Happy 11th Day of Christmas! Today’s gift goes to NARAL.

I moved from Ohio to Oregon this year, but I’m giving this donation to NARAL’s Ohio chapter. While in the current political climate, abortion rights shouldn’t be considered “safe” in any state, Oregon is in much better shape than Ohio. Here in Oregon, in this most recent election, an explicit anti-abortion bill was defeated by roughly a 2:1 margin, and our existing progressive governor won re-election in significant part thanks to concerns over her opponet’s stance on abortion. Ohio, meanwhile, is continuing to pass more anti-choice laws, a trend the state’s regressive legislature has been pushing for several years. Several of these are real threats to womens’ freedom, and real threats of passing. Oregon has, by most estimates, the most progressive pro-choice laws in the country; Ohio is among the worst.

This past year, we had a pregnancy not go as we’d hoped. We had a lot of really difficult conversations around that. I’m tremendously greateful that we live in a state where the conversations around that involved just us and our medical providers, not some legislators who knew nothing about us and had not considered anything about us. It occurred to me at the time how terrible it would feel to know what was best for us and our family, and not be permitted to act on that. I don’t want anyone to have to deal with that.

I’m grateful to NARAL for the work they do, in Ohio and nationally, fighting to protect women’s right to direct their own health care and preserve their bodily autonomy.