retreat planning, and training for the storytellers at the retreat, but the ongoing engagement with the storytellers would remain at the local level with the abortion funds. While We Testify and abortion funds were part of the same network (the National Network of Abortion Funds), it was important that abortion funds were able to maintain autonomy and support storytellers in engaging locally and through state-based advocacy rather than being subsumed in national political organizing. This allowed the local abortion funds to increase the state’s abortion storytelling network to combat abortion restrictions and propose proactive state and local policies, including Rosie’s LawFootnote 5 (Bracey Sherman and Mahone Reference Bracey Sherman and Mahone2024).
The We Testify Texas state cohort’s training mirrored the national We Testify three-day anti-oppression, anti-stigma, and racial and reproductive justice values-based training with several adaptations such as a training on Texas abortion policies, state legislative advocacy, and abortion fund volunteerism. Storytellers discussed hyperlocal issues, including the impact of the state-imposed abortion bans on their morale and their experiences of organizing in a state that is the site of extractive national organization fundraising, negative global headlines, and a hotbed for anti-immigration, anti-trans, and anti-Black surveillance. The storytellers appreciated the ability to connect with people who had abortions and were interested in organizing locally, giving them a direct connection to various organizations and communities on the ground. On the final day, storytellers were given an appreciation shower, a moment when they are encircled by their fellow participants, turning slowly to make eye contact with each participant as they “shower” the storyteller with verbal affirmations and appreciations. Currently pregnant storytellers were gifted with onesies decorated by their fellow participants to celebrate being pregnant when they wanted to be.
Upon the conclusion of the program, the storytellers were reconnected with their local abortion fund and given opportunities to participate in campaigns, local and national rallies,Footnote 6 and other events. One local abortion fund staff member served as both a point of contact and liaison between We Testify, the abortion funds, and the We Testify Texas storytellers. When sharing their stories, the storytellers specifically highlighted their identities, Texas roots, the state-enacted barriers they overcame, and vision for abortion access in Texas. Storytellers were featured in local and national news outlets including the Houston Chronicle, Cosmopolitan, Bustle, Teen Vogue, NBC News, and BBC News, as well as a video feature on ABC News. Two storytellers participated in documentaries. This positioned them as experts in the media, particularly at a time when national spokespeople from outside the state were overwhelming the public conversation.
Several storytellers joined the board of directors, and three became staff of their local abortion funds, placing them in leadership positions where they were able to direct the strategy of the organization and statewide movement. Five storytellers joined the staff of national abortion organizations, and one launched a new local abortion mutual aid organization. Several are currently staffers at local and national abortion organizations, including one leading a national self-managed abortion campaign. Others led local storytelling workshops to increase the reach of their voices and prepare additional storytellers for future engagements.
As the cohort began to find their stride, the COVID-19 global pandemic hit, and We Testify Texas storytellers pivoted, sharing stories on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram to counter attempts by the Texas state government to deem abortion clinics as non-essential, forcing their temporary closure (Carpenter et al. Reference Carpenter, Gyuras, Burke, Czarnecki, Bessett, McGowan and White2023; White et al. Reference White, Kumar, Goyal, Wallace, Sarah and Grossman2021). One storyteller used the platform to demystify the experience of having an abortion, destigmatizing the identity of someone who has had abortions and, in the process, amassing over a million followers. Another storyteller participated in a comic series to share her self-managed abortion story and how it was impacted by Texas’ COVID-19 response and clinic closures. The comic, which was translated into English and Spanish, allowed her to protect her identity, share a more expansive version of her experience, and use visual images to reach audiences of varied literacy levels.
