An Ivy City Distillery Releases a New Gin in Support of Abortion Access

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Ivy City’s women-owned Republic Restoratives Distillery hopes to increase access to abortion through sales of its brand new gin line.

Dissent Gin, made in honor of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her dissenting opinions, is available starting Thursday, June 30. For each $79 bottle sold, $10 will be donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds to help cover travel and lodging costs for women in dire need of abortion care.

“Millions of Americans live in communities where safe and legal abortions were just banned. The war on women is raging but we won’t be silent. Like RBG, we dissent and we’re going to fucking fight,” says Republic Restoratives Distillery’s co-founder and CEO Pia Carusone.

The Dissent Gin line includes 1,500 bottles to start, and a second batch is already in the works. Online orders can be shipped to 30 states. The bottles are also sold at D.C. spirits stores and at its Ivy City distillery.

“We’re hoping we can be sending the [National Network of Abortion Funds] money every month for a while,” she says. “Our customers are excited to be supporting a spirit company that puts their money where their values are.”

John Robinson/Republic Restoratives

LGBTQ-owned Republic Restoratives has taken a loud liberal stance on views and activism since opening in 2016. Dissent Gin joins a family of small-batch spirits that includes Civic Vodka (a nod to civic participation); Madam whiskey, an homage to Vice President Kamala Harris; and action-driven Purpose Rye. Dissent Gin joins its Chapmans Apple Brandy Assembly Gin.

Republic Restoratives tasked D.C. gin wizard and Cocktail Curations co-founder Nicole Hassoun to create the smoke-infused savory spirit. Influenced by aromas and flavors of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Brooklyn hometown, Dissent Gin unites ingredients not often found in a gin: pepper, allspice, bay leaves, ginger, lemon, mandarin orange, and hickory smoke.

D.C. artist Rose Jaffe, whose work includes D.C.’s new two-story mural of RGB and contributions to Black Lives Matter Plaza, designed Dissent Gin’s label.

“It’s just been a very fun feminist collaboration over the past few months,” says Carusone.

A gin made for RGB was long in the works, but the recent anti-abortion ruling helped the name Dissent come to light.

“All we could think was what would Ruth Bader Ginsburg do? She made dissenting an act of revolution. Even if we lose there’s still hope to be found and power to be had,” says Carusone.

Other small businesses in D.C. are also stepping up to support abortion rights. Shaw dive bar Ivy and Coney held an all-night fundraiser last weekend, and acclaimed bakery Bread Furst in Cleveland Park is donating all profits from cookie sales to D.C. Abortion Fund.