To: Governors across the country
This is not about abortion: Tell governors to stand firm against the attack on a woman's right to...
I call on you to reject and veto any legislation that limits a woman's right to an abortion. All health decisions should be made between a woman and a trusted doctor, including abortion. Roe v. Wade is the law of the land and should remain so.
Why is this important?
Following on the heels of Georgia, Alabama just passed the nation’s most restrictive reproductive healthcare bill that, if allowed to go forward by the courts, would impose criminal penalties on any doctor who performs an abortion, even in the cases of rape and incest. We know the lifesaving importance of access to reproductive healthcare for women, and we cannot even begin to imagine the horror of a high schooler who has been raped learning that terminating her pregnancy is a criminal action. Despite these horrors, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey immediately signed the bill into law.
Across the land, other states like Missouri and Louisiana are considering bills designed to provoke the reversal of Roe versus Wade, which protects a women's right to choose under the U.S. Constitution. Ultimately, it's up to governors to sign them into law. Signing such anti-choice laws signals a governor's active participation in the war on women that wants to take away our bodily autonomy and our ability to make our own family planning decisions.
Make no mistake, this war on mothers (most women who have abortions are already moms) and women is not about reducing abortions. If the goal of those who are passing such severely restrictive laws was to avoid abortion, then they'd be passing access to free birth control, which is proven to lower abortion rates, not setting lifetime imprisonment laws for doctors who help women in need. What's really happening is a direct attack on women and moms having bodily autonomy, economic freedom, and sovereignty in our lives.