Lara Islinger is an activist, researcher, and emerging freelance writer focusing on reproductive justice and abortion. For the past 2 years, she has worked closely with feminist organizations and collectives in Mexico and the US as they adapt to the fragmentized landscape of abortion access after the fall of Roe. Her primary focus is on self-managed abortion and feminist grassroots networks providing free, alegal abortion care. Moreover, Lara is working on several projects with the organization Shout Your Abortion aimed at normalizing abortion and elevating safe paths to access, regardless of legality. She is also the care coordinator of Abortion Freedom Fund and involved in the campaign “Abtreibung entkriminalisieren” (“Decriminalize Abortion”) in Germany.

At the moment, Lara is a master’s candidate at the University of Hamburg, Germany. After spending the fall semester 2023 at UC Berkeley as a Visiting Student Researcher, she is now in the final stretch of writing her thesis on feminist abortion accompaniment. The research project is based on participatory fieldwork with the Mexican feminist organization Las Libres. Lara also holds a BA in political science from University of Hamburg and an interdisciplinary diploma from Smith College. Through public writing, she is looking to make her research more accessible to a wider audience and has recently published pieces in Feminist Studies and Perspective Daily, an online magazine for constructive journalism.