Press Statement
Threats to Women’s Health and Rights are ‘Imminent and Serious’ as Roe v. Wade Turns 44

“As the nation commemorates the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade — the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that has had a powerfully positive impact on women’s health and lives — we face almost unprecedented risks to our right to choose abortion, our right to privacy and our access to the full range of reproductive health care. With the new leaders in Congress already moving to defund Planned Parenthood, repeal the Affordable Care Act and advance anti-abortion legislation, and President Trump vowing to appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn Roe, the threats to women’s health and rights are imminent and serious. At particular risk are young people, women of color, immigrants, rural women and those with low incomes.

President Trump and the new leaders in Congress have no mandate to take away women’s reproductive rights. In fact, the vast majority of people in this country support federal funding for Planned Parenthood and oppose overturning Roe. We will be bold and we will fight to protect our right to choose and to give every woman meaningful access to abortion care and birth control; that includes sustaining federal funding for Planned Parenthood, ensuring every woman has access to no-cost contraception and other preventive health care, ending the punitive Hyde Amendment, which for years has pushed abortion care out of reach for millions, and combatting the wave of anti-abortion legislation that has swept across the states. Our health as well as our economic security, equity and dignity depend on our freedom to plan whether and when to have children. Our access to the full range of reproductive health services is essential to our ability to pursue education, hold jobs, support our families, and be equal members of society.

It was only in June that the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed a woman’s constitutional right to make her own decisions about her health, her family and her future in a groundbreaking decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. We will continue to fight to protect that decision, the rights it enshrines and the promise that it holds. The Women’s Marches around the country yesterday showed that the pro-choice majority is more active, determined and engaged than ever. We will not go backward.”

For more information, contact us:

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National Partnership Media Line
(202) 986-2600
press@nationalpartnership.org

About the National Partnership for Women & Families

The National Partnership for Women & Families is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group dedicated to promoting fairness in the workplace, reproductive health and rights, access to quality, affordable health care and policies that help all people meet the dual demands of work and family.

More information is available at NationalPartnership.org.

For general inquiries, please email press@nationalpartnership.org.

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