The 2022 Dobbs marked a monumental setback for women’s rights, effectively shifting the decision to permit or restrict abortions to individual states and igniting the rollback and impinging of additional rights and reproductive freedoms, including contraception, IVF and other basic reproductive health care needs. I’m furious that my daughter now has less reproductive freedom and protections than I did during my reproductive years.
I’m alarmed how many people close to me are woefully uninformed – ignorant, really – about the reality and tragedy of what is happening to women and women’s healthcare since the Dobbs decision. I wanted to share facts and provide an easy reference for sources for everyone to be more informed – and take action. Check back for updates
As noted by activist and writer Jessica Valenti of Abortion, Every Day:
The nightmare that’s unfolded since Roe was overturned has been swift, far-reaching, and defined by women’s suffering: Cancer patients denied abortions, raped children forced to leave their home states for care, women who describe feeling like “walking coffins” after being made to carry nonviable pregnancies to term. That’s to say nothing of those simply denied the ability to decide their own lives and futures, their autonomy stolen overnight.
The following sources can help you to get you informed and stay up to date. You can follow any of these on Instagram or sign up for their newsletters.
Guttmacher Institute is a leading research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) worldwide.”Reproductive rights are under attack. Help us fight back with facts.” The evidence generated in the past two years demonstrates how radically the abortion access landscape has shifted since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The bottom line: Shifts in abortion access have deepened the reproductive health care crisis, especially for those most marginalized by our health care system. Use facts to champion a bold vision of abortion care and reproductive health and rights more broadly. We must go beyond what Roe promised and ensure comprehensive reproductive health care for all.
Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization of lawyers and advocates who ensure reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights for the dignity, equality, health, and well-being of every person.
Abortion, Every Day is a comprehensive daily newsletter, written by writer/activist Jessica Valenti, dedicated to abortion rights, and the feminist community that supports it. She often is the first to break news on current events – worth subscribing to to stay on top of the latest.
Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading provider and advocate of high-quality, affordable sexual and reproductive health care for all people, as well as the nation’s largest provider of sex education.
- Planned Parenthood Action Fund is a separate nonprofit membership organization tax-exempt under section 501(c)(4). The Action Fund engages in educational, advocacy, and limited electoral activity, including grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and voter education.
Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) works to create the political reality we need to secure reproductive freedom for generations to come. We elect reproductive freedom champions from statehouses to the White House and protect and expand abortion rights and access through ballot measures.
I’m currently listening to this book: The Fall of Roe: the Rise of a New America by Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer. From the NY Times book review. “Focused on the decade between the 2012 re-election of Barack Obama and the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022, the book tracks ideological and political shifts — and charts a fervent crusade. With masterly, white-hot reporting, the authors detail how a sophisticated conservative apparatus made Dobbs possible, despite its architects’ full awareness that most Americans were opposed to their mission.” You can get the audiobook on Audible or on Amazon.
This is all just a starting point. I’ll continue to update this post with new sources of information and ways to take action, starting with VOTING.
Vote.org is the largest 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan voting registration and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) technology platform in America. Our organization exists to remove the barriers that keep voters from making their voices heard at the ballot box.
