URGE RESPONDS TO LEAKED SCOTUS OPINION OVERTURNING ROE V. WADE

On Monday, May 2, 2022, POLITICO shared a leaked draft majority opinion for the upcoming Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court case, revealing that Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey will likely be overturned. This decision would effectively ban abortion in many states across the country. While the leaked draft is not a final opinion, it has been confirmed by Chief Justice Roberts to be an authentic draft opinion from Justice Alito. 

Simply put, if the Court moves forward with this ruling, it will be devastating for young people, communities of color, and people who need abortions and will change the reality of abortion access for millions of Americans. As we wait to hear about the fate of  nearly 50-years of precedent, URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity warns that this blow to abortion access will harm communities:  

Statement from Kimberly Inez-McGuire (she/her/ella), Executive Director at URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity: 

“The leaked opinion revealed what Black and brown women, immigrants, and trans and non-binary young people of color have known to be true for far too long—the courts won’t save us, only the people can. We are in the endgame of the strategy of anti-abortion extremists: they seized state legislatures in the South and the Midwest, carved out space on the Supreme Court, and now are preparing to make abortion a crime. 

“If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the nation’s highest court, more than 40 million people nationally will lose access to abortion care – but Black and brown women, immigrants, and trans and non-binary young people of color will suffer most; these are the same communities who’ve been consistently denied access to affordable health care and denied the right to raise our children in safe and healthy communities. 

“Regardless of the outcome of this Supreme Court case, URGE will continue to build young people power to secure Reproductive Justice, including access to abortion, for us all. When a person decides to end a pregnancy, whether they go to a healthcare provider or manage their own abortion, they should be able to do so safely and with dignity—and without fear of arrest, investigation, or jail time. 

“We must acknowledge that if Roe is overturned, more than two dozen states are poised to ban abortion, including Georgia, Ohio, Texas, and Alabama. These bans are coordinated attacks by anti-abortion, conservative lawmakers who want to uphold white supremacist values. 

“Though this leak is not a final decision, it is a warning of what is to come and a signal to us all to do the work needed to ensure our communities can make the best decisions for themselves. Now is the time to stand together and demand true change. It’s time to tear down the stigma, shame, lies, and bans, and build a future where we can live with justice, love freely, express our gender and sexuality, and define and create families of our choosing. That change will not come from the courts — it will come from our communities, where we will organize and build lasting power together.” 

Statement from Desireé Luckey (she/her/hers), Policy Director at URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity: 

“As a Texas resident, I have seen firsthand the irreparable damage that the passage of the extreme abortion ban SB 8 has already caused, especially for young queer and trans people of color. If the Supreme Court moves forward with overturning Roe as this draft opinion suggests, anti-abortion extremists across the country will continue to enact total abortion bans. While the privilege of wealthy, white, and cis-hetero individuals across our country will provide them access to abortion care with ease, our nation’s most marginalized communities will struggle to decide between sacrificing financially to obtain abortion pills or travel for abortion care under the supervision of a healthcare provider, carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term, or considering an unsafe option to terminate their pregnancy.  

“We must protect abortion rights by passing and enacting federal protections for bodily autonomy as well as ending politically motivated restrictions against safe, common-sense, and affordable medication abortion that further deprives marginalized communities who lack the resources to access quality in-clinic care. 

“Once this decision becomes official, people will still need to access abortions. We must donate to abortion funds, educate, destigmatize, and decriminalize self-managed abortion, and continue to support the young people on the ground fighting to keep abortion access a reality. For now, abortion is still legal. Roe is still the law of the land until the Supreme Court issues its official decision, so any pregnant person seeking abortion care in this country can move forward with their decision as it is still their right. It is now the responsibility of abortion advocates to ensure that this right is preserved beyond Roe.”