Our Mission

We Engage’s mission is the end of abortion stigma and the restoration of our right to bodily autonomy.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, we have a LONG way to go, a lot of work to do, and it’s going to take US ALL working together to get there.

So, how do we get there? We educate, we agitate, we organize. WE ENGAGE.

To make it happen, EVERYONE has to get involved. We engage the anti-abortion movement’s false messaging and its messengers in public - to stand with patients, to stand up for our rights, and to educate and motivate the community to stand up for their rights.

Our Goals

EDUCATE - Knowledge IS power. Raising public awareness is key. Until we are all aware of the people taking your rights, we can’t work to stop them. Sounds reasonable, right? There are people working EVERY DAY to take your rights. We Engage has encountered these people for years and have learned a lot about who is out there trying to enforce THEIR moral beliefs, THEIR religious beliefs on all of us.

AGITATE - Florynce Kennedy said it best, “When you want to get to the suites, start in the streets.” We Engage believes that. We have to turn the tide, and apathy won’t get it done. We Engage shares tools, strategies and ideas for smart, effective, responsible engagement of antis on the sidewalks, at our state Capitols, and in the community.

ORGANIZE - Let’s get together and fight for our rights. When antis are found to be harassing patients, selling lies at state capitals, let’s get organized and let them know we don’t want what they are selling.

EVERY DAY, there are people waging war on your right to determine what’s best for yourself. They think they know better than you and won’t stop. Until these people are given a reason to stop, they won’t. It’s going to take us ALL. Are you in?

We resist. We persist. Together.

We educate. We empower. We engage.

In order to create the change we seek in the world, we must first engage it.

History

We Engage is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization born on the sidewalk outside Jackson Women’s Health Organization (JWHO) in Jackson, MS, also known as “The Pink House.” JWHO was the defendant sued by the state of Mississippi in the recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.

The Dobbs decision ended the protections of Roe nationwide on June 24, 2022. Abortion access ended in Mississippi on July 6, 2022.

Since then, thirteen states have banned abortion access, and at this reading, possibly more have followed suit.

JWHO had been the only abortion clinic in Mississippi since 2004. 2004, y’all.

JWHO was unique in that it was one of the few clinics in America where clinic patient escorts ENGAGED regularly with the anti-abortion protesters on the sidewalks, hence the name of our org, We Engage.

We Engage grows from the experiences of patient escorts/clinic defenders at the clinic, known as the Pink House Defenders, led by Derenda Hancock since 2013.

We believe you put on a clinic escort defender’s vest, you have engaged with antis. And since We Engage’s founding in 2019, we advocated for responsible engagement at clinics and we have seen an amazing increase of escorts at clinics start to engage the antis at their clinics.

We Engage believes the country has ceded the sidewalks to the anti-abortion movement for too long.

Anti-abortion “activists” have been successful with their campaign of harassment, intimidation, and lies; their stigmatizing false narratives have overtaken the cultural narrative surrounding abortion.

So, it is time to do something different. We can’t keep doing the same things and expecting a better, different outcome. See how far that has gotten us?

And know this, restoring Roe ain’t enough. Roe wasn’t enough then and it certainly isn’t enough now. Roe was the floor, the bare minimum, and see where we are now?

While We Engage operates in support of the full spectrum of reproductive justice, we are focused on abortion access, and the de-stigmatization of abortion.

We Engage believes abortion stigma drives negative behaviors such as the harassment and violence against patients, abortion providers, clinic escorts.

And if your feminism isn’t intersectional, it ain’t feminism. Our activism is rooted in equality, equity, and progress for all.