Hey fam, it's Amara.

Welcome to the TransLash podcast, a show where we tell trans stories to save trans lives.

With abortion access under attack across the country, especially in the South, we wanted to highlight someone

working on the ground to make abortion safe, accessible, and gender affirming. That's why I'm

excited to bring you this bonus conversation with North Carolina-based community organizer

and abortion dula Ash Williams as part of our trans bodies, transchoices campaign.

Ash is a black non-binary trans femme working at the intersection of abolition, racial justice, and abortion access.

As a member of the Mountain Area Abortion Dula Collective,

Ash provides emotional, logistical, and financial support for people throughout the

process of getting an abortion. But he doesn't stop there. Ash has trained hundreds of other

abortion doulas across the state and country as well. In addition to his incredible work as a

dula, Ash has been working on the front lines of the movement

for Black Lives in North Carolina. He has spearheaded multiple efforts, including a successful

campaign to end the practice of shackling pregnant incarcerated people in his state and getting

a black trans woman transferred to a correctional facility in line with

her gender.

Ash also took a leadership role in Charlotte Uprising, an abolitionist organization working

to build alternatives to policing following the murder of Keith Lamont Scott.

Ash holds a master's degree in ethics and applied philosophy and is currently

Project Nia's decriminalizing abortion residents. Ash, thank you so much for joining me, especially

at this critical time for you and your work. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be

with y'all. Thank you. Thank you. And also thank you for the power of your work.

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