Join us for a virtual conversation on Women & Children First's Crowdcast Channel celebrating the release of Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America by Lauren Rankin. For this event, Rankin will be in conversation with Mikki Kendall.
A powerfully empathetic and impeccably researched look at abortion clinic escorting, which Rebecca Traister (New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad) calls “one of the most under-covered and crucial, lifesaving, rigorous forms of activism out there."
Abortion has been legal for nearly fifty years in the United States, but with a new conservative majority on the Supreme Court and an emboldened opposition in the street, the threat to its existence has never been more pressing. Clinic escorts— everyday volunteers—are prepared to stand up and protect abortion access, as they have for decades, even in the face of terrorism and violence. They have lived, and sometimes died, to ensure that abortion remains not only accessible but also a basic human right. Clinic escorts have fought the “abortion wars” on the front lines, and it is clinic escorts who will win it, by replacing hostility with humanity.
Collecting the stories of these brave volunteers from around the country—including the author’s own—interviews with clinic staff and patients, and research and input from abortion rights experts, Bodies on the Line makes a clear case for the right to an abortion as a fundamental part of human dignity, and the stakes facing us all if it ends. Bodies on the Line is a celebration of the crucial, often unsung heroes of abortion access and an inspiring call to defend this basic health care before it’s too late.
Lauren Rankin is a writer, speaker, and expert in abortion rights in the U.S. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, The Cut, Fast Company, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, NBC News, and many more. She spent six years as an abortion clinic escort in northern New Jersey, and is a board member of “A is For,” a reproductive rights advocacy organization. Find out more at laurenarankin.com.
Mikki Kendall is a writer, diversity consultant, and occasional feminist; she has appeared on the BBC, NPR, The Daily Show, PBS, Good Morning America, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, WBEZ, and Showtime, and discusses race, feminism, police violence, tech, and pop culture at institutions and universities across the country. She is the author of the NYT-bestselling HOOD FEMINISM (recipient of the Chicago Review of Books Award and named a best book of the year by BBC, Bustle, and TIME). She is also the author of AMAZONS, ABOLITIONISTS, AND ACTIVISTS, a graphic novel illustrated by A. D’Amico. Her essays can be found at TIME, the New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, Essence, Vogue, The Boston Globe, NBC, and a host of others.
**All of our virtual events are recorded and viewable anytime on Women & Children First's Crowdcast Channel. The recordings are later uploaded with closed captioning to our YouTube Channel within a week or two of the event. **
