Postmortem

Disclaimer: The following post contains grown folk themes, strong language, and political analysis. Reader discretion is advised.

After the 2016 election, most reproductive rights and health organizations avoided postmortem analysis like the plague. What began as ‘not right now’ soon became ‘let’s just move on’ followed by ‘we need to unify and resist.’ Then came Covid and another election.

Postmortem analysis is essential if you want to improve and win. Just ask a professional athlete what happens after the game, win or lose. It is a process that examines an event or campaign with the goal of learning from what went down and improving future outcomes.

Failing to do a postmortem after 2016 didn’t tank the left in 2024, but it sure didn’t help. 

Now we face a political catastrophe that will impede progress, solidify white nationalist power, devastate a healthcare infrastructure that is already on life support, and enable mass oppression the likes of which most Americans have not seen.

In the face of all that, some folk will say ‘let’s skip the analysis’ and ‘not now, maybe later … people are hurting!’ 

Yeah, um … I don’t care. 

One outcome of living among people who just took a giant shit in the room is Black women pointing it out and then walking out of the room. This isn’t ours to fix or clean up.

Let’s jump in, shall we?

Just about every talking head with a platform has been blaming everyone but white women for how a majority of white women voted on November 5. It is true that their social media feeds were flooded with misinformation and anti-trans hate. It is also true that they live in this country, saw what happened under [REDACTED]’s first administration and voted for it … again. 

Some of y’all need to stop taking away white women’s agency when their actions make you uncomfortable.

Anyhoo …

Longtime readers know that I am a reproductive justice activist. Dobbsian America has been exhausting for those of us in this space, and the vitriol hurled at Black women and women of color who offered critiques of state abortion ballot campaign strategies added a thick layer of misogynoir to the mix. 

I personally experienced this and let me tell you, nothing moves as fast as a white or white presenting ally presented with an opportunity to center themselves and their needs in reproductive activism and policy.

State abortion ballot campaigns were more than a missed opportunity to apply the  Reproductive Justice framework to policy and campaign work. They were a test, and all but a couple of notable campaigns (way to lead, Colorado and New York!) failed it.

People will point out that 7 out of 10 measures passed and claim that the campaigns must have done something right. People are wrong.

Ballot campaigns can win at the polls and lose through outcomes. Trust me on this, I worked on the 2011 campaign against a fetal personhood initiative in Mississippi … failing to consider intersecting oppression had us defeating personhood, enabling more barriers to voting, and re-electing the people who pass the personhood measure in the first place.

Sound familiar?

Sigh.

Here’s why this all matters.

The ballot campaigns avoided mentioning the fact that [REDACTED] stacked SCOTUS with anti-abortion justices and his party passed state abortion bans. The only thing worse than spending a combined $300 million dollars to tell white women voters that they aren’t responsible for the current crisis is doing that shit while also presenting them with the ability to secure their rights AND advance white supremacy at the same time.

The initiatives also established the right for state governmental interference in abortion access at the point of viability. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology opposed viability language in policy; it is ambiguous and dependent on factors such as location and medical resources and can prevent patients from receiving care. Viability language being problematic language isn’t new, but enshrining into state constitutions that the government has standing in a patient’s reproductive health care decisions sure is. 

And do y’all remember those social media posts announcing that folk “understand the assignment” regarding what to vote for on election day? Well, ballot campaigns did not include voting for Dems in that assignment. As a matter of fact, the campaigns basically positioned abortion as a non-partisan issue and in doing so absolved white women of their responsibility to prevent a future national ban on abortion while Roeing their vote. 

Support for abortion may be non-partisan, but the politics of abortion are partisan af. Investing in a strategy rather than leaping from tactic to tactic would have surfaced this vulnerability. 

Let me be clear.

Campaigns that claimed to protect abortion rights in the states should have had a strategy that at least gave us a fighting chance to prevent a national ban that will ultimately make those state amendments moot. 

Campaigns that messaged to voters that these measures would keep the government out of exam rooms should have had the courage to draft amendment language that would actually keep state government out of exam rooms.

Unless this outcome was the goal. I mean, who paid for all of this?

Blink.

I’m going to put a pin in that for another day. 

For the past two years, Reproductive Justice advocates took professional risk and endured relentless public character attacks because we saw this coming a mile away.

There’s more, but I need to stop because exploring this is hard. I’m mourning what could have been even as I rest before preparing for what will be. Yeah, this isn’t easy but it is necessary.

My activism was inspired by my community. I don’t give critiques for kicks, I give them because this shit matters. This shit will hit Black women hard and we are already dying because of the racism in medicine that the mainstream movement can’t be bothered to tackle.

Deep breath. 

Okay.

In conclusion!

There’s no way to circumnavigate grassroot organizing and strong strategy. I look to Colorado for inspiration and hope to learn from the incredible work in the state. And I look forward to healing and collaborating with fellow Reproductive Justice activists. 

We got us and we are NOT doing this crap again. 

Toodles.