Born in a trailer. Literally. Grew up on the beach in So Cal. Home-schooled. Learned to fly airplanes when I was 16. Lived in Alaska. Moved to Berkeley to study peace. Got pregnant. Had an abortion. Decided to create some change in the world. Founded Exhale. Leading the pro-voice movement!
I believe it is possible to bring peace to the abortion war. As a woman who had an abortion (watch me tell my story on video), founded Exhale and has been promoting my vision and leading the organization since 2000, I am honored for the chance to learn, grow, innovate and have an impact. I focus on listening, storytelling and ethics in all things, including my newfound love for working with the City of Oakland to become a technologically-savvy, transparent city of the future.
My official bio is here:
Aspen Baker is the leading voice in the nation on the personal experiences of women and men post-abortion. Aspen’s own experience with abortion in 1999 led her to found Exhale. Aspen was awarded with the Gerbode Professional Development Fellowship in 2012; was named a “Local Hero” in 2009 by San Francisco’s KQED during Women’s History Month; “Young Executive Director of the Year” in 2005 by the Bay Area’s Young Non-Profit Professional Network; and a “Top Activist Under 30” in 2003 by Choice USA. Aspen’s essay “My Abortion Brought Us Together” is featured in the 2012 anthology Nothing But the Truth So Help Me God: 51 Women Reveal the Power of Positive Female Connection. Aspen speaks regularly at conferences and schools, and addresses advocates on ethical storysharing, conflict transformation, abortion wellbeing, and the Pro-Voice Movement. In 2011, Aspen was appointed by Mayor Jean Quan to the City of Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission, and was appointed Vice-Chair of the Commission in 2013. As a spokesperson for Exhale, Ms. Baker has been featured by media outlets across the country, including CNN Headline News, Fox National News, Glamour Magazine, Ladies Home Journal, New York Times, National Public Radio, Associated Press, Newsweek, San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, Bust, and many more. You can book Aspen for public speaking by contacting Aid & Abet and follow her on Twitter:@aspenbaker.
Have you seen Amanda Palmer’s song/video “Oasis?” about a young woman who has an abortion?
http://amandapalmer.net/content/?p=333
Here’s her blog entry about the fallout from the video:
http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/75463717/on-abortion-rape-art-and-humor
P.S. Love the rainbow over the Grand Lake Theater picture.
Thanks Quercki. I had not seen this! Wish I had before we did the Humor issue. I’m going to post the video now.
I am a person of the male persuasion. Your blog entry about the NIH hearing resonated with a lot of my experience.
I spent two intervals each of five years duration at the TALK distress center in Kingston ON Canada which is similar to Exhale. It was started in 1973 as an alternative to a somewhat judgmental, religiously based distress line in the area. Like Exhale, it is confidential, anonymous, non-judgmental and staffed by empathic volunteer peer counselors. We added an 800 number so that we could serve all of Eastern Ontario. Volunteering there was one of the best experiences of my life
Volunteering helped me in my work on one of the original websites, founded in 1995, at http://www.religioustolerance.org. We now have about 5,150 essays online including a section on post-abortion syndrome.
Regards
Bruce Robinson
ocrt@religioustolerance.org
thanks so very much for the work. so inspiring, the courage, in these particular times. i had an illegal abortion in 1966 and am still healing-which is not to say life hasn’t been hugely abundant for me. greetings and thanks, nancy dotlo