Today, HELP: MLP joins countless other women’s rights and public health advocates in expressing our profound disappointment with the draft opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding abortion rights in our nation. Access to safe abortion is not only essential health care, but fundamental to protecting our public’s health. Ensuring the right to a safe abortion is both a matter of equity and social justice. HELP: MLP stands firmly for reproductive justice, which requires access to a full range of safe, legal, and affordable reproductive health care, including abortion.
The most important things we can do right now to protect access to abortion are:
- Affirm the rights of women and birthing people to a full range of safe and legal reproductive care, including abortion.
- Vote.
- Donate to abortion funds, such as the Abortion Liberation Fund of PA.
- Mobilize and take action to defeat dangerous anti-abortion legislation proposed in Pennsylvania.
Despite the headlines and the leaked opinion, it is important to understand that:
- The document that was leaked was a draft opinion in which the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. This is not final, not binding, and has no impact on the legal availability of abortion anywhere in the country for now. Abortion remains legal in all 50 states, including Pennsylvania.
- Abortion is health care and is legal in Pennsylvania, which does not currently have legislation in place that will promptly outlaw abortion upon the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Therefore, we do not believe there will be any immediate change to abortion rights in Pennsylvania if and when the Supreme Court does officially overturn Roe.
- Funding remains a challenge for many Pennsylvanians seeking abortion, and the best local resource to pursue is the Abortion Liberation Fund of PA (formerly, Women’s Medical Fund).
In solidarity,
The HELP: MLP team