We are angry, disappointed, and devastated by the Supreme Court’s decision today to overturn Roe v. Wade. We believe that all people have the right to access sexual and reproductive health care, and have a right to their own bodily autonomy. We condemn all attempts to deny people that access.
While our staff, board, and volunteers have been planning and supporting Pride events this month, our attention is also on mobilization and action. We stand in solidarity with the frontline activists all around the world protecting the right to reproductive health. We also stand ready to fight to protect what human rights could be eliminated next.
Justice Clarence Thomas, as the Supreme Court’s currently longest-serving justice, stated in his concurring opinion that the Supreme Court should also reconsider rulings regarding contraception, same-sex marriage, and consented to sex acts in adult relationships, particularly same-sex relationships.
With ever-growing issues of state-invoked anti-trans healthcare bills, increasing censorship in school libraries and classrooms, and federal COVID relief funds being diverted towards increased policing, we share our community’s concerns about ever-eroding human rights. The Court’s decision today sets a terrible precedent regarding personal privacy that could extend to various other rights as well.
Our organization, our community, and our allies have a responsibility to protect our human rights to make decisions about our lives, families, and health. We know that reproductive justice is also part of racial justice and economic justice because Black and brown people and poor people are disproportionately impacted by lack of access to abortion and other reproductive and sexual health care. Reproductive justice, and access to abortion, is an LGBTQ+ issue also because people of all genders need access to these services. All of these matters are intertwined and we cannot fight for one form of justice without caring about and actively fighting for justice in the other arenas as well. We must be engaged in the fights for justice in all of these matters.
Although the Supreme Court has repealed Roe v. Wade putting millions of lives at risk, there are actions YOU can make to fight back and protect abortion rights in Michigan:
- Stop by the https://grpride.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GRPride_Rally-4.png to read and sign active petitions to protect our rights.
- Support your local mutual aid network & let them know if you are available to provide transportation to & safe support for reproductive health appointments: Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network
- Get involved in local grassroots organizing efforts, including DefundTheGRPD, Black Activists United, & Together We Are Safe
- Get engaged with the Reproductive Freedom for All (RFFA): mireproductivefreedom.org
- Support reproductive justice through: plannedparenthoodaction.org
- Listen and act to protect the next generation: advocatesforyouth.org
Now is the time to come together – to be advocates for, with, and alongside our partners in the fight for reproductive justice in our home state. It is our collective responsibility to act, for today has demonstrated just how fragile our rights are in this country.
Yours in advocacy,
Jazz McKinney, Executive Director (they/them)
Anne Marie Hertl, Board President (she/they)
