We’ve been shouting since 2015.
These are some of our favorite actions, campaigns, and creative projects we’ve done since.
I-55 Billboard Campaign
In August 2023, SYA launched a pro-abortion billboard campaign along Interstate 55, a route traveled by tens of thousands of abortion seekers leaving the south to access abortion in southern Illinois. SYA’s billboards provided a beacon of support and affirmation, in contrast with the shaming, traumatizing anti-abortion billboards which line the highway. Our billboards also linked to a pop-up site which emphasized that folks in restricted states still have options—including abortion pills by mail and networks like abortion funds, which help people travel for clinical care. The campaign was widely covered by outlets including Washington Post, NPR’s Morning Edition, and this truly baffling segment on Fox News. Keep your eyes peeled for more billboards in 2024!
Abortion Pills Forever
On December 1st, 2021, the day of oral arguments in the case which would overturn Roe v Wade, SYA assembled a group of activists and took abortion pills in front of the United States Supreme Court. This action was intended to communicate that we have no intention of obeying, and an illustration of the court’s inability to stop us. Simultaneously, we coordinated with dozens of activists all over the country in coordinated maelstrom of creative actions elevating info about abortion pills, using banner drops, vending machines full of pillboxes, murals, wheatpasting, art installations, even airplanes towing gigantic messages.
The Abortion Pills Forever campaign and our pill taking action was widely covered in media, including in the Washington Post, Jezebel, USA Today, Democracy Now, and more.
Jak Justyna
For years, SYA has worked in tandem with a group called Abortion Dream Team (ADT), who are working to de-stigmatize abortion and expand access in Poland, where abortion is banned. In March 2023, ADT’s Justyna Wydrzyńska was charged with aiding an abortion, after giving abortion pills to someone who needed them. Justyna responded by saying that she did it, she wasn’t sorry, and she’d do it again. SYA mounted a solidarity campaign to support Justyna during her trial, and to let the world know that behind each activist like Justyna, there are 10 more of us committed to aiding and abetting in our communities. The posters were translated into a dozen languages and used all over the world, in wheatpasting actions and in rallies to support Justyna. SYA works in collaboration with groups all over the world, and international solidarity is extremely important to us.
Lemonade Stand
On July 4th, 2022, about a week after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v Wade, SYA organized a “Lemonade and Abortion Pills” stand outside the United States Supreme Court, where we handed out popsicles, lemonade, and information about abortion pills. In the following months, SYA distributed dozens of lemonade stand kits to activists all over the country, who brought them to college campuses, street fairs, night clubs, music festivals, and more. SYA isn’t interested in simply expressing outrage or begging courts and politicians to do better—we are sharing the good news that abortion access belongs to the people, and we can have safe abortions regardless of what’s happening in the courts.
The SYA book
Published in 2018 by PM Press, the Shout Your Abortion book is the story of how the movement began and a collection of personal essays, photographs, and the creative work that SYA generated in its first few years. People all over the country have used Shout Your Abortion as a template for building new communities around abortion access, and have drawn inspiration from the book’s nearly 100 contributors. We hope the book continues to serve as an illustration of the new universes we can create when we claim sole authorship of our experiences, and an evergreen call to action. The SYA book was featured on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and it sits in the waiting rooms of hundreds of abortion clinics and thousands of homes, all over the world. It was coedited by Amelia Bonow and Emily Nokes, designed by Emily Nokes, and features a foreword by Lindy West.
