WASHINGTON — In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which would end the Constitutional right to an abortion, Health Care for America Now Executive Director Margarida Jorge released the following statement:
Today the Supreme Court has set our country back half a century by reversing a basic Constitutional freedom that for decades has enabled pregnant people to make basic decisions about their own futures. Abortion is health care and the personal political views of extremist Supreme Court judges should have no place in it. Whether to continue a pregnancy or terminate one is a decision that–like other health care decisions–is up to individuals. The Supreme Court’s job is to ensure everyone has the freedom to make that decision without fear of punishment, stigma or impediment, not to take away that right.
The Court’s ruling will strip millions of people of a freedom Americans have enjoyed for nearly 50 years: their right to decide for themselves if, when and how to have children. Denying people the basic opportunity to determine for themselves whether to expand their families will have serious health and economic consequences. The Supreme Court’s decision could also enable states to make abortion–and any other behavior while pregnant–a crime punishable by law. Already state legislatures are poised to turn pregnant women’s decisions into crimes, legislating criminal punishment for ending unintended pregnancy and exposing anyone who gets pregnant to increased surveillance, investigation, arrest and contact with the criminal justice system. Health care issues like abortion should not be treated as crime.
The fight to ensure everyone can access the health care they need, including abortion, is far from over. This decision could open up the floodgates for invasive, far-reaching bans on other types of health care from contraception to miscarriage care to fertility treatments. As more states move to push abortion access further out of reach, we will oppose any effort to arrest, charge or punish people for accessing the care they need or helping someone do so. We won’t stop working to hold extremist politicians accountable and ensure access to the full range of reproductive health procedures–including abortion–so that everyone has the options they need to take care of themselves and their families.
