While Abortion Forward Alliance’s name is fairly new, its mission of ensuring access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare for all Ohioans has remained the same since the 1970’s. Recently, the organization experienced one of its most significant victories as part of the committee that successfully ran a ballot initiative to enshrine reproductive healthcare in state’s constitution. Nearly a million people took part in the campaign through donations and volunteering, making it one of the biggest grassroots movements for reproductive healthcare in Ohio history.
In addition to the ballot initiative, Abortion Forward Alliance’s leaders are incredibly proud of the Patients 2 Advocates (P2A) program, which the organization sponsors alongside partners New Voices for Reproductive Justice, Preterm, and Faith Choice Ohio, another RFDC rapid response grantee. P2A, which was started in 2016, is a leadership development program that is offered in the form of a paid fellowship for people who have had abortions.
“Because a movement isn’t a movement if it’s not centering the people most impacted, and it’s not creating pathways for leadership for the people who are most impacted,” said Executive Director Kellie Copeland.
P2A runs on an annual cycle. The recruitment process for applicants happens in the spring and summer and includes vetting, phone screening, and Zoom interviews with Abortion Forward and members of the other partner organizations. The fellowship then runs from October to May and follows a phased approach that Sakina, P2A’s program manager, leads. First, fellows go through a curriculum-rich phase to learn more about everything from branches of government to pronouns and the importance of language.
“Everyone truly is coming from completely different backgrounds, different demographics. Everyone’s different ages. We’ll have people who had an abortion four months ago. We’ll have people who had an abortion 30 years ago, so everybody brings a really cool perspective,” said Jarmon. “We just like to make sure everyone is able to be on the same understanding level.”
The second phase is where advocates internal and external to the partner organizations share their unique approaches to activism through workshops and seminars aimed at informing and inspiring the fellows. Lastly, the fellows get to produce their own capstone projects, which range from art advocacy to political advocacy. Even after the fellowship is over, alums have opportunities to stay engaged by mentoring new fellows.
“We have P2A Beyond where we’ve had people go and serve on city councils,” said Jarmon. “You’re watching experts come into their power, reclaiming their story and learning how to advocate for themselves. Then they can go spread that word, and that’s how we eliminate stigma.”
P2A continues to grow, with the goal of bringing last year’s cohort of 14 fellows up to a total of 20 this year. Hear more about the program and its impact.
