The Supreme Court just took away our federally protected right to abortion in the United States. This means that access to an abortion will be decided by each individual state. But make no mistake: the legal right to an abortion has never historically guaranteed equal access to essential reproductive health care services. In many states, especially in the South and Midwest, people face enormous legal challenges barriers to abortion, and systemic barriers remained widespread throughout the country. Now, without federal protections for abortion care, restrictions will burden and disproportionately affect low-income people, BIPOC, undocumented people and migrants, LGBTQIA2S+ people, people with disabilities, people living in rural areas, and others already facing oppression.
The field of reproductive health is deeply rooted in white supremacy, racism, and misogyny and as such has harmed, sterilized, and killed people of color, particularly Black women. carafem is committed to ensuring that we do not continue this legacy, and we understand that all struggles for liberation are inherently interconnected. carafem remains a proud abortion provider, and believes in the principles of reproductive justice—the “human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, to have children, not to have children, and to parent children who we have in safe and sustainable communities,” as defined by SisterSong. From racial justice, to immigration justice, to queer and trans justice, to disability justice and beyond, reproductive justice has deep roots in intersectional approaches to combating oppression.
A core principle of reproductive justice is safe, accessible, and compassionate abortion care for all who want and need it, and we are committed to providing quality abortion care to the fullest extent of the law. But we need your help—to destroy the Roe v. Wadeattacks on abortion care will only continue to increase and become more widespread.
Following this Supreme Court decision, more than half of the states in our country have enacted legislation to severely restrict or completely ban abortion care, putting abortion out of reach for millions of people. We know that the long fight for abortion rights against this Supreme Court decision has only just begun, and we are planning for this moment. carafem is ready to fight the unjust ban on abortion in the courts and in our health centers.
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