The Time for Leftist Extralegal Action Has Finally Come

Writer Freddie DeBoer describes himself as usually "dismissive of people calling for illegal or violent actions in the pursuit of left-wing causes, mostly because they deserve to be dismissed. The violence that attended some BlackLivesMatter protests in 2020 was directionless and had no positive effect, for example. Dreams of fighting the state are absurd on their face, as the technological advantage of the American government and security forces is so great that there’s no hope for victory. (This isn’t 1950s Cuba, comrades.) Going all the way back to my teenage years, definitely in my years in the Iraq war protest movement, during and after Occupy, in the heat of the 2020 uprisings - again and again I’ve been confronted by fellow travelers who wanted to “really do something” and I’ve been forced to point out that we would be doing nothing at all if we did." But this time it's different: "with the death of Roe, the time has finally come when people on the left can and will really do something, in that they will work outside of the law to provide abortion services to women who live in places where that service is illegal." Freddie explains what this could look like to a panel of Katie, Afeni and Molly Shah.

Freddie deBoer is a writer and academic and the author of The Cult of Smart. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Politico. Find his work at

Afeni () is a Black queer activist and core organizer with Freedom Fighters DC. During the George Floyd Uprisings Afeni saw firsthand how abusive the police are towards human rights protesters. Her advocacy and voice is lended to all marginalized people from our Palestinian cousins to protesters being brutalized in Nigeria, Afeni's voice knows no border. Afeni is passionate about equity, antiracism and transformative mutual aid.

Molly Shah () is a contributing writer to The Real News and social media consultant based in Berlin. Prior to moving to Germany Molly was an activist, teacher and lawyer in Louisville, Kentucky.

Amy Merrill is an artist and activist, and cofounder and digital director of abortion pill access campaign Plan C at plancpills.org (). She also leads a web design and communications studio Eyes Open at eyesopendesign.com. Amy has a background in nonprofit management and social impact startups, choosing complex issues like voluntourism, human trafficking and gender inequality which ultimately led her to focus on reproductive health equity and selfdetermination, and to cofounding Plan C.

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