By Congresswoman Sara Jacobs in Washington, D.C.
Today would have been the 53rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade — January 22, 1973. It’s a date I learned about all through school. In the 90s, it was taught as a long-settled judicial decision that had been integral in the fight for true equality for women.
Today’s students are learning a very different lesson in their U.S. history classes.
Instead of marking 50+ years of progress today, we’ve regressed to a painful debate and a dangerous reality for the people whose bodily autonomy has been stripped away.
It’s sadly predictable that on this day of all days, we’re once again debating anti-choice bills on the House floor brought by MAGA Republicans — bills designed to make pregnancy more dangerous, more expensive, and more terrifying for millions.
People are dying as a direct result of abortion bans. Women have been denied care while hemorrhaging. Doctors have been forced to wait until patients are on the brink of death to deliver care. Pregnant people have fled their states to get medical care before it’s too late for their bodies, their fertility, and their future. Maternal and infant mortality are on the rise, and whole families have been devastated by losses that never should have happened.
Meanwhile, Republican politicians have made it clear: This is exactly what they wanted.
Where’s the outrage from the so-called “pro-life” party?
Today’s GOP slashes food assistance and blocks paid family leave. They gut health care and oppose universal child care, all while prices keep rising.
They prop up fake clinics called “crisis pregnancy centers” that prey on vulnerable people with misinformation and shame.
They cruelly pressure women to carry pregnancies they don’t want and can’t safely continue.
The decision to continue a pregnancy and to raise a child is serious, private, and deeply personal. And health risks aside, the long-term consequences of being denied that choice are real:
Women denied an abortion are four times more likely to live below the federal poverty line. They’re more likely to be evicted, go bankrupt, and shoulder crushing debt. They’re more likely to stay in abusive relationships. And their children are more likely to struggle financially and developmentally, too.
None of that is pro-life.
While we’re grieving this reality we find ourselves in, I don’t want today to only be about grief. I want it to be about resolve, too. Here are five ways we can keep fighting:
–Vote in the midterms this year. Roe fell as a consequence of elections. Trump packed the Supreme Court with extremists in his first term, and every day in Congress, MAGA Republicans continue to try to chip away at our rights.
–Support state and local candidates who are fighting abortion bans in their states.
–Donate directly to abortion funds. Visit the National Network of Abortion Funds to find your local fund.
–Call your representatives (state and federal!) and make sure they’re supporting all the ways we can protect people from these bans.
–Talk to your friends and family about why this matters so much. Your voice has the power to educate, persuade, and motivate the people in your life, more than you may know.
Roe recognized a simple truth: that people deserve control over their own bodies and futures. Roe’s fall was and still is devastating. But this is not our grandparents’ fight.
We have stronger networks, better tools, proven strategies, and we have the American majority behind us. The fact is that most Americans want abortion to be legal. Most believe that these decisions belong to patients and their doctors, not politicians.
Today, let’s commit to keep fighting until every person in this country has the freedom to decide what happens in their own body. Abortion rights are a kitchen table issue, an economic issue, a life and death issue. And an issue that can win elections
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Congresswoman Sara Jacobs represents a San Diego district in the House of Representatives.
Thanks for writing and sharing this. I will never understand the stupidity of people, those who are supposed to be smart and educated.