Young women and the grass roots fight against the Dobbs decision

This article was written as part of my Journalism undergraduate degree.

June 24th, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision for Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, leaving the right of abortion up to state governments and overturning almost four decades of legal precedent. The decision came from a court shrouded in three controversial appointments made under a president who lost the popular election. 

Outside of UNC’s Wilson Hall, Haley Guerry was leaving her BIO 201 summer class when a People magazine notification sprung on her screen. Guerry struggled to breath. Within seconds, Guerry’s mother called her, instructing her to get a more permanent form of birth control, and quick.

In Greensboro, a UNC student was in her family home when she got an Associated Press breaking news alert. Running to the TV, Anna Souhan turned on the news and her mother joined her. Two generations sat together. The women’s faces searched the screen. One having seen Roe v. Wade passed, but both seeing it overturned.

Souhan decided to switch her outrage into action. With key seats up for grabs in the N.C. general assembly and pro-choice candidate Cheri Beasley campaigning against anti-choice candidate Tedd Budd for the U.S. Senate, the midterm election would be the first fight in protecting abortion rights in her home state. It was 137 days away.

“I knew that I wanted to do something,” said Souhan prior to election day. “Just to get people talking about [abortion rights]. Because we can’t ignore problems like this. This midterm election is massively important and if we want to make change we have to get people involved, especially young people.”

That day in June, Souhan called Planned Parenthood to set up one of their student advocacy organizations, Planned Parenthood Generation Action (PPGA), at UNC. Guerry and Sarah Zhang later joined, taking on the Vice President and Outreach Chair positions, respectively. The group meets bi-weekly and frequently tables in the pit and the quad, handing out voting and abortion access information. PPGA also affords political and volunteer activism opportunities.

PPGA seeks to educate the UNC campus on reproductive freedom, but the battle is personally wearing. As the midterm elections approached and anti-abortion groups made college campuses a protest battleground, the members fluctuated in emotions and mental health.

15 days before election day, Souhan found herself at a pro-choice and anti-abortion standoff in the quad, facing the snide smile of a petite brunette woman with glasses. Earlier that morning, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform came to the university and put up posters of Nazis, computerized images of fetuses, and other pictures, equating abortion to the holocaust. The center was met with a counter protest from students, which was generated without official organization from PPGA or any other club. The center has no medical accreditation and according to a 2015 CNN article, the organization has come under scrutiny for fraudulent photos and not disclosing their sources for images.

The woman from the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform asked Souhan, “What kind of restrictions do you think should be on abortion?” Souhan avoided her gaze and said nothing. “That’s mature,” the woman said before moving onto the next protestor beside her and beginning an argument.

“I did not respond because I know not to engage them,” said Souhan.

Souhan held her white poster board, which read “Keep Abortion Safe and Legal,” higher to block the grotesque images behind her, even as the sun pressed down. The temperature met high seventies that day and she was wearing a sweater and jeans. Souhan persisted until her class three hours later. Then, she began planning with her executive team for tomorrow.

The next day, PPGA organized, handing out fliers with pro-choice affirmations and information on abortion access. The club provided a counter to the center’s fliers. As the midterms approached in two weeks, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform was making the rounds in colleges across the country, spreading anti-abortion sentiment. PPGA ensured the conversation was not one-sided.

Zhang chose not to be at the protests to preserve her mental health, finding that the anger she felt to be more productive in planning the fliers for the next day. She said the center’s pictures were mentally degrading and worried that they would shame those who have chosen to get an abortion.

“It is not necessarily our job to like quote on quote re-educate [anti-abortion believers], but to show that our movement is about love and making sure that everyone has the opportunity to make their own decisions and that theirs is, I guess, not welcoming and honestly kind of hateful,” said Zhang.

While the center only stayed on campus for three days before traveling to another college campus, a minority anti-abortion sentiment at UNC remains.

Shawn Higgins is the UNC Chapter Director of Ratio Christi, a conservative Christian organization that has chapters at colleges throughout the US. He said that the center is accurate in comparing abortion to a genocide because killing a fetus is the same as killing a person. He also said women who have abortions should be imprisoned.

“It is similar to what Hitler said about the Jews being less than human and in slavery the same kind of mindset was used,” said Higgins. 

With the university affording permits to groups like the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform to construct massive posters and fences, the burden rests on college students -- who are already burdened with their course load -- to push back against false information. But, this responsibility is not without consequence to their mental health. 

Zhang said she relies on her anger towards anti-abortion proponents to fuel her activism.

“I know everyone has the right to free speech, but a lot of [the center’s display] was just honestly misinformation, which is completely different and unfair,” said Zhang. “It was really frustrating to see and also, like again, it kind of just motivated me to work harder. Because it was so infuriating to have something like that on our campus,” said Zhang.

For Guerry, the fight for abortion rights distracts from her academics, especially as the midterms were approaching.

“On top of my schoolwork, I was thinking about [the election] a lot because like obviously there is a lot of stuff riding on it,” said Guerry. “There [are] reproductive health rights and even like rights on contraception and stuff that could come into question.” 

PPGA focuses on helping people understand the importance of abortion access – and the consequences of banning abortions.

Guerry said her experience volunteering at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center in high school brought her passion for the cause. Reproductive health access, including the right to an abortion if wanted is essential to dignity in the aftermath of sexual assault.

“If someone did not have access to abortion, they are inundated with health care bills, with lack of access to childcare,” said Zhang. “There are just so many issues in our country that negatively impact someone who is not able to care for a child.”

November 8, 2022, election day had arrived. Voters would decide the future of reproductive rights in North Carolina, or at least until the next election.

30 minutes after polls had closed, Souhan hosted a zoom meeting with her executive team. With a background of fairy lights and hanging vines decorating her dorm room, Souhan tried to offer reassurance to the anxious faces transmitted on her screen.

Club members participated in discussion over upcoming club events, including a possible movie night, while checking election results every few minutes.

“I know Cheri is up right now hallelujah. Let’s hope it stays that way,” she said before another club member said that Budd was now in the lead. “No, fuck, never mind, this isn’t good.”

Souhan ended the meeting with a closed smile that did not meet her eyes.

 “Have a good night everyone and let’s hope the election night goes well,” she said as members signed off.

Guerry went to sleep around midnight. But, Souhan watched the news as long as she could before she fell asleep early in the morning. And Zhang sat in front of her TV from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. But, when she went to bed, she was sure to set alarms for every hour to wake up and check updates.

One day after the elections, North Carolinians (excluding those like Zhang) woke up to find that republicans had won a U.S. senate seat and had gained a veto-proof majority in the N.C. senate. With just one seat holding off republicans from acquiring a veto-proof majority in the N.C. house, one thing remains clear. PPGA’s fight is not over anytime soon.

Zhang said her life experiences have prepared her for the continuing struggle over abortion rights.

“I feel like I have been fighting for myself for my entire life,” said Zhang. “I was often the only student of color in a classroom and for me, like, growing up under that environment, I quickly learned what I needed to do to fight for myself and that I was often placed in situations where I was treated unequally, or stereotyped, or experienced micro-aggressions.”

In North Carolina, the Dobbs decision ensures a constant state of instability for reproductive freedom advocates like Zhang and the other club leaders. The struggle between pro-choice and anti-choice groups will most likely repeat with each coming election year.

November 2024 awaits: 716 days until election day.