Hey, everyone! I have to admit that I had something else entirely planned for this week's Allyship themed Mani Monday that was focusing on Indigenous History Month and the importance of standing up alongside the indigenous community here in Canada as we grapple with both our history and the current issues affecting indigenous communities all over the country. These things are profoundly important. But this week specifically... I'm tired. And I'm sad. And I'm angry. Alongside some personal life struggles that have been sitting on my shoulders, the overturning of Roe v. Wade last week in the US and the very vocal minority of people with too much power over policy who clearly don't think women are whole people who should have autonomy has my brain really twisted up and I couldn't focus on much else at the moment. So I want to tell you a story before I tell you about these nails - and it's short, but fairly devastating.

Keep reading for more. 

Several years ago now, my great aunt told me a story when I went to visit her in hospice a few months before she ultimately passed. This was an incredible, vibrant woman who lived an amazing life and who I'd always looked up to and absolutely adored. We got onto the subject of having children, which she had chosen never to do and which I have also chosen not to do, and she told me the story of her abortion. I think now, in light of all of this, she would be okay with me telling this story. 

She told me that she got pregnant when she was a teenager and in her very strict family she knew that she couldn't go through with the pregnancy, so she went to the lady that young women went to when you found yourself in that position. She told me that this lady gave her a bottle of whisky to swig from and had her lay down on the floor of her garage. The woman then kicked her in the abdomen until she wasn't pregnant anymore. After the "procedure" she then she went home, in pain and having just been through profound trauma, and she had to sit down to dinner with her family as though nothing happened. THIS is the reality of a world without safe and legal access to abortion - it doesn't get rid of the need for abortion or people finding ways to end their pregnancies, it just makes it dangerous, traumatizing and sometimes deadly. Access to abortion is not only healthcare, it's a human right. Honestly, I was already very, very much Pro-Choice and always have been, but this story has stuck with me and really further reinforced my beliefs on this matter.

I also want to add another thing. If you're reading this and you're anti-abortion, I think you should take some time to look into the statistics because prohibition is not what reduces the number of abortions. Access to birth control along with comprehensive sex education is what actually reduces abortion and the same politicians propping themselves up as "pro-life" are the ones trying to limit access to both of those things as well. The math isn't mathing on that one, friends. 

This week's mani was inspired by the pulse I feel moving through the world right now. Like other times in the past few years when people have been sparked to action - like with the murder of George Floyd and the continuing discoveries of the bodies of children buried at Residential Schools - this brought a rise of activism and protest that is necessary to protect and advance people's rights. I chose this base polish because the two colors represented in the thermal felt right. The pinky mauve to represent people with uteruses whose rights to govern their own body are constantly threatened and devalued and the murky grey to represent how sad a time this is. I think that there's something to be said for taking a moment to mourn, to let yourself feel the blow, and then it's time for the pulse of the fight to come to life and, for me, that's what this mani represents. In this case it's about AFAB people's rights, but that pulse can and should be about all different types of marginalization. 

The full list of products I used is below and it really is such a simple mani that I really don't feel the need to explain how I did it on this one. 

I know that there are going to be people who don't like that I'm using a nail art post to talk about reproductive rights and the importance of access to abortion, but at the moment I think we need to be using any avenue we can. This is about protecting the lives and autonomy of women and people with uteruses and I think it's been pretty jarring for a lot of us to see women's rights actively and legally going backwards by decades. Also, as a white woman, I am very much aware that even this is an issue where intersections of discrimination and marginalization profoundly effect the impact of things like this and that's important to acknowledge as well. 

If you're looking for organizations to support that are working to support reproductive rights, both in the US where the current news is point the attention but also internationally, Marie Claire put together a really solid list that is a good jumping off point. This is very much a fight worth getting into. 

Be sure to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK for more Allyship themed nails this week! 

Thanks for reading!