Friends,

There are no words to adequately describe the baffling mixture of feelings conjured by combination of fear for the future and the gratitude at the outpouring of support Women Have Options has received this week. I don’t need to tell you that we face an unprecedented and deeply troubling threat to our democracy. But, that threat is complex and it comes myriad additional threats to the safety, dignity and civil rights of people of color, economic security of many, access to reproductive health care and on and on. It’s an awful list.  

While there is so much that is uncertain, I wanted to reach out to assure you that Women Have Options is here for what lies ahead. Our work is to make sure reproductive healthcare is accessible to all who need it. The degree to which our work just got more complicated is unclear in this increasingly radicalized and rapidly changing social and political climate. But, here is what I know for sure: Our work together to protect abortion and birth control access and the communities that need it has never been more important than it is at this moment.

Ohio has been a battleground for reproductive rights for some time and given the wildly emboldened opposition, we need your help now more than ever.

This is an extraordinary time for Women Have Options – and one of immense and exciting change. After 22 years as an all-volunteer organization, and an eighteen-month planning and hiring process, we have our first staff Executive Director, Stephanie Craddock Sherwood. The board made the decision to transition from an all-volunteer organization because we recognized the need for WHO/O to expand our reach to make abortion affordable and safe for all women in Ohio.

Black Lives Matter! Say it with us!

Women Have Options Statement of Solidarity with Black Lives Matter

In the wake of the ongoing murder of innocent people of color by law enforcement, the board and staff of Women Have Options feel that we must publically speak out about the issue of racist violence; especially the structural and state-supported racism that too frequently manifests as overzealous, brutal, and fatal policing. Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and we mourn with them for every life that is lost to racially motivated violence.

We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and other organizations working for justice, respect, safety, and dignity for communities of color. We echo the National Network of Abortion Funds with this call to action: “If you have not been paying attention, this is the time to start. If you have been paying attention and have remained silent, this is the time to speak. If you have been speaking and unwilling to take action, this is the time to act. If you have been acting, it is time to get louder.”