[6] During and after college, Bonow worked as a bartender[7] and was active in Seattle’s art and music scene, producing events and hosting fundraisers.
She originally planned to become a therapist, attending a master's program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Antioch University in Seattle.
[9] This decision came after anti-abortion advocates at the Center for Medical Progress, including founder David Daleiden, produced a series of undercover videosshowing that Planned Parenthood illegally sold fetal tissue on the black market.
[10] Prompted by the Deleiden scandal, Bonow began talking to friends including writer Lindy West and musician Kimberly Morrison about creating a public project for speaking out about their own abortions.
Exercising the right to control my own fertility, surrounded by strangers who felt like people I knew, made me feel like one of the luckiest women in the world.
[17] The hashtag and coverage received backlash from anti-abortion groups, politicians, and commentators but also saw a huge groundswell of support from pro-choice activists and other leaders of the reproductive rights movement, including then-president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Cecile Richards.
Following this success, Bonow immediately left her graduate program and began developing #shoutyourabortion (also called SYA for short) into one of the leaders of the reproductive rights movement.
[19] In 2021, Bonow and #ShoutYourAbortion received widespread media attention after activists ingested Mifepristone during opening arguments during the Supreme Court’s Dobbs’ decision in order to raise awareness of abortion pills and express displeasure towards the expected verdict.