I believe The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is a devastating setback that threatens the progress we’ve made in the US toward gender equality.

I believe in reproductive justice for all.

I know many of us on Elpha are deeply troubled by the end of this and other hard-fought rights in the US - and what this court ruling could mean for our future. I want you to know that I feel this too, and I want you to know that I am pro-choice through and through. I was pro-choice even before having an abortion myself in 2019*, which only deepened my understanding of how important this basic right is for all birthing people.

As Elpha’s founder though, I don’t ever want to presume that the issues that I’m most aware of, or that impact me most personally as a US-based cis white woman, are the ones that Elpha as a company should focus on.

Elpha is an ever-growing global community. That means there’s a lot happening in the world that impacts our members every day, and everyone has a different perspective on these events. Members of the Elpha team also have different viewpoints and personal experiences. Our community is vibrant, resilient and wise because of our diverse life experiences.

Even with our differences, we at Elpha share common goals: we want to create a space for you, our members, to have important and difficult conversations. And we want to do everything we can to support you in being successful at work. Our ethos has always been to serve as a megaphone for issues that affect professional women by amplifying the opinions and experiences of our members. Our focus remains on showcasing the voices, experiences, resources, and achievements of our members - now, in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned - and going forward.

Here’s what you can always expect from the Elpha team and the Elpha community as it relates to how Elpha communicates around social issues:

• We always encourage you to share your perspectives, knowledge, feelings and experiences. Our team will do the same when we are impacted by events and have contributions to make.
• We will continue to amplify contributions from those of you that discuss global events, or share resources or personal experiences when you or your community is negatively impacted.

And for right now, I’d like to open up this thread for everyone to share stories and offer resources and additional thoughts on Roe v. Wade. To start the kind of open, thoughtful conversations we have here at Elpha, I wanted to share a few details of my own experience with abortion below in the comments. And I’d also like to share some resources that I’ve found helpful so far:

1. Katelin Holloway’s Reproductive Autonomy Resource Guide which includes a lot of tactical advice for companies that want to offer increased reproductive support for their teams.
2. TreyScarpa’s Elpha post with actions, resources and space to vent.
3. This resource if you need help funding an abortion.
4. If you’d like to make a donation to a network of abortion funds, or to Planned Parenthood.
5. A helpline run by Lawyering for Reproductive Justice in case you have legal questions
6. Abortion Stories from the New York Times
7. Education material about Reproductive Rights vs. Reproductive Justice, which is something I’ve been learning about.

* I didn’t want to center this post around my personal story, but I do want to encourage you all to feel comfortable talking about our personal experiences. So I’m sharing more about my experience having an abortion in the comments below.

Note: this is a special kind of Elpha post. The post itself is publicly available, but the comments are private for members-only