Over the weekend, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a nearly half-century precedent establishing a woman’s right to access safe abortions. In response to this decision, Project Guardianship reaffirms our commitment to advancing autonomy and agency for all. We will continue to fight and advocate for the fundamental Human Right of everyone to make decisions about their body and health.
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade not only renders pregnant people and people who can become pregnant as second-class citizens, it will have significant impacts on those already marginalized: people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and persons with disabilities, who already face barriers to receiving health care. In fact, for many in the United States, pregnancy can mark the first time a person receives medical services. Women of color have had especially poor maternal outcomes and high rates of maternal mortality. Abortion, in any case, is health care that when denied, can have serious consequences including harming the pregnant person’s physical and mental health, making it difficult to escape poverty, derailing education, career and life plans, and making it more difficult to leave an abusive partner (ACLU). Bodily autonomy is the right of every person, and reproductive justice is not achieved unless every woman has access to contraception and abortion, safe birth, and the overall right to social, economic and political value.
We staunchly oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe V. Wade, and reaffirm our support of a pregnant person’s right to choose. We will continue to advocate to make sure all persons in New York receive the health care they choose, as is their civil right. As such, we will advocate to see the Equality Amendment passed in New York, which seeks to broadly prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, disability, or sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. For further reading on how this decision will affect marginalized people, we recommend this memo by the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, as well as other allies.