Roe v Wade Statement
MESSAGE TO STUDENTS
When the Womxn’s Center advocates for reproductive freedom and justice, we
want rights for our entire bodies for our entire lives. We unequivocally advocate for everyone to have equal access to abortion. Reproductive justice is not a “women’s” issue: reproductive health is a fundamental human right for people of all genders, identities, and bodies. We stand by everyone with a uterus. We advocate for safe and affordable in vitro fertilization, reduced infant and child-bearing mortality and morbidity rates, free and nontoxic menstruation supplies, affordable childcare, comprehensive sex education, and more.
Behind and Beyond the Draft
On May 2, 2022, many in the United States were thrown into turmoil as we heard
the news: a draft decision from the Supreme Court of the United States is set to weaken Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Perhaps you had time to read the 98-page first draft; more likely, you did not and took your cues from your preferred media outlets. The draft majority opinion of Dobbs vs. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization
exercises a “raw judicial power” that the majority opinion itself derides. The opinion determines that, since the Constitution did not explicitly protect abortion, states should have the power to strike down or uphold laws about this one area of reproductive health. As of this writing, at least 26 states are prepared to enact some form of abortion ban or restriction once the ruling becomes official.
Since the majority ruling leaked, there have been hundreds of personal narratives
flooding social media from people who did and did not have abortions and were grateful, regretful, scared, and relieved about the proposed change. While our stories are
important, they are masking the fact that abortion, like other reproductive medical
procedures, is already more highly regulated and policed than other medical procedures: both in terms of those seeking abortion care and those providing abortion care. Even with Roe v. Wade in place, many people today do not have access to abortion services. The majority of poor folks in our country are denied access to abortion services due to
“abortion funding bans, bans on the provision of services by government health care facilities, a shortage of abortion providers, and parental involvement laws.” (RJ Briefing Book).
More than a Single Issue
The personal is always political, as Carol Hanisch wrote fifty years ago. In only half of a century, we repeat history because we have been neglectful of it. It has been a frustrating experience, to say the least.
Part of our frustration is that the fractured state of politics in the United States of America has reduced a complex and nuanced to “a single issue” with much misinformation and heightened emotions. Reproductive justice is about more than simply the right to abortions - it requires that we recognize that a person’s ability to have sovereignty over their body is directly linked to systemic social inequities. A constitutional right to abortion is not enough to protect the reproductive health of folks with uteruses. In fact, the constitutional right to abortion does not even allow for abortion access for all. True reproductive justice requires that we examine how issues of “economic inequality, the environment, immigrant’s rights, disability rights, and discrimination based on race and sexual orientation” all directly impact an individual’s decision-making process (Reproductive Justice Briefing).
By focusing on one narrow part of reproductive health, we are promoting cycles of policy inequity that will impact impoverished and minoritized communities for at least the next generation, creating more barriers to safe and widely accessible healthcare for our more vulnerable citizens. Too, when we focus this narrowly, we are in danger of missing the precedent the draft opinion may set in reducing the Fourteenth Amendment’s scope on right to privacy and due process. The rights to enter interracial marriages, the ability to obtain contraceptives, and marriage equality laws are among other unenumerated rights that would be more vulnerable to challenges after Dobbs.
Stay Focused, We’re Not Done
Stay focused and hone your emotions into positive action. Do not get stuck in the mire of fear and rage. They can be paralyzing emotions, and, like the tides of the Pacific so close to us, time moves on, and feelings ebb and flow. Find where your energy best fits. If you do not want to be an abortion activist, there are many areas of reproductive health to advocate for!
In solidarity and strength,
The UCSC Womxn’s Center
Regardless of the particular intersections involved, structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal domains of power reappear across quite dif erent forms of oppression.”
― Patricia Hill Collins
UC SANTA CRUZ WOMXN’S CENTER AT CARDIFF HOUSE 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
RESOURCES
In the spirit of supporting local, independent healthcare and activism, find local
organizations to volunteer with or support financially. We’ve heard that California is a “safe state” for abortion, but we also have reproductive health battles to fight here.
- The leaked draft:
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-000294 73
- The California Blueprint for Reproductive Rights
- California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom
- California Latinas for Reproductive Justice
- National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
- SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
- National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
- Reproductive Justice Briefing Book
- Prism Reports on Reproductive Justice
- Learn about the revised Assembly Bill 797, which would allow insurance
coverage for infertility treatments
- The Jackson Women’s Health Organization is still open and supports vulnerable folx. https://www.sheroms.org/
- Support local, independent abortion clinics via the Keep Our Clinics campaign and the Abortion Care Network
