We Testify is Storytelling Amplifying Unheard Voices
Walking into the small and intimate room in Park City, Utah, we were unsure what to expect. The lighting was dim, blue. There were a total of six chairs on the small stage, alternating from black to white. On the front of each audience member’s chair laid a canvas bag with the Planned Parenthood logo, a tangible representation of the organization supporting the event, and of the incredible experience each attendee was about to experience.
The room was comfortable, creating an atmosphere in which one would not expect of a room that would soon be filled with a well-known journalist, an Academy Award-winning director, director of a major organization, and more incredible women sharing stories for good. After minutes, which felt like hours, of anticipation, six beautiful, strong, empowered women, who have dedicated their careers to using art forms to create awareness about subjects on reproductive justice, filled the swivel chairs on the stage with pure inspiration and power. Caren Spruch, Senior Director of Arts and Entertainment Engagement for Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Rayka Zehtabchi, director of the brand new short Ours to Tell (www.ourstotell.org) and Academy Award-winning short Period. End of Sentence.; Renee Bracey Sherman, a young reproductive justice activist and the program manager of We Testify, (https://wetestify.org/), an organization that works towards destigmatizing abortion; Janet Goldwater, director of the films Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa and Motherless: A Legacy of Loss from Illegal Abortion; Eliza Hittman, screenwriter and director of multiple films, including director of the award-winning Sundance 2020 film Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always and the moderator was Amy Goodman of Democracy Now.
Planned Parenthood: Storytelling as Activism gathered the empowering women mentioned to address media depictions of reproductive health and gave them the platform to talk about the projects that they have completed on the subject of destigmatizing the taboo topic that is abortion. As members of Teen Council, a peer-led sex education program of Planned Parenthood, who are trained to teach about sexual health, our own experience is that the stigma surrounding abortion is very visible in our community. It is not mentioned even when it is relevant. Unfortunately, many students are unable to talk about what it is, the different types of abortion, how abortion works, and it is rarely mentioned that it is even an option.
The panel opened with a short film directed by Rayka Zehtabchi titled Ours to Tell. Storytellers were women of color, LGBTQ+ people, women who already have children, people with a lower income. This is important because typically media overrepresents white people and people who are wealthy accessing abortion, This film was more than powerful, it addressed abortion in a way that portrays it as a very human, shameless thing to go through.
It wasn’t until watching this panel that we realized the impact of addressing abortion in entertainment has on society. Planned Parenthood provides directors and content creators with accurate information about reproductive health. Some of the incredible films that touch on reproductive health subjects include Shrill, Jane the Virgin, Broad City, The Deuce, Scandal, GLOW, Obvious Child, Little Woods, and more. At Planned Parenthood, Caren Spruch’s goal is to communicate to the viewer that having an abortion is something shared by many people, even the famous ones. Family, cultural icons, friends, and fictional characters all have an impact on the hundreds of thousands of people who seek abortions every year. Voices and stories are powerful, regardless of source.
In 2017 there were 862,320 reported legal abortions in the US alone. This equates to 18% of all pregnancies that year. Of that number, 324,000 of the abortions were accessible to people because of Planned Parenthood. There are hundreds of thousands of women choosing to get abortions each year, yet both the media and, more importantly, the public, is still relatively silent about it. Why? Because of fear: fear of offending, fear of being offended, fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of addressing a controversial topic. The panel made it clear the story of abortion is not one of the government, but indeed it is one of humanity. Centering abortion stories about people who deserve to be the ones telling their stories and inspires all of us to feel safe and supported when accessing abortion care.
For anyone who is in a situation where they need someone to speak to about this difficult subject, Planned Parenthood offers many resources including an abortion care finder: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/abortion-access,
For peer support, please use the All-Options Talkline (formerly Backline) at www.all-options.org. More information can be found at https://www.all-options.org/find-support/talkline/.
For more information about the organization We Testify, or if you have an abortion story to tell, go to www.wetestify.org.
This blog article was written as a collaboration between Emory Bouffard and Thea Soter
