Everyone Deserves Abortion Access Now — We’re Working Together to Make That Happen

By: Mini Timmaraju, President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom For All, and Kimberly Inez McGuire, Executive Director of URGE

Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, we have witnessed the catastrophic impact of the Court’s decision on the lives of ordinary Americans. Nearly every day since the Dobbs ruling has been marked by horrifying stories that reveal how anti-abortion extremism — and the politicians who have written its backward ideology into law — have changed our country for the worse.

They have enacted laws banning abortion in over twenty states that have forced some people into preventable medical emergencies and others to travel long, grueling distances for care. They have treated women who miscarry like criminals, deprived families of the option to build their families through IVF, and forced some medical providers to stop providing abortion care altogether, against the best interests of people who desperately need care, many of whom are already facing structural health care inequities.

As millions of Americans suffer under these cruel bans and restrictions, the reproductive health, rights, and justice movements, as well as individual supporters, have been fighting like hell in courts, statehouses, and on the ballot, and helping as many people as possible jump enormous hurdles to get the care they need. But we are never going to solve this crisis through a patchwork of fixes that only mitigate harm or by flying people across the country for abortion care.

It’s clear that we must make a bold and unified effort to repeal these unconstitutional laws and protect our fundamental rights. That’s why we — reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations across the country that you know and trust — are launching the new campaign Abortion Access Now to fight to secure federal protections for abortion and expand abortion access nationwide.

Between our nine organizations, we represent critical aspects of the alliance needed to restore abortion access nationwide. Fighting for our rights in the courts are the ACLU, Center for Reproductive Rights, and National Women’s Law Center. Representing the vast majority of Americans harmed by bans and mobilizing Black, Latina/x, young, and AAPI communities, respectively, to organize, advocate, and shift culture, In Our Own Voice, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, and National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. Reproductive Freedom for All is focused on securing abortion rights victories up and down the ballot, while Planned Parenthood provides reproductive health care to people across the country while advocating for their patients.

In order to address the crisis we’re in, we need every tool in the toolbox, and that means engaging this powerful ecosystem of advocates, providers, and patients. Together, we are committing to invest $100 million to achieve our goal of restoring and expanding abortion access nationwide, through key strategies like public education and engaging policymakers. Our shared vision includes restoring the right to abortion everywhere in the country, expanding access, ending discriminatory policies, protecting patients accessing health care and those who help them, addressing barriers to care, and more:

• Win back the right to abortion everywhere in the country.
• End the discriminatory Hyde Amendment and other bans on coverage that disproportionately affect low-income people, BIPOC communities, and young people.
• Protect patients accessing healthcare, including the right to travel for reproductive health care, and those who help them.
• Protect providers of sexual and reproductive healthcare, including abortion.
• Address barriers to immigrants’ access to care and expand health care access for immigrants.
• Protect abortion seekers, providers, and helpers from facing criminal charges or jail time.
• Ensure access to emergency medical care, family planning services, IVF treatment, contraception, and sex ed.

This week, as we unveil our shared vision of expanded abortion access, a handful of anti-abortion extremists are plotting an alternate vision: one in which abortion is banned in every corner of the country. While we celebrate and foster hope through our fight for health, rights, and justice for everyone, they are celebrating the anniversary of the Dobbs decision and recommitting to their goal of ending not just abortion access, but access to fertility treatments, contraception, and other essential health care services.

But we are stronger than they are. With more Americans than ever outraged by abortion bans, history will remember the Dobbs decision not only for unleashing a health care crisis but also an unprecedented, unified movement for abortion access. As demonstrated by recent elections in which voters turned out in record numbers to protect abortion, Americans across the political spectrum are galvanized like never before to fight for their right to essential reproductive health care. Our campaign represents the views of the vast majority of people in our country, and together we are ready to make our vision for the future a lasting reality.

Will we let anti-abortion extremists co-opt our democracy to deprive us of our fundamental freedoms? Or will we fight in service of a collective vision of abortion access for all? Two years after Dobbs and at this pivotal moment, what we do next will determine the world we hand down to our children. To make sure it’s one full of justice and freedom, we’re going to give it all we’ve got.