Shireen's college thesis was the spark that led to her, Emily and Somer founding the Abortion Access Hackathon. Developed out of a need to bring tech resources and innovation to abortion providers and advocates, they developed the first hackathon at UC Davis in September of 2016. After the 2016 election, interest swelled. Kate and Wilson reached out & the newly expanded team organized hackathon #2 in San Francisco, in March of 2017.  In September of 2017, the next hackathon happened in New York City. In June of 2018, the hackathon traveled to Austin, Texas. To date, over the abortion access hackathon community is over 1,200 people.

 

Rooted in the principles of reproductive justice, the Abortion Access Hackathon is a creative, collaborative event. Building bridges between professions, the AAH offers tangible ways for individuals to use their skill set to further reproductive justice. Every event includes a primer on abortion and reproductive justice, vocabulary guide for common abortion and tech related lingo, guidelines for inclusion and working well together - and of course, free food and drinks. Over 80% of participants identify as female & 100% are amazing. 

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Abortion Access Hackathon is a fiscally sponsored project of Hacker Lab. 

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