NIRH Statement on Obliteration of Roe v. Wade
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: June 24, 2022
CONTACT: Olivia Lapeyrolerie, [email protected]
NEW YORK – Andrea Miller, President of the National Institute for Reproductive Health and NIRH Action Fund released the following statement on the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade:
“The Supreme Court’s majority decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is a devastating and unprecedented assault on our most cherished freedoms, which puts our bodies, our families, and our futures on the line. The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization will upend the lives and jeopardize the health and well-being of millions of people across this country – those seeking abortion care, those who will need abortion care in the future, and the families and loved ones of those who will be denied the abortion care they need. And while this burden will cross every race, class, and zip code, we know that it will fall the hardest on Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other communities of color; those working to make ends meet; young people; and people living in rural communities.
Today’s pernicious decision was not unexpected, but that does not make it any less appalling. This date will live in infamy, as the day when an unaccountable cabal of extreme conservative Justices turned precedent on its head and turned their backs on the people of this nation. It will usher in an era where every pregnancy that ends – and every person involved – may be suspect. And it will give government officials in roughly half the states wide-ranging power to surveil, prosecute, and punish those who end their pregnancies and those who help them do so.
But make no mistake: this fight is far from over. The overwhelming majority of Americans believe that abortion should be legal, affordable, and available in all communities. They understand that the ability to make these most basic decisions about our lives are central to our health, well-being, equality, and economic security. They appreciate that the right to make reproductive decisions recognized in Roe v. Wade was a watershed moment in our nation’s long march toward freedom.
NIRH and NIRH Action Fund have been hard at work over the last few years protecting and expanding access to abortion in states and cities across the country. We’ve been instrumental in passing a spate of proactive laws protecting abortion from Colorado to Massachusetts, New Mexico to New Jersey; removing restrictive laws from Illinois to Virginia; and championing funding to support abortion access in cities like Austin, Chicago, and Kalamazoo, and states like New York and Oregon. NIRH and the NIRH Action Fund will never stop working in states and localities nationwide to pass laws to safeguard reproductive rights, secure public resources to make abortion available and affordable to all who need it, and ensure that people have just and equitable access to the full range of reproductive health care services – from abortion to contraception to pregnancy care.
The path forward is a long one, and we will fight like hell for a future in which everyone has the right and the ability to make decisions about their reproductive lives.”
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The National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) is an advocacy group that works directly with state and local reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations to protect and advance equitable access to reproductive health care. Our strategy is to go on the offensive to pass laws that safeguard reproductive freedom. NIRH partners with communities to build coalitions, launch campaigns, and successfully advocate for policy change, so the fabric of reproductive freedom is harder to tear apart.