Steven Potter
Nina Reynolds (left), Ashley Hartmann Annis and Ingrid Andersson: Community makes a big difference when having an abortion.
About two years ago, Ashley Hartman Annis had an abortion.
While most may want to keep the choice of ending a pregnancy to themselves, she didn’t.
“I had a network of friends who I told that [the abortion] was happening and I invited them over throughout the process while I was passing the contents of conception,” says Hartman Annis. “It was really important to have people around me who knew what was happening and knew what I was going through and were there to physically support me.”
Hartman Annis took medicinal abortion pills — a combination of misoprostol and mifepristone — to end the pregnancy.
During the process, which she estimates took between eight to 12 hours, “I had people bring me food [and] a couple of friends came over and made tea and brought chocolate,” says Hartman Annis, whose married partner of seven years was also there. “One friend came over with some sage and did a ceremony for cleansing and healing.”
That community “made a big difference in how I felt about it and how I was able to process it,” she says.
Hartman Annis says the reason she chose not to continue the pregnancy is a private matter but that “it wasn’t the right time” to have a child. The experience, though, brought on an epiphany: There was no public group in Madison to support people having abortions.
Hartman Annis, a full-spectrum doula (birth, abortion, miscarriage), set out to create an abortion doula network in Madison.
“If you have no one, we will be there,” she says.
There are about 20 abortion doula networks around the country, estimates Nina Reynolds, an abortion doula and friend of Hartman Annis. “They vary in what services they provide,” she says. Some doulas accompany people to appointments or arrange transportation; others raise money to help people pay for abortions.
About 20 people interested in helping Reynolds and Hartman Annis with the project attended a January 2018 meeting at the east-side Willy Street Co-op. The group grew to include doctors, nurses, birth doulas, activists and educators.
When Ingrid Andersson, a nurse-midwife, got involved, plans for the group broadened. It’s now envisioned as a resource network not just for those who need support during an abortion but for anyone who is pregnant and needs information on their options.
In their effort to support options surrounding pregnancy, the group chose the name P.O.W.E.R.S., which stands for Pregnancy Options Wisconsin: Education, Resources and Support.
On Aug. 1, the group officially launched its website, pregnancyoptionswi.com, and a “a 24-hour, all-options call line for anybody who’s pregnant,” says Reynolds. P.O.W.E.R.S. bills itself as “Wisconsin’s only full-spectrum pregnancy options network,” and the website answers frequently-asked questions about pregnancy tests, abortions, miscarriages, adoption, and the role of midwives.
The hotline (608-514-1714) will be staffed at all times by one of four licensed midwives.
“[The conversation is] going to be led by the caller because we don’t have an agenda,” says Andersson. “It will be a non-pressure conversation [where we] answer their questions and offer information.”
Those who want to continue the pregnancy will be directed to birth doulas, doctors and midwives, who may charge fees for their services, in locations all across the state.
If the caller is seeking to end the pregnancy through abortion, the P.O.W.E.R.S. volunteer will connect the caller with an abortion doula in the area who can help with those logistics and offer support “before, during and after” an abortion for free.
The doulas will not make decisions for the patient, but, according to the group’s website, may help “communicate … with [the health care providers] as needed. Doulas help [the patient] navigate what is happening, why, and what [the] options are.”
The fact that the abortion doula services are free, while the other doula services may cost money, raises red flags for those opposed to abortion. “If they’re offering their abortion doula services for free, that exposes what their mindset really is, which is that they’re more for having an abortion versus delivering the child,” says Dan Miller, state director for Pro-Life Wisconsin.
Reynolds says that is not true. P.O.W.E.R.S. will “refer pregnant people to a myriad of resources for all kinds of pregnancy experiences, many of them free or offered on a sliding scale, including practitioners, birth, postpartum and abortion doulas, miscarriage support, and affordable housing, food and donor milk,” she says. “Referring to free abortion doula services is our way of ensuring that all healthcare choices are accessible to everyone in Wisconsin.”
She notes that so-called crisis pregnancy centers, which have proliferated around the country, advertise that they offer all options to pregnant women but in fact do not offer information on or referrals for abortion. “This group is also a response to those kinds of centers,” says Reynolds.
Mel Barnes, legal and policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, which operates reproductive health centers across the state, including three locations that provide abortions, says that while many patients have a supportive family member with them for appointments, that’s not an option for everyone. “[Having] someone who is really an advocate and a support person for the patient, making sure that they have the information that they need and that their needs are met is an added option,” she says.
Regardless of the patient’s pregnancy plans, there are instances when the doula would be excluded from some of the medical appointments. There is “one portion of the appointment where we talk to the patient individually,” notes Barnes. “And that’s when we can screen for things like intimate partner violence and other sensitive risks, for coercion, anything like that.”
Going forward, Andersson, Hartman Annis and Reynolds hope to have a storefront or office location for their work. In the meantime, they are working to apply for nonprofit status.
P.O.W.E.R.S. fundraiser
Aug. 11; Art In Gallery, 1444 E. Washington Ave.
This benefit for P.O.W.E.R.S. begins at 7:30 p.m., and includes music, a raffle,
and other activities and vendors; a $10 donation is suggested.
