Today, the Senate failed to pass critical voting rights legislation, the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.
President & CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health and ob/gyn in D.C. Dr. Jamila Perritt responds:
“We cannot disconnect our struggle for reproductive rights from the struggle for civil rights and racial justice. Support for voting rights is a key component of this struggle. There is not one single aspect of our lives that isn’t impacted by the world around us, and our right to vote is a powerful tool allowing us to shape our environments, protect our rights, ensure the dignity of our communities, and control our bodies.
The Senate’s failure to protect our democracy is unconscionable.
“As a network of physicians, we are committed to fighting for the health and well-being of the communities we serve and we strongly oppose attacks on voting rights. We are seeing a coordinated, state by state effort to disenfranchise voters, most drastically impacting the right to vote of Black and Brown communities. The Senate’s failure to protect our democracy is unconscionable. We cannot continue to ignore the blatant attacks on voting rights across the country, and we cannot ignore that it is the officials meant to protect our rights that are the very ones dismantling them. We need policy makers that will deliver for voting rights.”