Fight for Reproductive Justice and Abortion Access
We recently marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade which guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion. This was the first anniversary since the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization fundamentally changing access to abortion in the U.S. and overturning Roe. We are now ensnared in an ongoing struggle for the right to self-determination, and the ability for people with uteruses to have a say over their own bodies. Rather an irony for the land of the free.
Increasingly restrictive abortion bans have been passed across the country, putting the lives of pregnant people in peril. Historically economically marginalized populations including Black communities, other people of color, and low-income communities are placed in even greater harm because of diminished access to reproductive healthcare.
The best thing that Congress can do in the face of these circumstances is to pass legislation at the federal level to safeguard access to abortion and the full range of reproductive healthcare. This includes protections from political or religious interference and a bar on state and federal legislation that imposes medically unnecessary regulations on access to abortion services including medication, mandatory waiting periods, or out-and-out abortion bans. Last Congress the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) was passed in the House. Legislation like WHPA needs to be reintroduced.
As a justice-seeking people, we must remain committed to preserving and protecting access to the full range of reproductive health care for all – including legal abortion – as an imperative rooted in our deeply-held faith beliefs in social justice, moral agency, and religious liberty for all. Please contact your member of Congress to ask them to introduce and support legislation protecting an individual’s right to access abortion and the full range of reproductive healthcare access.