Roe vs Wade: What is it?
In 1969, Norma McCorvey (25 years old) using the pseudonym "Jane Roe", challenged the criminal abortion laws in Texas. The state forbade abortion as unconstitutional, except in cases where the mother's life was in danger.
Ms McCorvey was pregnant with her third child when she filed the case, and claimed that she had been raped. But the case was rejected and she was forced to give birth.
In 1973 her appeal made it to the US Supreme Court, where her case was heard alongside that of a 20-year-old Georgia woman, Sandra Bensing.
The court justices ruled that governments lacked the power to prohibit abortions.
They judged that a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy was protected by the US constitution.
Since then, this landmark ruling had paved the way for women to make an independent choice to decide what is best for their health and wellbeing, and to have protection of privacy for their personal decisions.
What does the decision to overrule mean?
The ruling means that individual US states are now able to ban the procedure again, with around half of them expected to do so.Â
According to research from Planned Parenthood, after the Supreme Court ruling, abortion access is expected to be cut off for about 36 million women of reproductive age.
It is a step backward from a long-established and hard-fought women’s right to choose.
Who will be impacted the most?Â
Women, especially women of color and poorer women who don't have the advantages of middle class, wealthy women to travel to get an abortion.
“Black women and birthing people will continue to be disparately impacted by attacks on our reproductive health. Eliminating abortion rights in many states will be an inconvenience for women and birthing people of means — mostly white — who will be able to afford the high cost of accessing safe abortion. Many Black women and birthing people will lose all access — for them, the cost may be their health, lives or livelihood." - National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda President and CEO Marcela Howell
How to show your support
The best way to support is by making donations to local Abortion Funds.Â
The easiest way to do that is by donating to the National Network of Abortion Funds, linked here - where your donation can be equally split between local Abortion Funds across the US that need it most.
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Other organizations to support:
Planned Parenthood has been involved in the fight for reproductive rights for over 100 years. The non-profit organization, founded in 1916, manages over 600 health centers in the United States and is the country's largest provider of reproductive health services, including birth control access and abortion.
A Minnesota-based organization that engages in a number of initiatives, including ensuring reproductive health care for trans people.
The Afiya Center advances the needs of Black women in health care, covering everything from abortion access to HIV programming to reproductive justice to maternal mortality. Based in Texas, this organization is doing vital work when Black women are regularly neglected and often targeted by the state.
Texas Equal Access Fund (TEA Fund) provides financial support to individuals seeking abortions who cannot afford it. Serving 110 counties in the north, east, and west areas of Texas, TEA Fund believes restrictions on abortion access discriminate against people of color, low-income people, people in rural areas, and young people. With that in mind, they make sure to focus on supporting those populations
Their mission is dedicated to transforming society for the holistic health and wellbeing of Black women, girls and gender expansive people, nationally and in Pennsylvania and Ohio. We help dismantle patriarchal anti-Blackness using the tools community organizing, leadership development, and voter engagement.
Bold Futures leads policy change, research, place-based organizing, and culture shift by and for women and people of color in New Mexico. Bold Futures centers the lived experiences and expertise of those most impacted by an issue, engaging with people at the intersection of their identities.
Organizing at the intersections of racial, economic, and reproductive justice, Holler Health Justice builds power with Appalachian communities and individuals most disproportionately affected by health inequities, including people of color, those in rural areas, those with low income, and LGBTQIA+ folk.
From the Huha Team
Huha strongly oppose the overruling of Roe vs Wade. Banning abortion doesn't stop abortions, it stops safe abortions. Women and birthing people should have control of their own reproductive rights, not the government.Â
Please if you can, donate, advocate, and fight for what is right.
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