We look at the calendar in disbelief of time and its dedication to thievery. Only two years ago we would be celebrating– but today, we’re remembering what would’ve been the 50th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.  Roe’s death ricocheted throughout the country.  The roadmaps to victory any organization thought they held were undone in a moment. Suddenly, we were asking one another where they we were and what it had felt like the day Roe fell. 

Repro advocates merely waited. Without Roe, more people today feel the constraints of an uphill battle– and yet quality care for patients, callers, people and families has always been absent for our communities. Reproductive Justice is the framework we seek every day of our lives and it escapes codification. Among all the ways we have summarized looking beyond federal protections,  a fellow NC advocate said it best: Roe was always our compromise. 

 Our work today is to remember that we are fighting today because someone won before us. Remembering is the firewood gathered for the fires in our stomachs over our freedom. Remembering is a tool and a practice of joy. Remembering is a sacred act of resistance. Remembering is the simplest honor we can offer for the lives changed, altered, lost and saved doing this work. 

Our work today is to remember…

The gas spent, adventures made, funds closed, clinics harassed, buffer zones created, period tracker apps deleted, the voices gone hoarse, the blood spilled, the lives changed, criminalized, taken, lost and saved over abortion and its access. 

We remember the grandmas, the community midwives, the lawyers, the clinic defenders, the friends, the families, the bail funds, the abortion funds, the doulas, the advocates, the clinics and the people who defend our basic access to healthcare. We remember those who boldly aid and abet abortion. 

We remember ourselves, our journeys, our transitions ahead and our transitions of the past. We remember we will not free ourselves alone. We remember the ways in which we can taste individual freedom and autonomy. We remember to rest, we remember to dream, and we remember to harvest these legislative victories for joy.