Blegging for a good cause

Hi everyone. I just have a quick request today. Please help me honor the life and work of one of our own.

Ryan Goskie's death earlier this month was a blow to many of us who worked in this field, and I for one am still trying to get my head around the idea that someone with so much energy and heart is just gone and won't be coming back.

His partner let us know that donations are being raised to build a small memorial in Ryan's favorite park. It's no substitute for the man himself, but it will be a nice way to mark his existence in the world. I donated last week and am happy to see the fund has nearly reached its goal, so I hope our readers can be the ones to help push it over the top. Please contribute whatever little bit you can!

You can also donate toward abortion care for a woman who can't afford the whole cost on her own. Consider giving in Ryan's honor to the local fund for Missouri, the state where Ryan worked as a volunteer patient escort, an administrator, and a clinical assistant.

Guest post: Ryan, we miss you already

A few days ago, we all lost a friend and fellow abortioneer. He wasn't "famous" like some of those we've lost recently to violence or to illness, but his commitment and his great heart merit acknowledgement all the same. Today we're joined by a guest writer we'll just call Shiny Specula, someone who knew him personally and wants to speak in his memory. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week marked another huge loss in the choice community. Ryan Christopher Goskie died Tuesday after being admitted to the hospital with a sudden illness. He was only 25.

Those of you who met or had even heard of Ryan probably knew that he was something of an abortion rock star. Growing up in Granite City, Illinois, he responded to the awful spectacle of the protestors outside the Hope Clinic there by becoming a clinic escort when he was just a high school student. That is where I met Ryan, and I remember being so impressed by his sense of social justice, his energy, and how much fun he was to hang out with at 6:30 on a Saturday morning.

Ryan became a nurse and worked in two different abortion facilities. He went to conferences and rallies and wrote. He made fabulous friends and fell in love. He gave time and energy to organizations that he cared about, and he withstood the attention he received from all the antis who targeted him because he was the proud man who kept coming back to the clinic despite their hate. Ryan did what we do, only he took it to the next level.

I kind of feel like, if you took all the activist energy in me and then multiplied it with all the passion of another abortioneer, you still wouldn’t equal anything the size of Ryan’s contribution to abortion care and choice efforts.

I hadn’t seen Ryan in years, but I always felt like the future of abortion in the U.S. wasn’t in that much peril, not when Ryan was out there. I am so sad that he is gone. It is just impossible to understand.