ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!: Our Right to Abortion and Reproductive Health Care is at High Risk
As more and more countries legalize abortion on request (Colombia in 2022; Argentina, South Korea, Thailand 2021; New Zealand 2020; Iceland, Ireland 2019), women in the US experienced the worst year for abortion rights in half a century. As of December 31, 2021, just that year alone, 108 abortion restrictions have been voted into law in 19 states, including Texas’ unprecedented vigilante-enforced ban which has been de facto supported by the Supreme Court. It is expected if the court overturns Roe vs. Wade, the constitutional right to abortion, 26 states are likely to ban abortion.
We all know the robust lives many women have been able to create for themselves as a result of being able to manage their reproductive health care. This full-frontal assault on women’s right to choose will have the greatest impact on the health and safety of our most vulnerable women/girls. Of course, those associated with the legislators who are creating and enacting these laws will certainly have the financial ability to get access to the safe abortions they need.
Seattle NOW has made our right to reproductive health care a priority for our organization for 2022!! We know that as important as our right to career paths, economic security, personal growth, and family size may be, the health and safety of our sisters is of paramount importance.
In February, Seattle NOW initiated a “Galentine/Valentine Campaign” to benefit the Northwest Abortion Access Fund. We asked members and friends to show their love for our sisters by donating to the fund. In collaboration, as organizations, Seattle NOW and Washington State NOW donated $8,000 to provide two weeks of services requested on the NWAAF hotline. This, however, is a tiny fraction of the support that is needed.
Additionally, Seattle NOW has been active in trying to pass legislation that changes language to allow physician’s assistants and other trained, healthcare professionals to provide abortions. This is likely to reach the floor for a vote and it is likely to pass.
Seattle NOW is in the process of creating a strategic plan that will:
Ensure that we do not lose our reproductive healthcare rights in Washington state through the election of representatives and senators that support women’s healthcare and who will enact the appropriate legislature
Identify and then support actions that will most benefit our sisters nationally
Build and strengthen partnerships with organizations who are also focused on women’s reproductive.
The threat is real. It is expected if the court overturns Roe vs. Wade, the constitutional right to abortion, 26 states are likely to ban abortion.
We have never been so vulnerable. We need your help NOW!
Checkbooks help, but YOUR VOICE and ACTIONS matter. Please sign on to raise your voice and become active in what is a fight for our lives!
Thank you to the Guttmacher Institute, the source for the specific data presented in this article: https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/12/state-policy-trends-2021-worst-year-abortion-rights-almost-half-century
Abortion Resources: https://www.nowseattle.org/news-1/abortion-resources