Pictured Left to Right: Vance, Nordstrum and Parisi
Abortion has been one of the most consistently controversial topics in American culture for over three decades, but the debate has come to a head recently with legislation and efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.
Three female Milwaukeeans, Brittany Nordstrum, Nellie Vance and Kate Parisi, have decided to work together to take a stand about the difficulties presented to women in terms of receiving the appropriate medical care. Together, they were able to collaborate with Planned Parenthood, The Oriental Theater, and Company Brewing to orchestrate an event to inform and educate the people of Milwaukee about women’s reproductive rights and the legislature being passed to take those rights away.
Nordstrum, Vance, and Parisi obtained the licensing to the controversial documentary film Trapped, which recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival. The film details the legislative battle being fought on behalf of women’s reproductive rights across the nation, specifically in concern to abortion. The film will be screened one time only at The Oriental Theater on Thursday, May 26th. Following the film there will be a fundraising event at Company Brewing to raise money for women’s health initiatives featuring performances from a trio of local bands.
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The purpose of the screening and fundraiser are to spread awareness about issues that a woman faces when she makes the tough decision to terminate a pregnancy. The event also aims to dispel the misconceptions that have been perpetuated by the media in regards to Planned Parenthood, as well as raise money for Milwaukee women in need.
We sat down with the three passionate women to discuss the event, their personal experiences with healthcare, and their future plans to provide help for Milwaukee women in need of support.
How’d you come up with the idea to put together this event?
Nellie: It was pretty much all Brittany. She had the idea one night and got us on board.
Brittany: I was watching Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and there was a segment about trap laws, namely abortion rights and women’s lack of rights for their own bodies. The segment featured clips from Trapped, so I looked it up and watched the trailer, and I was blown away.
Kate: Dawn Porter is the director, who has a history of directing documentaries on controversial topics.
Brittany: I looked it up and saw that it wasn’t coming to Milwaukee, so I contacted them about organizing a grassroots community screening. I reached out to Emily Dell Revord who is a former Planned Parenthood employee about getting me in touch with someone from Planned Parenthood, and she got me in touch with Linda Neff.
Nellie: They invited us to meet with the Leadership Council of Milwaukee, which is a group of people who talk about fundraising and building a community presence to support women’s healthcare needs.
What have each of you contributed to the process of planning the event?
Nellie: I’m a graphic designer, I’ve put together all of the digital assets and creative assets for the promotion of the event.
Brittany: I’m an event planner.
Kate: So these two have more of the background within the field than I do. I’m a massage therapist… I have nothing to add from my actual career to the event, but I have been putting in countless hours of work.
Brittany: Kate has done a ton for us, sometimes more than us. We’re all kind of crazy here and stressed out all the time. (All laugh.)
Is the main purpose of the event to raise awareness for the cause?
Brittany: I think having a personal connection to the process and going through it- that will resonate with people more. Nobody who has to make the decision is a monster, that’s an unfair stigma. That’s a stigma that’s attached to Planned Parenthood as well, and that’s not fair. They’re not an organization that’s harvesting baby parts-
Kate: -The important thing is to let people know that there are a lot of false accusations and things that haven’t actually happened that have been perpetuated. Nobody is pro-abortion, nobody wants to kill all babies, that’s not a thing. Pro-Choice is about being able to make a responsible choice for yourself.
You can be pro-life personally, but shouldn’t control the choices of others. All of the regulations that are being passed across the nation are disguised as ways to help women be safer, but they’re really just ways to make it impossible for them to be safe.
Where’s the film being screened?
Brittany: It’s being screened at The Oriental Theatre. The theater was receptive right away.
So this came together pretty quickly? When did you have the idea in the first place?
Brittany: Late March… So yeah, we worked very quickly. We tried to do as much as we could as quickly as possible.
Have there been any hiccups? Or obstacles in the planning process?
Brittany: I feel like there’s a lack of support from local artists to align themselves with the cause.
Kate: we were trying to get artists and musicians to donate their time to be able to have another way to raise money for the cause. We wanted it to be an uplifting thing after such an intense documentary, that people could go to and raise money for the cause. It’s been pretty difficult to build the connections that we wanted and lock bands in.
