U.S. citizens are outraged after a leaked opinion by the Supreme Court plans to overrule abortion protections under Roe vs. Wade. This clearly undermines pregnant people’s rights to determine what happens to their own bodies, which is rooted in a long history of Men controlling Women’s bodies. If we are to be anti-sexist and anti-cissexist, pregnant people must have bodily autonomy to determine if they want to abort a pregnancy no matter the reason. Alongside decriminalising abortion and making it safe and accessible, the only role government should play is in supporting people to avoid unwanted pregnancies through a) safe and easy access to contraception, b) a public health approach to systemic sexual violence and c) ensuring people have the financial means to take a pregnancy to term if they want. If ‘forced birth advocates’ were actually pro-life, they would focus on funding this kind of initiative.
So who is most impacted by overturning Roe vs. Wade? Poor people of Colour. It is mainly immigrants and women of Colour who do not have access to a car or time off who will be forced to bring their pregnancies to term. The repercussions are even starker for Black Women who are much more likely to die in childbirth than any other group. Institutions systemically target Black Women at both ends, making it incredibly dangerous to be in the hands of a racist medical system, but impossible to escape if abortions are no longer funded while they face economic strife.
All across the U.S., people are protesting for the same rights they had 40 years ago, wearing green in solidarity with Argentinian abortion rights activists, who began the “green wave.” The 2020 green protests in Argentina for abortion rights and other Women’s rights issues led to Argentinian politicians legalising abortion, and paving the way for other Latin American countries to do so. If (and likely when) abortion rights are rolled back in the U.S., 17 states would make abortion under any circumstance completely illegal. This includes in cases of rape, incest, and even ectopic pregnancies (where the pregnancy grows in the wrong part of the reproductive organs) and will kill the person if not removed.
Unfortunately, threatening Roe vs. Wade which is based on the “right to privacy” paves the way for the removal of many other rights like criminalising homosexuality, contraceptives, and interracial marriage. Legislation that is anti-abortion, anti-Trans, and anti-LGBTQIA+ is inherently interconnected because they all reduce people’s sexuality and gender to the biological role of reproduction. Not only is this dehumanising, but it serves to enforce the gender binary and patriarchal hierarchy that keep cisgender Men in power.
We must hold up all of these complexities when having discussions around abortion access, as they come up in our company contexts. Who are we holding responsible for reproductive justice and who needs targeted access to resources? How can you include Trans and Non-binary people in your language around reproductive justice, rather than just making it a “Women’s issue” (particularly as the same Trans people will now have limited access to gender-affirming treatments as Planned Parenthoods are defunded)? Our language and our actions matter. Consider donating to these abortion funds to support people getting access to safe abortions if their state bans them as you reexamine if your policies are equitable for staff affected by this threat to their bodily autonomy.
