We are outraged by the decision of the Supreme Court in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization to terminate our constitutional right to an abortion. Until today, there existed a constitutional right — not merely a legal provision or section of code — for a pregnant person to obtain an abortion. Today, that freedom and protection has been swept away by the conservative-majority Supreme Court that has been systematically undoing the expansion of liberties and rights that have characterized our judicial and social history. We must brace for further erosion of these freedoms and protections including LGBTQ rights.
Everyone should be outraged at this curtailment of our constitutional rights — and those of us in the fight for racial justice should be particularly alarmed at this turn. Black women and people of color already routinely receive grossly inadequate medical and reproductive health services. People of color continue to suffer in a medical system rooted in systemic racism, resulting in biased provision of care and disproportionate health outcomes.
The loss of access to abortion in approximately half of the states that has been ushered in by the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs will disprportionately harm those already suffering in the medical system: women of color, their families and their communities. Black women are three times more likely to die after or during childbirth than white women. Forced birth is not an option.
At Akonadi Foundation, we are clear-eyed that issues of reproductive freedom are integral to the fight for racial justice. The collective struggles we face to secure reproductive justice, economic justice, equitable democracy, immigration, housing, public safety are inextricably linked and are the bedrock of the fight for racial justice and a racially just future.
When our sisters and brothers ask, we who fight for racial justice must stand up to the injustice perpetrated by the Supreme Court and the conservative cabal. We will stand together to fight for our autonomy, our reproductive rights, and justice and equity for our people.
In solidarity,
Quinn Delaney
Co-Founder and Board Chair
Akonadi Foundation