Coming Soon: My book on Pro-Voice!

I am excited to announce that I have signed a contract with Berrett Koelher to write a book on pro-voice, scheduled for publication in 2015.

Exhale’s Press Release:

Aspen Baker, Founder and Executive Director of nonprofit organization Exhale, announced that she has signed a contract with San Francisco based Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., to publish her first book. “Pro-Voice” is scheduled for publication in 2015.

Pro-voice, the term coined by Baker’s organization Exhale in 2005, is an alternative approach to discussing abortion and other conflicted issues. In her book, Ms. Baker shows how the model makes the impossible, possible, but it’s not what you expect. Ms. Baker will take us behind the scenes of what it takes to change highly charged issues, like abortion, and inspire readers with true stories and tested methods.

“Berrett-Koehler,” say Neal Maillett, Editorial Director, “has long been an admirer of Exhale and Aspen Baker. Frankly, we’ve been amazed that she can prove that the values central to so many of our books – deep listening, tolerance, and empathy to name a few – can actually bring insight and understanding to the one of the sharpest conflicts we have as human beings. Aspen won’t shy away from conflict, yet she brings peace and support wherever she works. We feel privileged to be able to share her message with the wider world. “

Baker has earned a wide variety of awards and accolades. She was recently named a “Fun, Fearless Female” in the May 2013 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine; was awarded 2012 Gerbode Professional Development Fellowship; named a “Local Hero” in 2009 by San Francisco’s KQED during Women’s History Month; and “Young Executive Director of the Year” in 2005 by the Bay Area’s Young Non-Profit Professional Network.

“Aspen Baker has been at the forefront of navigating abortion’s gray areas for over a decade and her unique perspective is inspiring and hopeful for a wide range of conflicted and hard-to-talk about issues, “ believes Exhale’s Board President, Jocelyn Yin. “I have no doubt Aspen’s book will set a new standard for not only how we talk about abortion in this country, but also, how we treat one another.”

Losing Ownership of Ideas in Stanford Social Innovation Review

Lisa Lepson, Executive Director of Joshua Venture Group and founding board president of Exhale, wrote “Losing Ownership of New Ideas: A Mark of Success” in the Stanford Social Innovation Review on April 29, 2013.  In her piece, she writes about how social entrepreneurs, like me, impact social change by radically reframing ideas.

“The terms ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ are alienating,” explained Heather Holdridge, director of digital strategy at Planned Parenthood, before she went on to describe her organization’s new campaign to drop them. I was listening to her speak on a panel at the Jewish Funders Network conference last month, but my mind quickly went elsewhere.

Eleven years ago, I was the founding board president of Exhale, an organization dedicated to providing emotional support to women and their allies after an abortion, and to removing the stigma around abortion. At the time, Exhale’s founder, Aspen Baker, a social entrepreneur, had a radical viewpoint: The political labels of pro-choice and pro-life got in the way of our mission. She put forward a risky approach: to leave the labels behind and make our home in the grey area of personal abortion experiences.

You can imagine the response we got at the time. Established organizations working in the field of abortion rights were dumbfounded, threatened, confused, and angry. We were told to pick a side or “admit” that we were pro-choice. We faced suspicion and outright hostility. It didn’t matter how we tried to explain it. No one got it yet. It was a novel, daring approach, and Exhale’s board, staff, and volunteers spent the next decade advocating our view.

Exhale can list all the people who have used its services or sought its expertise. It knows how many people have called the after-abortion talkline, accessed their online resources, and trained as volunteer counselors. There are personal anecdotes, new financial supporters, and plenty of media articles, Twitter followers, and Facebook Likes.

But, how can Exhale measure progress on its mission of removing stigma and promoting emotional wellbeing after abortion?

Social entrepreneurs such as Aspen inject new values into communal conversations and can measure their success by taking stock of how perceptions around the issues they support have changed. They can track whether and how their novel, daring messages become mainstream.

 

She continues:

What social entrepreneurs do for social change is unique. They arrive on the scene, bring attention to community needs previously ignored, push the envelope, raise questions, and provide an alternative view and voice. They tackle problems with innovative models and impact large-scale public perceptions. Often, they work in fields dominated by large, established organizations with complicated networks of stakeholders and bureaucratic systems with large budgets. But these established organizations aren’t often nimble, and they struggle to adapt to contemporary needs. So when an organization such as Planned Parenthood or BBYO makes a major change and begins to own progressive messaging and values, it is years in the making.

That’s how a social entrepreneur can measure their impact. Years after their radical idea is rejected by mainstream organizations, the very same organizations will adopt them and promote these ideas as their own. Success for the social entrepreneur happens when their views are no longer feared but embraced.

Fun, Fearless Female in Cosmopolitan Magazine, May 2013

Thanks Cosmo! You know how to make a middle-age lady feel like a winner.

 

The Rewards of Leadership

At 30-years old, I hit a metaphorical wall.  I was exhausted and burned-out.  A social entrepreneur, I had poured my whole self into the venture I began at 24-years old and it seemed there was nothing left of me, for me.  I had a hard time getting to sleep.  I cried a lot.  I was broke.

I looked for role models, for other feminists who had dedicated their lives to changing the world by leading organizations to see how they did it.  I saw just two choices.  Either I could keep going, personal sacrifices be dammed, and find myself an old, bitter lady fighting the same battles year after year, with increasing exasperation and exhaustion. Or, I could quit and find something less taxing and also, less meaningful. I thought this was a false choice. I wanted a third-way, a path where I could be a leader with a joyful heart and a full life.

I set out to make that path. You might say, I leaned in to the challenge.

Pro-Voice on Philosophy Talk

Philosophy Talk just re-aired their program on abortion and made it available for free online.  Exhale and our pro-voice approach are featured in a short 3-minute segment with the Roving Philosophical Report that starts at 8:35.  You can here me discuss how the labels of pro-choice and pro-life are limiting and why its so important that women’s voices and experiences with abortion are heard and understood.

Here I am with the hosts John Perry and Ken Taylor, featured guest Cynthia Gorney, and Roving Reporter Angela.  The show was taped live at The Marsh in San Francisco in October 2010 and aired in January 2011.  Check it out here.

No More “Pro-Life” and “Pro-Choice”

* This was first published on Mother Jones *

Jane Roe never had an abortion. In fact, she is not even pro-choice. Her real name is Norma McCorvey, and it’s been 40 years since she was the anonymous plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that eventually became the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

McCorvey’s legal pseudonym is shorthand for a defining victory of the pro-choice movement, yet she has dedicated most of her life to the pro-life movement. She is a symbol for all that was won and all that has been lost in the decades of culture war—a conflict that has unmoored our nation’s public discourse on abortion.

Norma is like a lot of people who regularly shift their views and allegiances surrounding abortion. These changes show up in opinion polls, and activists on both sides regularly use them to claim that their side is capturing the hearts and souls of Americans. But, the truth is that our hearts and souls have been waiting for the politics to catch up.

Abortion Stories on HuffPost Live

I had a great time sharing stories with other women who have had abortions on Huff Post Live last week.  No politics – only personal experience. The ultimate practice of Pro-Voice.  You can check it out here.