June 24, 2022
Statement on the Supreme Court's Roe V Wade decision
The Supreme Court has just turned the clock back 50 years. They have taken us back to a time when women did not have the freedom to make their own decisions about their healthcare and the deeply personal decision about whether and when to become a parent.
I feel so fortunate that 25 years ago, I was able to exercise that freedom, and choose to have an abortion. I’m furious that generations of young people will not have that right. I’m grateful to live in a state that recognizes reproductive care as healthcare, and determined to keep it that way.
Whether and when to become a parent, whether to take the risk of a difficult pregnancy, whether to bear a child conceived out of violence - these are deeply personal decisions that every one of us should have the right and freedom to make, in consultation with our families and our doctors. Legislatures have no business interfering with these decisions.
The Supreme Court’s action here will not stop abortions. It will make them more dangerous by driving them back underground. It will put the lives of poor women, disproportionately women of color, at risk by forcing them to carry risky pregnancies to term. It will push more women into poverty by forcing them to become a parent even if they cannot support a child, and by constricting their educational and economic opportunities.
The Court’s reasoning threatens other fundamental personal and reproductive rights as well. This opens the door for states to ban birth control, restrict the right to make other medical decisions, and puts at risk the right to marriage equality. Under the Court’s reasoning, even the right to interracial marriage is threatened.
This is a dark day. And it’s also an urgent call to action to all of us who believe that abortion care is healthcare, and that healthcare is a fundamental right. We have battled the forces of authoritarianism and repression before, and we can and will do it again. And I am committed to doing everything I can to make sure that there will again be a day when all people have the freedom to make their own decisions, as I did all those years ago.
Sincerely,
Susheela