Photo by LVR
“Women’s rights are human rights, reproductive healthcare is healthcare, and medical decisions should be made by women and those that they trust, not politicians and officials. We have a choice: We can be the nation that rolls back the clock, that rolls back the rights of women and that strips them of their very liberty, or we can be the nation of choice, the nation where every woman can make her own choice.”
— Lucy McBath, Representative to Congress from Georgia
As the joint statement notes, in Cuba, abortion rights are unquestioned. They were established in 1965, long before Roe v. Wade.
It is clear that the U.S. is a nation where our rights are increasingly denied. In the U.S. our rights are under attack by a Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS), with a large number of right-wing justices appointed by right-wing presidents who were chosen by the Electoral College after losing the popular vote. Reproductive justice and other rights are under attack in the legislatures of many states as well.
The states that already have laws in place to deny women any autonomy or control over their own bodies, as soon as the Supreme Court permits them to do so, are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina.
These are states in which the health indicators for all people are worse than the national average. However, the disparity is much greater for Black people in these states, and for Mexican Americans as well, who also have less access to healthcare.
The same forces that oppose reproductive rights also oppose funding for prenatal care, healthcare in general, parental leave, and childcare. Their anti-family policies – including policies that would force people to remain pregnant and give birth against their will – are cruel and immoral and their impact will fall disproportionately on poor people and people of color. A truly pro-life movement would focus on better care for women and children, and for all people. This movement calling itself “pro-life” is a movement to control and subjugate women.
Cuba is now expanding the rights of all people. The Cuban Families Code is a system of family law that centers values of love, affection, solidarity and responsibility; that protects the right of all people to form a family without discrimination, and updates the legal definition of family institutions with inclusive rather than strictly heteronormative models. In a radical redefinition, children are regarded not as the possessions of their parents, but as their responsibilities; with rights including progressive autonomy and the right to a family life free from violence.
See the complete joint statement, “On the Occasion of the Leaked SCOTUS Draft Ruling Promising to Overturn Abortion Rights,” here. For an overview of the SCOTUS abortion rulings, starting with Roe, and the legal terrain in the U.S. on reproductive choice and abortion rights, see here.
Leni Villagomez Reeves and Cindy Domingo
Co-Chairs, WILPF US Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Committee
Darien De Lu
WILPF US President