The organizing and storytelling training of the participants prepared them to be spokespeople against efforts to shut down abortion clinics during the pandemics, which later morphed into S.B. 8, the state law that would outlaw abortion after six weeks and allow individuals to sue anyone who “aids and abets” abortion for $10,000 prior to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. In response, Texas abortion funds sued the state while making abortion storytelling a key component of the effort. As access to care in Texas became dire and after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, in 2021 and 2022 five We Testify Texas storytellers testified before the United States House of Representatives and Senate at committee hearings, raising testimonial expertise to the level of the medical and legal expertise given simultaneously. Their stories, along with the stories of other Texas storytellers from previous cohorts, were shared in response to abortion restrictions by House Representative Veronica Escobar (TX-16).
On the activist front, Texas abortion funds launched the Rosie’s Law Coalition, a campaign and advocacy effort with state activations and a state capitol advocacy day. Half of the storytellers engaged in multiple coalition actions. Although the efforts have been stunted due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, local activists have won significant efforts to allocate Austin city funds to logistical support organizations helping people receive abortion care outside of the state (Jane’s Due Process 2024). We Testify abortion storytellers were at the forefront of each win.
While these achievements were lauded, what was divergent about the We Testify program was its measurement of participant engagement. Rather than requiring participants to engage in a specific number of actions or activities, storytellers were encouraged to engage in a variety of opportunities that felt meaningful for them. This put the storytellers in control of their output, centering their desires, capacities, and individual interests, while focusing on the quality of their engagement. Storytellers were not in competition with each other for opportunities or based on metrics of how many actions each individual took, nor were they forced to participate in activities that didn’t fit their needs to meet funders’ arbitrary metrics. I believe this is how storytelling should be measured: led by each individual storyteller’s aspirations, gifts, and values.
Replication Recommendation
Despite the current criminalized status of abortion access across the nation, I believe that the We Testify model is easily replicable. In fact, I believe it is essential that it is replicated in a political moment such as this one. People who are having abortions under logistical, financial, and political duress feel isolated and stigmatized. Creating spaces in which they are able to engage in narrative therapy with other people who have had abortions is critical to the reduction of their internalized stigma and healing. Several abortion funds have created similar support group spaces, although the retreat aspect can prove financially challenging for struggling nonprofits. However, the Texas Equal Access Fund has created its own talk line and storytelling retreat program, Post Abortion Truth and Healing, led by a We Testify Texas abortion storyteller (Post Abortion Truth and Healing n.d.).
Replication is also essential to maintaining people who have abortions within the leadership ecosystem of the abortion rights movement, particularly storytellers of color and those who experienced financial, logistical, and economic barriers to abortion. A challenge noted during the We Testify Texas recruiting process was that several abortion funds could not identify a board member or staff member who had had an abortion. This identified a lack of experiential epistemology within abortion funds leadership and the abortion rights movement overall. This continues to position people who have abortions as people to be helped rather than knowledge keepers with testimonial, experiential, and subject matter expertise to be engaged at all levels of the abortion rights movement.
Nonprofit leadership does not tend to reflect the demographics of the people the organization purports to serve. Consequently, an intentional effort to immerse people who have abortions in movement leadership will ensure a diversity of experiential knowledge and a healthy and consistently evolving movement (Danley and Blessett Reference Danley and Blessett2022; Nickels and Leach Reference Nickels and Leach2021). Similarly, national organizations engaging in partnership with local organizations and activists must be cognizant of their role and power dynamics at play. Therefore, they must be willing to offer infrastructural support, funding, and requested training, while stepping back to allow the local organizations the opportunity to ideate, experiment, and create based on their own vision.
Conclusion
Personal abortion storytelling has become an essential tactic in abortion advocacy. However, it has taken deliberate work, grounded in reproductive justice values, to ensure that the cadre of storytellers includes those with marginalized identities whose stories currently experience less visibility and, in turn, less public support. Abortion storytelling initiatives like We Testify Texas involve tactics that invest in, reframe, and rebuild in efforts to center the leadership and knowledge of people who have abortions. By trusting us to know what we need, we can support each other in healing from the oppressions we’ve faced and build a new movement where all of our stories are heard with all of the nuance and complexity they deserve.
Open access
