At Well Done, We Talk About Abortion

3 min read

 

It’s no secret we love it when we can do really great work for clients. 

Sometimes we get to encourage voter turnout and facilitate more civic engagement for the Marion County Election Board, or work with Second Helpings to establish the “Ken Honeywell Continuing Education Fund ” to support culinary training programs. Other times our projects are low stakes but incredibly fun, like our creation of the Commanist Party. We really love it when a project that allows us to play to our strengths, support a great client, do beautiful work, and promote the values we hold dear all at the same time comes along.

This past fall, Well Done worked with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana to create a campaign in anticipation of a landmark legal ruling of Roe v. Wade in summer 2022. They had a lot of research, a great understanding of the landscape, and a central problem they were working against: Despite the prevalence of a heavy stigma surrounding the issue of abortion, anti-choice legislation, and political talking points, most Hoosiers support a woman’s right to choose and equal access. 

So, Let’s Talk About It.

There are a lot of parts of this project that made it a good fit for our strengths and our values: a campaign designed to educate, encourage conversation, and strategically make use of in-person and digital strategies; a chance to fight misinformation; and the opportunity to bring more awareness to a group of people whose work we greatly admire. We were excited to put all of this to work in support of the freedom to decide when and if to have children and equitable access to abortion and other reproductive health services.

In April, we launched the ACLU of Indiana’s campaign called “Let’s Talk About Abortion, Indiana.” The campaign hinges on a landing page that invites Hoosiers who are conflicted about their views on abortion access to learn more about it. We used what we learned from combating misinformation in the pandemic, creating a “myth buster” section that not only answers the common myths and misconceptions, but invites readers to check our sources to learn more.

There’s a conversation guide to help have those sensitive, sometimes-tough conversations with family and friends. The page also encourages people who are already supporters of reproductive justice to take action, with direct steps to sign the ACLU’s petition to keep abortion accessible, and share the website to get more people talking about abortion and where the majority of Hoosiers stand on the issue. 

The Perfect Timing.

Just one month after the launch of the campaign, the draft opinion from the Supreme Court was leaked, previewing the likelihood of Roe v. Wade being overturned later this summer. We got billboards up literally that day. It was jarring to see just how important the conversations we’re encouraging through this campaign are. As our partners at the ACLU of Indiana pointed out, it took years of talking about abortion as something other than the right of people to access necessary and important healthcare to get where we are now. It will take a committed group of thoughtful people talking to their neighbors to change the world again. But as protesters around the country understand, it’s the only thing that ever has.

At the time of this post, we’ve tracked 3,600+ unique visits to the website and almost 200 downloads of the conversation guide in just a month, in addition to the attention the ad campaign is getting from ACLU staff and volunteers around the country.

We are so proud to be a part of the plan to change things for the better—no matter how long it takes. We know that doing good in the world starts with the choices we make.