The Abortion Access Action Group at TBZ continues to work on multiple fronts to support legitimate abortion providers and to expose fraudulent crisis pregnancy centers (CPC).
We currently have two primary ongoing actions for volunteer participation, in addition to meeting our goal of educating ourselves at every gathering so that we are up-to-date on the swiftly changing landscape of reproductive rights since the fall of Roe.
We have partnered with a local abortion provider in Brookline to help support every individual who seeks care there as well as the dedicated workers at the clinic. Turning to the always generous TBZ community, we have already successfully completed several large campaigns to collect and assemble hundreds of TLC kit bags containing wish-list items requested by clinic staff for their patients. In addition to tea, socks, snacks, heating pads, and more, each bag contains a hand-written, decorated card enclosure offering words of support and solidarity.
CPCs pretend to offer pregnancy counsel and free medical services when in fact they do not offer any comprehensive medical treatment and serve only to “save the unborn” with little concern for the bodily autonomy of the actual decision maker. We discovered that among the hundreds of such facilities nationwide, one is operating down the street from TBZ at 1180 Beacon Street. Our group decided we needed to help expose the fake clinic in our midst.
Our second ongoing action is a monthly standout in front of Your Options Medical, the CPC right here in Brookline. Since August 2023, a group of 5-6 volunteers has stood for an hour, mainly silently, holding signs in front of the building and offering informative handouts to curious passers-by. Each time, we have encountered many locals who were shocked to learn that this facility, heavily financed by out-of-state anti-abortion religious groups, is operating in our town. In addition, we successfully populated six weeks of standouts in a campaign to counter-protest at Boston Planned Parenthood while they were being targeted by anti-abortion demonstrators.
There is much more work to be done defending democracy in this country and state. Please join us and add your power!
Contact: Fran Adams, Sara Smolover, Bobbi Katz, and Julia Freedson aaag@tbzbrookline.org