Saturday, June 24, is the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which eliminated the constitutional right to abortion and upended the legal framework for abortion access in the United States.
Dr. Jamila Perritt, ob/gyn and abortion provider in Washington DC and President & CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, responds:
“This year our community has been rocked by the efforts of anti-abortion extremists to make abortion completely inaccessible. As various abortion bans moved through state legislatures, these twelve months have been full of chaos, confusion, fear, and anger for people who need and provide abortion care.
“This is not care. Our health care should be grounded in medical and scientific evidence, center those who need abortions, and led by compassionate providers. To watch the expertise, lived experience, and knowledge of individuals who need and provide abortions be tossed aside has been disheartening, disappointing, and harmful.”
This year has meant that people have had to navigate unnecessary and devastating obstacles…
“This year has meant that people have had to navigate unnecessary and devastating obstacles, blocking them from making decisions about their own bodies and their own lives. The provision of abortion care has been made more challenging to access with thousands of patients experiencing delays in their care because of logistical barriers at great personal cost. Thousands have faced delays so severe that they were not able to get the abortion they needed and have been forced to remain pregnant. It is devastating to see people’s whole lives be upended, deprioritized, and forgotten for the sake of political ideology.
“What is clearer than ever is that while attacks on abortion are not new, their ties to white supremacist frameworks aiming to control and coerce communities are undeniable. The same politicians who are trying to threaten our bodily autonomy are voting to deepen investments in the infrastructure of the police-state, while simultaneously decimating the social safety net, baring access to other essential health care like contraception and gender-affirming care, and removing critical education on our country’s racialized history from schools. These assaults are deeply connected.
…the power of community care is unstoppable.
“We, at Physicians for Reproductive Health, know that the power of community care is unstoppable. In the coming months we will continue fighting to show up for people who need and provide abortions, we will speak out against the continued attacks on our self-determination, and we will organize to ensure that health care providers do not continue the cycles of surveillance and punishment that are entrenched in medical systems.
“We know it is only the beginning. Our community of physician advocates, allies, and supporters will keep hard at work to push back on the onslaught of harmful law and policy and ensure our communities have access to the essential, life-affirming care they need.”
