We Stand with Reproductive Justice Leaders

Dear Friends,  

I am just devastated by the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade today---leaving millions of people without safe and equitable access to essential health care and autonomy over their own bodies and lives.  As a Black woman who has worked in the social justice field for a long time, I know this will disproportionately impact people of color and marginalized youth.  

I am especially concerned for those who are already vulnerable--particularly those who have been exploited, their choices and their voices have been stripped away for such a long time. One of the most significant freedoms is the freedom of choice over your body, especially when you did not have a choice of who was buying and selling yours. To take that power away sickens me. While abortion remains safe and legal in Massachusetts, millions of women, girls, and child-bearing individuals will not have this same access.   

We know from our work in fighting commercial sexual exploitation that those most impacted by an issue, in this case women, girls, and people with uteruses, should have the loudest voices, both in their own lives and in reproductive health policy. With this opinion, the Supreme Court has taken the power from those affected and turned it over to state legislators, who still to this day predominately consist of white men with very little understanding of what this means and its implications. We will continue to use our voices to amplify the needs and experiences of all who believe in the right to control one’s own body.  

It breaks my heart to think that the young people today will have fewer reproductive rights than when I was their age.  

It enrages me to think of the thousands of people and exploited youth in need right now who will be unable to access care due to the time and high cost of travelling hundreds of miles to the nearest state where abortion is safe, legal and accessible. To those in states where abortion has become outlawed overnight, we see you, we hear you, and we stand with you and won’t give up the fight.  

From,  

Audrey Morrissey, Co-Executive Director