Last Friday, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped women of their constitutional right to abortion and the right to determine their own health care. In an outrageous decision, the Court disregarded well-settled law and opened the door to reversing precedents on marriage equality, the privacy of intimate relationships, and access to contraception.
While abortion continues to be legal in California, the decision will allow 26 states to further restrict abortion access and 13 states to have “trigger bans” that would automatically enact total bans. 40 million women will be left without access to crucial reproductive care. This is an unequivocal attack on women, especially poor women and women of color, including Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities as well as trans and nonbinary people. AAPI women will now face greater health dangers and be forced to make impossible decisions while risking criminal prosecution.
Along with other allies, we call upon Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act to codify protections that had been safeguarded in Roe.
At CAA, we are also clear that this iteration of the Supreme Court will not stop at curtailing reproductive freedoms and seeks to further erode the rights of all people of color and women. We are deeply concerned as the Court is poised to hear two cases on affirmative action including Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College later this year. We must understand these decisions are part of a sustained and long-term effort of the conservative right to attack democratic freedoms that uplift gender equity and racial justice.
