NPEIV Reproductive Freedom Statement
The National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence (NPEIV) affirms that:
· Every person has the right to their own bodily autonomy.
· Abortion is safe medical care that is a decision to be made between the patient and the physician, subject to the physician's clinical judgment, and the patient's informed consent.
· Reproductive care, which includes abortion, is an important part of health care that should be easily accessible to ALL people.
· Abortion access is an equity issue.
· Elimination of interpersonal violence across the lifespan includes elimination of reproductive coercion at the individual, systemic, and societal levels.
· None of us are free if we are not all free to make our own decisions about reproductive health care.
In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade abandoning nearly 50 years of constitutional precedent protecting a person’s right to choose critical reproductive health care. The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization marks the first time in history that the Supreme Court has taken away a fundamental right in ruling there is no constitutional right to abortion. In making this decision, the Supreme Court has abandoned its duty to protect fundamental rights.. The right to abortion is just the first step in an organized campaign to also eliminate access to various forms of contraception, the right to gay marriage, the decriminalization of gay sex, the protection of transgender individuals, etc.
Since Roe, the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed that the Constitution protects abortion as an essential liberty, which is tied to other rights to make personal decisions about family, relationships, health, and bodily autonomy. In contrast, the Dobbs decision results in bodily subjugation and negates a woman’s right to power over her own body. This devastating decision will reverberate for generations.
The Court’s decision will now allow states to ban or significantly restrict access to abortion, forcing people to travel hundreds and thousands of miles to access abortion care or to carry pregnancies against their will, a grave violation of their human rights. This decision means that people across the country will lose access to necessary reproductive medical care. This is a social/reproductive justice and equity issue. As so eloquently stated by the American Medical Association:
“Access to legal reproductive care will be limited to those with the sufficient resources, circumstances, and financial means to do so - exacerbating health inequities by placing the heaviest burden on patients from Black, Latinx, Indigenous, low-income, rural, and other historically disadvantaged communities who already face numerous structural and systemic barriers to accessing health care.” 1
In addition, the AMA further stated, “Allowing the lawmakers of Mississippi or any other state to substitute their own views for a physician’s expert medical judgment puts patients at risk and is antithetical to public health and sound medical practice.” 2
Reproductive autonomy directly supports people’s ability to get an education, participate in the labor force, and increase their earning potential, and it has helped to narrow the gender wage gap. Losing the right to reproductive freedom will have a catastrophic impact on employment and economic security. Access to abortion and all other personal reproductive choices is not only an issue of health and personal liberty, but also squarely an economic issue that determines the welfare of working families.
The Dobbs decision will also embolden perpetrators of intimate partner violence who use reproductive coercion as a tactic to keep victims in abusive and dangerous relationships and to exert power and control over every aspect of their lives, including their own bodies. It may take the form of birth control sabotage, pregnancy coercion, or controlling the outcome of a pregnancy. It is estimated that reproductive coercion affects 1 in 10 women. 3 In essence, the Supreme Court has adopted reproductive coercion as a tactic to exert power and control over the people of the United States. Justices in the Dobbs decision majority have become complicit in enabling reproductive coercion and have opened the door for this to occur on a systemic level throughout the country.
It is up to us to protect reproductive freedom for all who come after us. We stand on the shoulders of our mothers and grandmothers and many others who marched and fought against oppression of women 50 years ago to pass Roe v Wade. We can’t abandon the fight now just because it is hard. We need to step up and keep showing up! Congress and states need to reaffirm the rights of all in the United States rather than deny them.
1. https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ruling-egregious-allowance-government-intrusion-medicine
2 https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/population-care/why-leaked-abortion-opinion-antithetical-public-health
3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5577387/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=d84eecd1-75af-45f6-bfe9-144840411f57