Three words on social media changed the conversation.

In 2015, after Congress voted to suspend funding for Planned Parenthood, Seattleite Amelia Bonow posted with gratitude about her abortion on Facebook. Writer Lindy West amplified the post on Twitter with the hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion, encouraging people to share their own experiences—without shame, secrecy, or apology. The hashtag spread worldwide, even making the front page of The New York Times, and became the foundation for a nonprofit and a movement determined to shift the culture by making abortion stories visible instead of hidden.

Nearly one in four women in the U.S. will have an abortion in her lifetime. According to Planned Parenthood, research shows the most common emotion patients report afterward is relief, with about 99% saying it was the right decision for them.

“In the last decade, we’ve seen unfathomable regression in our reproductive rights,” says Shout Your Abortion executive director and cofounder Amelia Bonow. “But culturally, we’ve made seismic progress—not only in obliterating stigma, but in building a mass movement of people working in their communities to ensure and expand abortion access, regardless of legality. We’re proud to celebrate ten years of work that has helped lay the foundations we need for the long haul.”

That celebration happens Sept. 6 at Washington Hall, with DJs; the debut of Abortion is Everything, a new children’s book by Bonow, Rachel Kessler, and Emily Nokes; a clothing collaboration with Prairie Underground and Free Witch Quarterly; tarot readings, musical fortune telling, screen printing, tattoos, an interactive abortion appreciation station—and cake.

Shout Your Abortion (SYA), still based in Seattle, has made headlines with projects like the Abortion Academy webinar series, pro-abortion billboards, and solidarity campaigns with Poland’s Abortion Dream Team. The organization has also built a national staff, created an artist residency program, launched a Webby-winning website featuring thousands of abortion stories, published three books, and stocked hundreds of clinics with its coffee-table anthology. Its projects have ranged from lemonade stands on the Supreme Court steps to international collaborations, and activists publicly taking mifepristone in front of the Court during the Dobbs case.

SYA also maintains an online hub of resources to make sure people know abortion is still happening and to connect them with the tools and networks they need.

Seattle magazine asked Bonow about SYA’s first ten years and what comes next.

Abortion rights have faced enormous legal and political setbacks in the past decade. How has SYA managed to keep pushing forward despite those setbacks?

People are still getting abortions. SYA is working to make sure they know how to do it safely and with support. Abortion pills are safe, effective, and available by mail in all 50 states.

In a moment when headlines are crushing, SYA has good news: abortion is still happening, and you can access it too. A lot of organizations tiptoe around the language. SYA is proud to speak clearly: Our mission is to normalize abortion and elevate paths to access, regardless of legality. There are hotlines, funds, and networks ready to help with travel, money, medical or legal consult—whatever somebody needs. If you need information or want to help someone else, go to YouAlwaysHaveOptions.com.

Seattle is where SYA began. How has being rooted in this city shaped the work, and what does it mean to mark the 10-year anniversary here at Washington Hall?

Seattle has a long history of radical politics and producing cultural work that is smart, bracing, and irreverent. SYA grew out of that spirit. Washington Hall has so much heart and so much history—the venue has hosted everyone from Billie Holiday to union organizers to W.E.B. Du Bois to Marcus Garvey, and SYA had our first birthday there back in 2016.

It’s the perfect spot for us to celebrate the transformative wins, acknowledge the struggle, and center ourselves in community as we launch into the next.

Looking back, what moments or projects feel most defining for you—the ones that made you stop and think, “This is why we’re doing this”?

Building real solidarity with activists around the world.

Sharing tools, borrowing tactics, and trading resources. Our friends in Poland have been living under draconian abortion bans for decades—they’ve taught us a ton about abortion pills, and SYA has inspired them on the cultural front. I can’t really describe the feeling of seeing our graphics translated into another language and projected onto buildings or turned into a banner or t-shirt in another country. We don’t see ourselves as fighting for abortion access in the U.S., we are part of a global movement.

There are still people who support abortion rights but feel uncomfortable speaking out. What would you want to say to them, ten years into this movement?

You do you! That’s sorta the whole point.

Tell us about the 10-year party. What do you hope people walk away with?

It’s going to be truly over the top. We have movement friends coming from all over the country, which is so beautiful. I’d like for people to leave feeling electrified, inspired, emboldened, and to remember that joy, rage, grief, and celebration can all exist in the same room. I hope this party reminds people that we’re in this together, and that tectonic shifts are often catalyzed by a critical mass of people making small, meaningful choices.

And I hope it makes people feel proud of Seattle.

Shout Your Abortion’s 10-year celebration takes place Friday, Sept. 6, from 7-11 p.m. at Washington Hall. Tickets are $15, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Find tickets here.