Roe v Wade Draft Decision

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 3, 2022

Contact:
Hannah Litchfield
hannah@newvoicesrj.org
(215) 315-3190‬

(Pittsburgh, PA) New Voices for Reproductive Justice is disappointed to learn about the leaked Supreme Court draft decision on Roe v. Wade. Although many have received this news as shocking, the Reproductive Justice movement recognizes that state-sanctioned violence against Black women, girls and gender-expansive folx is deeply embedded within this nation’s legacy. 

Reproductive Justice is a movement fueled by the power of the collective. We will not back down. We will continue working to ensure that all people in the communities we serve have the information, resources, and power they need to feel safe, affirmed and whole. The alarm has been rung, and New Voices will answer the call as abortion restrictions target the most marginalized among us, particularly Black people with the capacity for pregnancy.

“The leak of this draft decision expedites our strategy to protect bodily autonomy,” Executive Director Kelly Davis says. “However, those of us within the Reproductive Justice movement recognize that sexual and reproductive liberation extends well beyond the constraints of preserving Roe v. Wade. We will be organizing within the community, growing our political power, and asserting our human rights. We will also be galvanizing towards a future wherein Black women and gender expansive people enjoy lives devoid of violence, abuse and neglect in all sectors of society.”

In the wake of this news, check on your friends, family, and loved ones and, if you have not done so already, register to vote. We are approaching one of the most important mid-term elections in regards to Reproductive Rights; the harm reduction that political action affords us cannot be discounted. Voting in November can help ensure that we retain the ability to codify abortion access into law should the Supreme Court decide to overturn Roe v. Wade completely. However, singular tactics will fail to manifest an anti-oppressive society that will protect all Black people. Community organizing and power building are also paramount.

While this draft opinion is the U.S.’s latest misogynistic, racist, and transphobic assault, Black people will continue to grow our families and create kin in all the ways that we see fit. Our liberation cannot be legislated. The long arms of the Supreme Court and other patriarchal, white supremacist structures will never reach our joy or our prophetic vision for a world where every Black person is happy, healed and whole.

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New Voices for Reproductive Justice is a multi-state organization based in Pennsylvania and Ohio dedicated to the health and well-being of Black women, femmes, girls and gender-expansive folx. Founded in Pittsburgh in 2004, New Voices has served over 2000,000 Black women, femmes, girls and folx through leadership development, community organizing, policy advocacy and culture change. Our priority issues include Black maternal health, abortion access and environmental justice. New Voices advocates at the national, state and local level for Reproductive Justice – the Human Right of all people to control our bodies, sexuality, gender, work, reproduction and ability to form our families. Our long-term social impact goal is that Black women, femmes, girls and folx live long, healthy and joyful lives.