Were you able to get any bands booked?
Brittany: We were able to get three really great bands booked. The bands are Ruth B8r Ginsburg, New Boyz Club, and Boom Boom Klap. We have a great lineup, but it was a bit more difficult than expected to get everyone confirmed.
What else will be going on at the Company Brewing event?
Brittany: Across The Line, a virtual reality piece that has been touring with Trapped, will also be there. It captures all of the struggles a woman faces when trying to terminate a pregnancy. The creators of that piece have a company called 371 Productions, they’re based in Milwaukee. The names of the people we’ve worked with from that company are Kelly and Jeff Fitzsimmons and Brad Lichtenstein.
Kate: Across the Line is cool because people don’t know what it’s like to cross the picket line and have to deal with protesters when you’re already going through such a personal situation. It’s a valuable way to demonstrate to people the specific difficulties that come with making the decision.
When did you decide to have the screening followed by a fundraiser?
Brittany: Well we decided that since the film has such a serious subject matter, that it would be nice to separate the event into two parts. The second part should be fun, but at the same time raise money for the cause. A portion of the proceeds go to Planned Parenthood, while the rest will go to a women’s clinic that we will be announcing at the event. None of us are making any money from this, all the money is going to charity. Our motivation is that we really believe in the cause.
What do you think is the biggest issue in terms of the public perception of abortion?
Brittany: From the standpoint of Planned Parenthood, they’re a health care clinic. Abortions are only 3% of what they do. The vilification of that organization is just a terrible stigma that has become attached with it through propaganda. The film is especially relevant here in Wisconsin because of the significant number of politically motivated abortion restrictions that have advanced to restrict women’s access to reproductive health including abortion.
In our state, we’ve seen multiple restrictions passed that target only abortion providers. The intention is to put obstacles in the path of women seeking safe, legal care.
Is it worse in other states?
Brittany: Yes, especially in Texas. It’s an extremely large state, and the amount of government regulation has created this extremely difficult system. The amount of traveling that a woman has to do to be able to access a safe abortion-
Kate: They have to go to New Mexico-
Brittany: -They generally have to go to another state. But then, if they go to another state, there’s certain regulations and restrictions that you might not meet, so you have to wait days and days and days after the initial appointment-
Kate: -So if you had to drive 6 hours to get there, pay for a hotel room, get off of work, pay for the procedure itself-
Brittany: -The legislature is designed to push women past the point in the pregnancy where then it becomes unsafe, and having to do something down the line will be more dangerous.
So it becomes extraordinarily difficult?
Nellie: Not just difficult, more like impossible. If you’re low income, there’s no way you’d be able to take off of work, drive to another state, get a hotel, and pay for the operation.
Brittany: There’s one doctor in particular who’s featured in the film who cashed in his retirement and spent millions of dollars of his own money to bring his clinic up to code because of all of the restrictions and laws that were being passed to make running a clinic more difficult.
Kate: Some of the laws were really ridiculous regulations, designed to prevent the clinic from operating.
Brittany: So this doctor continues to update his clinic to meet the new regulations, but they keep updating the laws and introducing new laws to make it more difficult for him to meet legal standards to run his clinic. The whole thing is just insane.
Do you have any long-term plans related to the project?
Nellie: I think that overall, especially with the after-event, that we’re hoping to build a community and forming an ally-ship to provide women with support. So that women can have someone to go with them if they have an appointment, someone to watch their children, or a safe place for them to go.
Kate: The big focus is allies, and not necessarily being pro-choice, but being willing to help anybody who needs help.
Brittany: I shared a piece of my personal experience with abortion online, and it opened up a lot of discussion. People that I don’t even know very well coming to me and saying “Hey, I have to go through this process, can you help me? Can you come with me? Can you talk to me?” I’ve gone with girls to their appointments,
I’ve walked with them through the doors and stayed with them, and people need that. No one wants to do it. It’s not something that’s easy to go through alone.
The event will be taking place on Thursday, May 26th, beginning with the screening at 7:30 at the Oriental Theatre. For more information, check out the Facebook event here.
