This is Very Scary
The threat to Roe v Wade is a human rights crisis, particularly for BIPOC, queer folks, and people who are low-income. Educate yourself, move money, elevate voices, do something.
As of this past Monday, the United States is facing the potential rollback of Roe vs Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that gave pregnant people some semblance of control over their bodies for the first time in American history.
Roe v Wade guarantees a pregnant person's right to abortion up until the fetus in question is medically viable (estimated to be at roughly 24 weeks). Plenty of American states have made aggressive efforts to block this right in the decades since Roe was finalized, but others have invested heavily in pro-choice infrastructure. Thus, for years, a significant piece of the bodily sovereignty puzzle for people with uteruses has been keeping track of where one can go for care, how one can get there, and how much money one needs for transportation, co-pays, lodgings, etc.
Americans who are underserved by the nation’s infrastructure— particularly the poor, people of color, and queer folks— have been forced to develop this cottage industry of reproductive care access. And that’s WITH the protections of Roe v Wade in place. Things haven’t been good; Roe is what we have, and we need much, much more. But losing Roe would pull the rug, floor, foundations, and earth out from under what we DO have.
A repeal of Roe would activate an estimated twenty-six states’ trigger laws, banning abortions outright. As per the Center for Reproductive Rights’s report What if Roe Fell?: “Based on our analysis… if the Supreme Court were to limit or overturn Roe, abortion would remain legal in twenty-one states and likely would be prohibited in twenty-four states and three territories.” Millions of people would suddenly be in what the Center refers to as “abortion deserts,” regions without accessible reproductive care. Some of those regions are the size of small countries. The results will be catastrophic. As per Doctors Without Borders’s International Women’s Day press release in 2019, an estimated 22,000+ pregnant people die from unsafe abortions every year across the globe. The loss of Roe would compound this deadly statistic, as well as fuel increased rates of harm from illegal abortions, compromised/unsafe pregnancies going unaborted, and a whole host of other shit (can the child’s parents safely support and care for it? Will the child have a healthy life? Will the pregnant parent have a healthy life? Will the pregnant parent survive the pregnancy? etc. etc.).
The internet is entirely saturated with information about this right now. So I’m going to stop here, spare you yet another deluge of panicked and angry words, and give you some tangible stuff to do. Because I, at least, have found over and over again that action can sometimes offer solace when nothing else— no knowledge, no companionship, no kind words— can. So, below, there’s sources for learning more about this crisis and who is most at risk, and abortion funds to donate money to (DONATE TO THEM, NOT BIG ORGANIZATIONS LIKE PLANNED PARENTHOOD. LOCAL MONEY STAYS LOCAL.).
Black people with uteruses need support right now; the American healthcare system harms Black patients, particularly pregnant Black patients and queer Black patients, to a disproportionate, deadly degree every year. Queer people need access to reproductive care and support— people of all gender identities and orientations get pregnant, for all that the U.S. medical apparatus works tirelessly to ignore that (plus, this potential repeal threatens to reinstate many other compromises to queer human rights in the U.S. in the coming years). Poor patients need access to care, regardless of their income, geographic location, or medical coverage. Everyone has a right to health, and the right to make choices about what happens to their bodies. Even when a government says otherwise.
Especially then.
So choose something to do— donate $3 to a fund, share a link to abortion funds on your twitter, share information about how Black, queer, and low-income people are uniquely threatened right now. Then, tomorrow, do it again. Race and money go a long way towards preserving human rights— if you’re white and have money, you will still have human rights even if Roe is repealed. Millions won’t.
So do something.
What the Threat to Roe is
https://reproductiverights.org/maps/what-if-roe-fell/
https://time.com/6173229/countries-abortion-illegal-restrictions/
https://prochoice.org/scotus-leak-suggests-worst-fears/
https://abortionfunds.org/scotus-leak/
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/bansoffourbodies/
What the Threat to Roe Can Mean for…
… BIPOC:
https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/the-racist-history-of-abortion-and-midwifery-bans
… the Queer community:
https://www.them.us/story/what-the-leaked-roe-v-wade-opinion-portends-for-queer-americans
https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/04/26/abortion-rights-lgbtq-rights-roe-vs-wade-julian-cyr-rebecca-hart-holder
Lists of Abortion Funds to Donate to
*** BOOKMARK THIS ONE*** https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T-aDTsZXnKhMcrDmtcD35aWs00gw5piocDhaFy5LKDY/edit
https://www.thecut.com/article/donate-abortion-fund-roe-v-wade-how-to-help.html
https://www.gq.com/story/how-to-support-abortion-access
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3abgz5/what-abortion-funds-to-donate-money-to-roe-v-wade
Get an Abortion
https://www.ineedana.com/
https://abortionfunds.org/need-abortion
https://reprocare.com/