Dear Friends and Allies,
After nearly two months of collective anxiety, we have the infuriating decision we expected. It's clear that Roe was never enough. We now recommit to creative and aggressive legal defense, strengthening coalitions, and building our outreach network to help people facing pregnancy-related charges.
In callously ignoring nearly 50 years of precedent, the Supreme Court has sent a clear message to all people capable of pregnancy: you are not your own constitutionally protected person anymore, but are a subject of the state to be regulated, policed, and forced to give birth. This opens the door to even more arrests, state surveillance, and rights deprivations of pregnant people. Since the 1973 Roe ruling, we’ve documented more than 1,700 such cases.
This obsession with policing the lives and wombs of women, especially of color, is obscene. Women of color, low-income women, and drug-using pregnant and postpartum people who already face discrimination and stigma will be the most impacted.
Taking time to grieve, feel outraged, and process the Court's disdain for women's health and rights is critical. But now is not the time to give up. Realizing that the Dobbs decision has the power to increase the universe of criminalization beyond abortion is terrifying, but this should not paralyze us, as the opportunities for potential allyship, collaboration, and solidarity are numerous.
What you can do today:
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Donate to abortion funds, especially in the South.
- Donate to clinics moving to states that will continue to have abortion access, and support clinic workers.
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Support NAPW's legal defense and advocacy by donating today.
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Get and share information about self-managed abortion.
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Download our new Confronting Pregnancy Criminalization guide and share it widely.
We will keep fighting. To quote our founder Lynn M. Paltrow, "No prohibition and no amount of pain or fear will ever stop a movement for fundamental human rights."
Sincerely,
The NAPW Team
