Statement by NOW President Christian F. Nunes
WASHINGTON, DC–The leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion in the Mississippi abortion case confirms our worst fears are coming to pass. While Justice Alito’s language may change in the final opinion, the outcome is clear—the Supreme Court is ready to strike down Roe v Wade.
There will be no compromise, no mitigation in terms of how many weeks before an abortion is forbidden for women and pregnant persons. The new ultra-conservative majority of Supreme Court justices, working in concert with right-wing extremists controlling state legislatures, have erased the Constitutional protection of reproductive healthcare.
Abortion bans have nothing to do with protecting women’s health, and everything to do with the power politicians want to retain over women’s lives, their future, and their bodily autonomy. The Supreme Court is leading the charge to create one set of laws for conservative states, with restrictions on abortion, voting rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, marriage equality and contraception, no matter how harmful, hateful, or dangerous.
NOW members are outraged, energized, and ready to fight back. The Supreme Court’s decision will jeopardize women’s lives—particularly the lives of young, Black, Latinas, Indigenous, and economically insecure women who are most at risk. Now, it’s up to us to vote for women’s lives.
We must get the Women’s Health Protection Act, which establishes a federal statutory right to access to abortion care, passed in Congress, and that means electing a Manchin-proof majority in the Senate and keeping control of the House. What’s more, we must break turnout predictions in the fall elections and flip control of state legislatures that are held by narrow margins.
We know that there’s a feminist majority of voters who can change the course of history in the next election. This is our mission. This is our time. We need your collective voice and collective power so that we can defend Roe. We will not fail.
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The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the nation’s leading membership-based advocacy group dedicated to defending women’s rights, advancing equality and combating injustice in all aspects of social, political and economic life. Through educating, mobilizing, and convening a vast network of grassroots activists across the country, NOW advocates for national, state and local policies that promote an anti-racist and intersectional feminist agenda. Since its founding in 1966, NOW has been on the frontlines of nearly every major advancement for women’s rights and continues to champion progressive values today. More about NOW’s efforts and resources is available at NOW.org.