Executive Director Kimberly Inez McGuire Meets With VP Harris, Civil Rights, Reproductive Health & Justice Leaders at White House
September 12, 2022
Kwentoria A. Williams
kwwilliams@urge.org
(WASHINGTON, DC) – On Monday, September 12, 2022, URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity Executive Director Kimberly Inez McGuire (she/her/ella) joined a group of civil rights, reproductive health, and reproductive justice organization leaders in a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House. These were her remarks:
“I want to start by offering my deepest thanks to the distinguished leaders here today from civil rights, reproductive health and justice, and of course, Madam Vice President for your incredible leadership. You have been an inspiration to so many, including my own family.
“This is a momentous discussion, as an organization that is dedicated to getting to decide when, if, and how we build our families. As my comrades have acknowledged, we who fight for justice have formidable foes. And make no mistake: we are in a whole scale attack on self-determination; whether it be our ability to self-determine our pregnancies, the ability of young trans people to live with dignity, go to school, and get health care, or the ability of communities to self-determine in our democracy who will lead and make our laws. It is an attack on all fronts and an attack that we in this room are prepared to take head-on.
“Young Black women and young trans people are most harmed by the racist abortion bans that have now been passed in 17 states and counting, facing the impossibility of traveling hundreds of miles for care, or potential criminalization for ending their own pregnancies with safe and effective abortion pills like mifepristone and misoprostol.
“We also know that young people are not sitting by as these injustices proceed. Young people – a majority of whom today are Black, Indigenous, AAPI, or Latine – are on the frontlines of the fight for abortion justice: organizing & engaging voters with URGE in the South, Midwest, and California. Young people are working in independent abortion clinics. Young people and young Black women organized and won in Kansas to protect abortion on the ballot and secure it as a constitutional right. Young people are also supporting their own communities, sharing information, and supporting loved ones in self-managing their own abortions – which is often their first and sometimes their only choice.
“We are grateful for the collaboration of this administration and in particular your leadership, and we look forward to working together to continue to address this mounting crisis.
“Losing Roe has created a national health crisis. But let’s be clear: ROE WAS NEVER ENOUGH. Roe was not made to secure the right to abortion for Black women, for young people, for low-income people. And so, we look forward not only to securing what we lost but to regaining what we never had: abortion justice. “
