Testifying in Texas: Reflecting on We Testify Texas , a State-based Abortion Storyteller Retreat

“I want to talk about my complicated feelings and how I was treated during my abortion procedure,” a Texas 20-something declared as they ¹ hoisted themself out of the pool’s deep end. Three others considered the proposed topic and quickly tiptoed across the surrounding hot deck toward the shaded chairs to join the conversation. The 22 Texans lounging around the pool deck were part of We Testify ’s first state-based abortion storytelling cohort, We Testify Texas , held at a small retreat center in Mineola, a rural town east of Dallas in 2019. The We Testify Texas program sought to strengthen the state’s robust reproductive justice organizational advocacy infrastructure by training Texans who have had abortions ² to share their stories and engage with advocacy efforts to preserve and expand abortion access and challenge hostile criminalization efforts in Texas. Although storytelling has been a tactic integral to feminist and social justice organizing (Fernandes 2017; Ganz 2024; Polletta 2022; Ross 2008), nonprofit organizational efforts primarily focused on the production of stories for public consumption, rather than engagement with the storytellers as local experts and organizers. This creates a transactional relationship between advocacy organizations and the people most impacted by the issue, separating storytellers from their stories and leaving storytellers as an untapped resource of testimonial expertise in communities. How can social justice movements and advocacy organizations center people who have had abortion experiences to lead cultural and state-based policy change work? This Notes from the Field reflects on the We Testify storytelling model as implemented through the We Testify Texas program, including the national-local partnership, programmatic activities, impact of the cohort, and how such a program could be replicated in similar political climates and distinct communities.