Roe stands for the promise of being able to make essential decisions about one’s future and family. But now, despite almost 50 years of precedent, the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether or not to eliminate the right to abortion and change the contours of the U.S. Constitution, against the wishes of a strong majority of Americans.
For decades, radical political actors across the country have worked to enact increasingly cruel restrictions on abortion care that most directly affect low-income people, communities of color, and other marginalized groups. And if the court takes the extreme step of overturning Roe, more than half of all states are poised to make abortion illegal, the repercussions of which will be felt across the country.
Make no mistake: The fight to overturn Roe isn’t just about abortion. The harms that will come if the court strips away the decision’s power cannot be downplayed. Roe, and the important precedent that followed, bolstered essential privacy and liberty rights that allow people to control their own lives. If Roe is overturned, efforts to eliminate other vital rights, such as that of marriage equality, would all gain momentum.
Today should then serve as a call to action for state and federal lawmakers to take swift proactive action to protect abortion rights and ensure all people have the ability to make the deeply personal decisions that shape the most important parts of our lives. Overturning Roe will harm generations of Americans, so this almost 50-year-old precedent must be upheld.