Abortion Care Network Values Statement
The Abortion Care Network (ACN) is a strong and vibrant network of independent abortion providers. Our members are the people working on the ground across the country to ensure that abortion access is possible. They are the ones making safe and warm spaces for people who need abortions, keeping clinics open despite the threats of protesters and legislators, and even winning Supreme Court cases. Our members have always been a voice for justice.
As a community who fights for what's right, we are committed to becoming better allies internally, organizationally and movement-wide by helping to develop accountable leadership and building broader movements for reproductive, social, and economic justice.
We recognize that adopting an anti-oppression framework is a necessary part of exceptional abortion care, and that it will allow us to better meet the broad needs, concerns and realities of providers and the people they serve. We strive as a body of abortion care providers and allies to transform our perspectives and practices, and to challenge abortion stigma, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, ethnocentrism and oppression in all its forms.
We are publishing this statement to underscore and to be transparent about our commitment, to open up dialogues with our partners and members and to hold ourselves accountable. We hope that our commitment and leadership serves as an example to our broader membership.
We intend for this to be a living document and an evolving guide for ACN's practices, strategy and vision. We commit to embracing the following principles:
Intersectional Analysis:
All forms of oppression are interconnected and interdependent. The problems are interrelated, and so are the solutions.
Analyzing Power:
Through the analysis of institutional power, we identify and unpack the systems of oppression, and analyze the narratives that help to legitimize and hold these institutions in place.
Undoing Racism:
Racism is the single most critical barrier to building an effective movement for social change. We commit to creating and promoting an anti-racist culture in our organization and practicing anti-racism in our personal and political work.
Listening:
We take responsibility for making space for all voices in the community of ACN. We prioritize listening to people who have had abortions, youth, women, queer folks, and people of color. We listen to impacted communities' experiences, stories and histories as told by them and do not claim or reproduce these narratives as our own.
Appreciation and Gratitude:
We will respect the whole of each other's personhood, including culture, class, gender, sexual orientation, racial and religious differences. We will be sensitive to each other's lived experiences, including abortion, pregnancy, adoption, parenting, and the many ways we choose to build, create, and define family. We will call each other out, hold each other to these commitments, and celebrate each other often.
Acting:
We will act to
consciously and consistently challenge historic patterns of marginalization
and all forms of oppression.
We
recognize that taking action requires risk and we are committing to that risk.
We are committed to being visible allies and taking public positions against oppression. We will help build a multiracial, anti-racist movement.
Leadership:
We develop leadership intentionally and systematically within our organization, which requires that we be accountable to the communities struggling with oppression and to develop authentic relationships. We prioritize emerging leaders, including people who have had abortions, young people, queer people, and people of color. We strive to support and uplift the existing leadership and wisdom of our members.
Building connections:
ACN
nurtures our network and acts as a connector across the clinics, physician's offices, hospitals, allies, advocates and communities we serve.
We, the board, staff and committee members of Abortion Care Network, commit ourselves to working together to embody the above-stated principles. If you share these principles, we invite you to join us in fulfilling them.
Inspired by The Center for Story-Based Strategy
