After months of internal conflict and three public resignations from the board of directors, trailblazing reproductive justice organization SisterSong has publicly called for a ceasefire in Palestine. In a statement published on Feb. 29, following the public resignation letter of Poppy Liu, Coya Artichoker, and an anonymous signer on Feb. 26, SisterSong Executive Director Monica Simpson signed a letter stating that “what is happening to Palestinians in Gaza is a Reproductive Justice crisis.” The organization called for “an immediate ceasefire to the violence in Gaza, pathways to be made for delivery of food, medical supplies, and lifesaving aid to Palestinians, and the release of all hostages.”
The statement comes amid calls for reproductive rights organizations to take a stance against the U.S.-backed Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in a total collapse of Gaza’s health care system, the killing of more than 30,000 Palestinians, and a 300% rise in miscarriages as a result of the Israeli military’s bombing and land invasions. According to Liu, who posted her resignation letter on her personal Instagram last week, some board of directors members first asked for a statement on Palestine during an in-person board retreat in November.
“One of the agenda points was that we need to talk about Palestine,” Liu told Prism. “I felt, even by the end of October, that I had some question marks of why there hadn’t been something from SisterSong yet [about Palestine] … In the earlier conversations with SisterSong, [there were] a lot of the justifications for not making a statement yet or still being silent I had taken in good faith.”
Prism requested an interview with leaders at SisterSong, but the organization instead responded with its public statement on Gaza. Liu said management wanted to make a statement shortly after the bombings started in October but were considering the repercussions it could have on the organization and its staff.
“I took this in good faith,” Liu said. “It’s valid that, considering the repercussions to an organization that has staff, that has people it’s responsible for, it takes greater intentionality and greater strategy than an individual person making the call to say something. At that time, it was taken in good faith to be like, ‘Yes, OK, let’s strategize about this, let’s be intentional, let’s think about ways to protect the staff, the executive director, think about ways to protect the organization, and anticipate the very likely repercussions around losing funding, as we’ve seen a lot of nonprofits go through.’”
After this first in-person conversation, Liu said she sent a follow-up email to SisterSong leadership that received no response. By December, Liu said she followed up with another long email “filled with urgency and frustration and rage.”
“[The email asked,] why? Why is this being left on read right now? This should be one of the biggest focuses right now as a reproductive justice movement,” Liu said.
Liu’s email seemed to push conversations forward. At their December meeting, Liu said the board unanimously agreed that a public statement on Palestine was aligned with SisterSong’s mission.
“[We agreed] that we do have a responsibility and obligation, based on the leadership that we have in this movement and what our values and mission are, to say something,” Liu said. “Also, knowing that SisterSong making a move has movement-wide impact.”
But by January, the board was told that the statement would not be happening at that time.
“The last straw was the reproductive justice leadership summit at the end of January,” Liu said. According to SisterSong’s website, the summit is an event led by the organization where leaders from “nearly all” reproductive rights organizations in the U.S. “share resources and strategies, build collaborations, and develop movement-wide priorities.” The event is not open to the public or the media.
According to Liu and Artichoker, Palestine was one of the points on the summit’s agenda, but in a meeting with more than 80 leaders across the reproductive rights field, the subject was not approached with the complexity they hoped for.
“I was very upset by the way the conversation was structured because I don’t think it was a conversation that was meant to get to a solution,” Artichoker said. “I think it was a conversation that instilled more fear in people. That was my issue.”
Both Liu and Artichoker hoped that SisterSong would be the first reproductive justice organization to speak out so the trailblazing organization could provide a safety net for other smaller organizations hoping to make a similar stance. This would have been in line with SisterSong’s history of connecting struggles across the reproductive justice field and approaching issues with an intersectional understanding and internationalist inclusion. For Artichoker, SisterSong could have used the leverage they currently have to push for the end of the genocide.
“I go back to the responsibility question. We have access to the White House, we have access to the vice president, we have access in ways that other groups do not, and we are not using it,” Artichoker said. “I think the question is, what happens when movements grow? When do we start to get too scared to lose things? And also, what is our responsibility in that moment when we do have that kind of access?”
But during the summit, it became clear that this wasn’t going to happen.
“If we’re not willing to be affirmative-facing [about making a stance about Palestine], can we at least not do more damage?” said Artichoker, who has considered SisterSong as her political home for the last 12 years. “The conversation created more confusion and might have led people to being more fearful of a loss of funding.”
Conservative attacks on the reproductive rights field have made funding difficult for organizations that protect access to birth control, abortion services, and reproductive rights services in general. Like Liu, Artichoker sees the fear of loss of funding as valid but felt like SisterSong was uniquely positioned to provide cover for smaller organizations to make a statement.
“As an Indigenous person, I know that a lot of what is happening in Palestine is based on the policies of the U.S. government against [Indigenous people],” Artichoker said. “In the summit, we talked a lot about fear … and one of the things we talked about at the RJ leadership summit was, what are you afraid of? What don’t you know about this issue? And I think there’s a lot of learning that needs to be done. But I don’t think that means that we can’t say, very basically, ‘I oppose genocide.’”
In their statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, SisterSong cited the summit as a stepping stone for future reproductive justice conversations about Palestine. “We convened a Leadership Summit with more than 80 Reproductive Justice leaders from across the country to create a safe space for leaders to engage in deep political education regarding the crisis in Gaza, build political unity, and map out a plan for increasing our international solidarity work,” the statement reads.
In response to SisterSong’s statement, Liu and Artichoker issued a joint statement.
“We are glad that SisterSong has finally spoken out, but we want to add that the statement should explicitly name what is happening in Gaza as a genocide committed by Israel and enabled and financed by the U.S. This is a step in the right direction, and we hope that the Reproductive Justice movement, beyond just SisterSong, continues to step up and show solidarity with the movement for a liberated Palestine.”
Prism asked SisterSong for a response to Liu and Artichoker’s statement but received no reply.
