An Evening with Coral Gables Congregational Church's Pastor Laurie Hafner

A fierce and galvanizing reminder that resistance is everywhere in the fight for abortion and reproductive justice in the United States.
Fighting Mad is a book about what "reproductive justice" means and what it looks like to fight for it. Editors Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger bring together many of the strongest, most resistant voices in the country to describe the impacts of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision on abortion access and care.
The essayists and change agents gathered in Fighting Mad represent a remarkable breadth of expertise: activists and artists, academics and abortion storytellers, health care professionals and legislators, clinic directors and lawyers, and so many more. They discuss abortion restrictions and strategies to provide care, the impacts of criminalization, efforts to protect the targeted, shortcomings of the past, and visions for the next generation. Fighting Mad captures for the social and historical record the vigorous resistance happening in the early post-Roe moment to show that there are millions on the ground fighting to secure a better future.

The Rev. Dr. Laurinda M. Hafner’s passion for prophetic ministry, the social gospel, interfaith dialogue, and the arts has been the mark of her vibrant ministry. Called as Senior Pastor of Coral Gables Congregational UCC in 2006, Laurie came from Cleveland, Ohio where she served congregations for twenty-eight years. The dynamic ministry she had in Cleveland has been described by Niles Harper in his book, Urban Churches, Vital Signs: Beyond Charity Toward Justice, and by Chris Hobgood in Welcoming Resistance.

In 2022, Pastor Laurie, as she is known, along with another Christian, three Jews, one Unitarian-Universalist and a Buddhist, sued the State of Florida over reproductive rights on religious grounds. From that experience came her contribution to an anthology of writings called, Fighting Mad: Resisting the End of Roe v. Wade, edited by Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger from University of California Press.

Pastor Laurie is a community activist, especially engaged in LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive justice, the work of anti-racism, anti-book banning, and interfaith dialogue. She is probably best known as the pastor who goes up into the Church Tower each year and stays there until at least six tons of food is collected. Over the past years she has raised more than 125 tons of food for the hungry of South Florida.

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