In the South, Ash Williams is fighting to make access to reproductive rights available to everyone
Williams became pregnant for the first time. Williams wants to be a parent eventually — but he wasn’t ready for a child then. He didn’t know much about what an abortion entailed, and he needed a ride, so he called up a friend who drove him. When they got to the clinic, Williams, who is trans, remembers the people working there didn’t care enough to get his name right — using, instead, the name on his license. Never mind asking about pronouns.
When most folks hear the term “doula,” they likely think of the person hired to give support and guidance during labor, suggesting breathing exercises and comfortable positions. Or maybe they’re thinking of a postpartum doula, someone who helps a new parent sent home with their newborn. But Williams supports patients who choose to not remain pregnant.
Williams’ own experience at the intersection of Blackness, transness, and disability — navigating autism, PTSD, and mobility issues — while also having been pregnant puts him in a unique position to understand the hurdles that can arise while trying to get a simple medical procedure. In his six years in the field, he says, some of the reproductive organizations he’s worked for have refused to acknowledge and respect identities outside of what’s considered traditional womanhood.
That doula turned out to be Williams — with whom Ríos-Jimenez had a rocky history. The pair had butted heads years earlier over their work in the nonprofit space. “I saw Ash was doing an abortion-doula training on Twitter, and I reached out,” says Nandi, an abortion doula in Georgia who attended one of Williams’ sessions. “It was a space for only Black folks. With Ash being trans and having a different perspective on how to support folks who are not cisgender, that was really helpful for my practice.
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