Final yr, the factor that advocates and individuals who can get pregnant have been dreading for many years lastly occurred: Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court docket within the determination for Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Org. The fallout between the leaked draft of the opinion and now has been a slow-moving horror film for numerous People who relied on Roe as regulation of the land and as a safety for accessing the healthcare they want after they want it.
Now there are 4 states with constitutional amendments that don’t defend the appropriate to abortion (or permit public funds for use for abortion-related healthcare) and simply 17 states have legal guidelines defending the appropriate to abortion, three states have protections of their constitutions, and simply 4 states (plus DC) have “codified the appropriate to abortion all through being pregnant with out state interference,” based on the Guttmacher Institute. 24 states have near-total abortion bans or are anticipated to move such bans in upcoming legislative periods. A third of American pregnant individuals are pressured to journey greater than an hour to entry the healthcare that needs to be their proper. It’s tough out right here.
And that brings us to this January, 22, 2023 — a day that ought to have been the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade determination that modified so many ladies, birthing individuals and household’s lives by giving them the authorized proper to make reproductive healthcare selections for themselves. We didn’t get right here accidentally and there was a calculated motion to see these protections stripped away — and beneath all of it, like within the case of so many injustices, there’s an entire lot of ignorance (with a splash of racism, misogyny and cruelty) to acknowledge.
Sadly, there are far too many anti-choice politicians who’ve spent the majority of their careers being each loud and unsuitable about reproductive healthcare — spouting a number of the strangest, most absurd and anti-science nonsense conceivable (on the file!). And that loud and unsuitable power has in the end value ladies and birthing individuals their lives, their security and their proper to make their very own reproductive well being selections.
To acknowledge what’s a reasonably horrible and unhappy would-be anniversary and to recharge your power to push for an growth of reproductive rights and protections the place you reside, please take a look at this nightmarish listing of deeply ignorant, uninformed and harmful issues precise grown-ass politicians have mentioned about reproductive rights.