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#ShoutYourAbortion is transforming the reproductive rights conversation.
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— The Washington Post
OVERVIEW
A woman’s right to choose is under attack. Shout Your Abortion began in 2015 when Amelia Bonow shared her personal abortion story on Facebook in reaction to the US House of Representatives voting to defund Planned Parenthood. Her post was then shared on Twitter by Lindy West with #ShoutYourAbortion. Since #ShoutYourAbortion was launched in September 2015, the hashtag has been used over half a million times and has empowered countless individuals around the world to discuss their abortion experiences without shame—sometimes for the first time in their lives.
The movement has been featured in all major news outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Time, and BBC, it has been described as “bravely fighting stigma in the most inspiring way.” SYA has taken the taboo topic of abortion out of the shadows and started a global conversation.
We teamed up with SYA to push their movement even further to create a global platform for their network of supporters to share their personal narratives. Our assignment was to create a website that allows allies to learn more about the movement and share their stories on the platform. The website we designed and developed won the 2017 People’s Voice Webby Award for Best Activist Website.
APPROACH
To help Shout Your Abortion spread their message we built a comprehensive website where their decentralized network of supporters could talk about abortion on their own terms no matter where they are. The SYA movement is everywhere, in art, zines, on the sides of buildings, on social media, this platform is where it can all come together. On the site you can upload a video testimonial, a written story, download protest materials, shop, donate, and above all, learn so you can educate others. In this era of extreme opposition and misinformation the SYA site is a digital safe space for real stories.
With the goal of having pro-choice positive events in all 50 states on the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade we created a separate online tool at togetherforabortion.com that allows individuals and groups to share their events with new audiences. To style the event site we took our inspiration from the grassroots history of the pro-choice movement. The site flashes in bold red, white and blue, representing the basic personal freedoms inherent in the United States.
