By Literary Women in Action
In our newest Jane’s Due Process Volunteer Interview, we talk with Isabel—a 31-year-old marketing professional and former museum educator. A native of Washington State, Isabel enjoys photography, birding, visiting museums, and macaroni and cheese.
What drew you to volunteering for JDP?
I started getting interested in reproductive rights in 2015. Before that, I’d have called myself pro-choice kind of as a default, but it wasn’t really something that I thought much about, and it didn’t actually seem relevant to my life. I was wrong about that, of course—the government’s ruling on whether a person has bodily autonomy in theory and in practice is deeply relevant! As I learned more about abortion rights & restrictions, I heard about JDP. I love that there’s a group of Texans so committed to helping young people get through a process that has intentionally been made much harder than it needs to be. In summer 2016, the chance opened up for me to get involved, and I’m so glad that I did!
What do you do as a volunteer?
I started as a hotline volunteer, answering the phone during a weekly shift and taking whatever calls came in. My work schedule changed a few months ago, such that I can’t really staff the hotline anymore, but I still do volunteer work like data entry and pilot-testing the new text hotline, which will be launching soon!
What has been most rewarding?
It has been so rewarding to answer the hotline and be there for someone when they need help. I think it’s incredible and so important that people of all ages, but especially teens who may not have any other adult support, can call the JDP number at any time and talk with someone positive, calm, informed, and helpful. Our society treats even the word “abortion” as taboo, and you can hear it [in] some Janes’ voices when they call the hotline and tentatively say that they need help getting an abortion. So, to respond matter-of-factly, to react to the word as the normal thing that it is, to let them know that I can talk them through the steps of judicial bypass or find a nearby clinic or just listen for a while, that’s really rewarding.
What has been most challenging?
Hearing about the scenarios that some of the Janes face. You know intellectually that people experience some terrible things, but it’s another matter to hear it directly, especially from someone who’s only 16 or 17 years old. Hearing in one call that a Jane will get kicked out of her home if her parents discover she’s pregnant, then taking a call from a mom who wants to know if she can legally force her minor daughter to get an abortion that she doesn’t want… That’s really tough, and it drives home the fact that our systems are set up in a way that you just can’t win. Teens face lots of intentional barriers to getting an abortion, but are also shamed for being young parents. Even before that point, they often don’t receive comprehensive sex education or have access to contraception—we aren’t giving them effective tools and then we blame them for any choice they make.
What has surprised you most/what have you learned from your volunteer experience?
I’m not sure if I’m surprised as such (because it was all a mystery to me, too, a few years ago), but I’ve learned that so many people don’t know about the logistics of abortion: what the restrictions are, that our state has only a few places that provide abortions (thanks Texas), that there’s more than one procedure available and what the differences are… For such a common procedure, it’s rather astounding that for the general public, it’s so secret.
