As we wrap our heads around the heinous Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, we need to turn our OUTRAGE into ACTION!! We must and will restore the fundamental right to make informed decisions about our bodies. Abortion is healthcare and all who need it must have access to it.
June 24, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact Person: Nina Ahmad at PennsylvaniaNow@gmail.com
Message from Nina Ahmad, Ph.D. (She/her), President, Pennsylvania NOW
PHILADELPHIA, PA — As we wrap our heads around the heinous Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, we need to turn our OUTRAGE into ACTION!! We must and will restore the fundamental right to make informed decisions about our bodies. Abortion is healthcare and all who need it must have access to it. Today’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization demolished nearly 50 years of precedent to allow policing and oppression of women and birthing people.
First, we must remind everyone here in Pennsylvania abortion is still legal! Pennsylvania does not have a trigger law on the books to outlaw abortion now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which guaranteed federal constitutional protections for abortion rights. Abortion is still legal in Pennsylvania under our state law, and it can stay that way —ONLY if we elect a Prochoice Governor on November 8, 2022!!
Second, we need to change the composition of the legislature and elect pro-choice legislators to the PA House & Senate. The current GOP-led Legislature is constantly trying to pass bills criminalizing abortion and abrogate our bodily autonomy. They are proposing another insidious tactic intended to prohibit abortion in the commonwealth is through constitutional amendment. House Bill 2252 would establish a constitutional amendment stating that “nothing in the Pennsylvania Constitution grants any right to abortion or public funding of abortion.” It is IMPERATIVE to note that Governors cannot veto constitutional amendments and that all constitutional amendments placed on the ballot since 1990 have passed. We have that opportunity once again on Nov 8th to send Prochoice legislators to the PA House and Senate who will uphold our right to bodily autonomy.
Finally, we must codify our right to bodily autonomy including abortion care by restoring the protections of Roe as law of the land by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act which fundamentally recognizes “the ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives”. We must elect a Prochoice Senator and members of Congress on November 8, 2022, to ensure our fundamental human right to bodily autonomy.
Abortion is older than this country and its courts. People will need — and have — abortions as they have done so for millennia. But this decision today to overturn Roe v. Wade makes it dangerous and life-threatening as it once was, in the back alleys of our communities.
So, because abortion is still legal in Pennsylvania and this Supreme Court decision has made our state an access point for abortion care, please consider helping in the following ways:
https://www.wpafundforchoice.org/
https:www.thewomenscenters.com
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-southeastern-pennsylvania
https://www.pennsylvanianow.org/
Standing together in Powerful Solidarity!
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Pennsylvania NOW is the Pennsylvania state chapter of the National Organization for Women, the country’s largest feminist political organization. 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 PA NOW’s efforts and resources is available at https://pennsylvanianow.org/.
