Abortion Bans Will Kill now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, says Abortion Rights Campaign

June 24, 2022 - Media, Opinion, Press Release - Tagged: , , , , , , - no comments
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The Abortion Rights Campaign condemns the news that the Supreme Court in the US has overturned a 50-year constitutional right to abortion access. Thirteen states have “abortion trigger bans”, making abortion illegal as soon as Roe v. Wade is overturned, with 26 states expected to move quickly to outlaw abortion.

“Abortion bans are racist, they are misogynistic, and fallout from this decision will be catastrophic,” says ARC spokesperson Darina Murray. “We in Ireland know how an abortion ban creates stigma, isolation, causes long-term damage to health and even death. We also know that abortion bans disproportionately affect marginalised people such as migrants and people of colour. 

“This is not an isolated or sudden incident – this is the culmination of a decades-long quest from anti-abortion groups to erase reproductive rights. We must resist the erosion of our hard-won rights at every turn – in the USA, in Ireland, and across the globe.”

“To all those activists and pregnant people facing the horrific implications of this decision: we stand with you today and every day. We know from bitter experience that change is possible even when our laws fail us. Do not give up hope. Please look to your local activist groups because we know from experience that grassroots feminist activism can create momentous change. Things are dark now, but we know you can resist this.”

Just yesterday, an American woman was airlifted out of Malta to Spain so she could get an abortion to save her life following a miscarriage, which was denied to her in Malta. Her case, that her waters broke at 16 weeks, was eerily reminiscent of the case of Savita Halappanavar. She will return from her holiday to a state and a country that may now also refuse her the care she needed

“It is unacceptable that there are more rights to hold a gun in the USA than to control one’s own body,” added ARC spokesperson Helen Stonehouse. “Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to carry a gun is too important to be regulated by individual states, and yet today rules that the right to access abortion is not. These laws have never been about protecting life but about controlling those of us who have sex for recreation, not just procreation, those whose bodies and lives do not fit the rigid norms assigned to them by the patriarchy. Our determination to control our own bodies, our own future, to decide if we become a parent, who to do that with and when, how to raise our families and how to live our lives will always terrify those who want to control us, to us as Virgins or Magdalenes, to put us in boxes and keep us there.”

Ms Murray continued, “In a country that still forces some people to travel for an abortion, we call on Irish politicians to safeguard access to free, safe, legal, accessible and local abortion. Abortion is not politics. Abortion is healthcare. Political decisions can cost lives, and this one to remove a constitutional right to healthcare will do just that.”

For everyone worldwide who can show their support for abortion rights, now is the time to be visible and vocal in solidarity. If you can, please support local abortion funds and share information on how people can access an abortion. 

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