We at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights join the rightful growing chorus of outrage over the pending reversal of Roe v. Wade.
The draft Supreme Court opinion would overturn a longstanding right to abortion and represents a grave threat to human rights in the United States. A decision that unduly restricts access to abortion and limits sexual and reproductive rights constitutes violence against women. It will disproportionately impact people of color and those experiencing poverty, further exacerbating the systematic racial and economic inequities that are pervasive in our country. Today, many state laws already restrict health workers and those seeking reproductive healthcare. Without the federal protection of Roe v. Wade, new local laws will criminalize patients, nurses, and doctors, fuelling the existing mass incarceration problem.
On top of all those harms, a potential key underpinning of the decision — that certain rights should be left to the states — would swing open a door to challenge a host of other fundamental rights that impact how and whom we love and how we choose to define and create family.
We must rise. Speak truth to power. Let our voices be heard so that policymakers in Washington act with the urgency this moment deserves. Congress must codify Roe v. Wade today.