Bio

Amelia Bonow is the Founding Director of #ShoutYourAbortion, a movement dedicated to broadening the existing cultural discourse around abortion. In 2015, Bonow’s abortion disclosure inspired a viral outpouring of abortion stories on social media, receiving front page coverage from The New York Times, LA Times, as well as The New Yorker, ABC’s Nightline, The BBC, Al Jazeera, and CNN. Bonow put her graduate program on hold and began developing SYA into a nationwide movement geared towards creating places for women to discuss their abortions, online, in art and media, and in real life events all over the country. In 2017, #ShoutYourAbortion’s website won a Webby Award for activism. Bonow proudly serves on the Board of Directors of the Abortion Care Network and her writing has appeared in The Huffington Post, The New York Daily News, Salon, and The Stranger. In 2016, Bonow received the Hammer and Chisel Award from filmmaker Michael Moore, and she has spoken and received awards from Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country. Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards told the Seattle Times that #ShoutYourAbortion “reflects what makes me most hopeful for this next century”.

Bonow is interested in discussing the connection between changing the way culture discusses abortion and achieving universally accessible reproductive healthcare. Although abortion has been a common, legal medical procedure for almost 50 years and 70% of Americans support abortion rights, the United States is currently in the midst of the most regressive attack on abortion rights in a generation. Bonow is interested in exploring the connection between abortion secrecy and the anti-choice movement’s ability to roll back abortion rights without the support of public opinion. #ShoutYourAbortion is a movement which has allowed many women to let go of shame and find a supportive community of others who have chosen abortion, but SYA does not simply effect the lives of individuals. Bonow makes the case that movements like SYA are succeeding in making average Americans aware that many women choose abortion for many different reasons. The anti-choice movement cannot continue to win legislative victories if women who have abortions begin to help their families and communities understand that the people who have abortions are not bad or immoral, they are simply the people you already know.

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