Documenting the attack on reproductive rights - and how to fight back

Ever since the Supreme Court ruled that banning abortion violates a woman’s right to privacy, those seeking to deny women control over their own bodies have sought to change state and federal laws to chip away at that right.

Today, Alliance for Justice zeros in on the threat to reproductive rights as we launch our  annual “First Monday” social justice campaign.  Alliance for Justice has been canvassing the field in the battleground states of Texas and Mississippi, listening to women’s stories and witnessing the day-to-day struggles of women who are watching their reproductive rights slip away.  The centerpiece of the campaign is a short video, Roe at Risk: The Fight for Reproductive Justice, documenting both the struggle and the hope of the men and women fighting to preserve the constitutional right to reproductive freedom and justice.  It is more important now than ever to take action, to speak out, and to organize for reproductive rights and access for all.

You can preview the video here:



Today also marks the 37th anniversary of one of the first attempts to restrict reproductive rights: the Hyde Amendment, a law that,bars states from using  Medicaid money to fund abortion.  Many poor people rely on Medicaid to pay for their health care.  So while it’s true that  the Hyde Amendment does not, technically, eliminate the right to abortion, it  renders that right largely meaningless for the many poor and low-income women who simply cannot afford to pay for an abortion on their own.  For such women it amounts to a legislative repeal of a constitutional right.

The late Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill.,
author of the Hyde Amendment

And as we show in Roe at Risk, while the federal government took one of the first steps to cut off access to abortion 37  years ago, states have been following suit ever since.  In recent years, some state lawmakers have been transparent in their attempts to deny access to abortion, directly attacking the right with legislation that makes abortion unlawful after a set period of time.  Such attempts have taken the shape of bans that begin at twenty-weeks, at twelve weeks or at six weeks.

In other states, restrictions on access to abortion have been more insidious.  One of the popular approaches is to pass “TRAP” laws, which stand for “targeted regulation of abortion providers.”  These laws often require abortion providers to attain admitting privileges at a local hospital, or require abortion clinics to meet the same standards as hospitals or ambulatory facilities.

TRAP laws are passed under the pretext of protecting women’s health and safety, but in reality they are thinly veiled attempts to shut down abortion clinics.  For example, hospitals typically are not  required to grant admitting privileges, and if they oppose abortion, they do not have to grant admitting privileges to abortion providers at all. Moreover, the requirements to attain admitting privileges vary and may be impossible for abortion providers to obtain for reasons wholly unrelated to health or safety.

Predictably, abortion clinics often cannot meet the laws’ unnecessary requirements, and then they are forced to shut down.  When clinics shut down, women are left stranded.  Ultimately, these TRAP laws have one purpose and one effect: to end abortion in the state.

Roe at Risk doesn’t just document the threat – it also shows how people across the country are fighting back.  Find out more about attempts to curb the right to choose, and about what you can do about it at www.roeatrisk.org 

Read more about the harm of the Hyde Amendment:

• How To Ditch Hyde Anti-Abortion Law And Win Elections.
• The End of Abortion Funding Restrictions? 
• Access Denied: There's nothing to cheer about on the anniversary of the Hyde Amendment
• The Hyde Amendment: Legislating Inequality for 37 Years. 
• 37 Years After Hyde, Abortion Access Still Remains Out of Reach for the Poor. 
• Millennials are Fighting to Overturn the Hyde Amendment.  
• The Dangerous Consequences of the Hyde Amendment. 
• A Very Unhappy Anniversary for Low Income Women.  
• How the Hyde Amendment Hurts Women. 
• Support the Troops, Repeal Hyde.  
• An Anniversary Date that Should Go Way: The Hyde Amendment. 
• Let’s Talk About Sex (and Abortion), Baby. How the Hyde Amendment Hurts Asian American and Pacific Islander Women.  
• The First Assault on Abortion Rights. 
• “Thirty-seven Years After the Hyde Amendment…the Movement is Back on Offense” 

From Bolder Advocacy: The nonprofits behind Wendy Davis' stand for reproductive rights

          Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis achieved an unexpected victory for the reproductive health movement last Wednesday, but she didn’t do it alone.

          While we all know about that now-famous back brace, little attention has been paid to the nonprofits that helped shine the spotlight on this amazing moment, and helped gather the stories about why access to reproductive services is so essential to a woman’s health and freedom.

          “Nonprofits and their supporters put the eyes of the world on Texas,” says Austin-based Jason Sabo, a consultant to progressive nonprofits. “From the outset Sen. Wendy Davis recognized the depth of support for her efforts.  Nonprofits were a critical part of the infrastructure that spread the word about what was happening at the Texas Capitol.”

Read the full post on our Bolder Advocacy blog

Why judges matter: The best-known example turns 40

Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron issued the following statement marking the upcoming 40^th Anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade:

Photo: Planned Parenthood Action Fund/womenarewatching.org

Tuesday’s anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade drives home the importance of the Supreme Court in our daily lives. A change of one vote on the Court in the wrong direction could set back set back advances made by women.  A change of one vote the right way can solidify the gains of the past four decades.

But after the anniversary, the urgency tends to fade.  We forget how important the Supreme Court is to our lives in so many other ways.  This year, for example, Supreme Court decisions may determine who can get married, who can go to college and even who can vote.

So we need to focus every day on fighting for a progressive judiciary, not only Supreme Court justices, but judges on our lower courts as well.

Sometimes it is, literally, a matter of life and death.

Read our three-part series: Will the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade?

● Part One

● Part Two

● Part Three

And check out our Bolder Advocacy blog for a listing of how nonprofits are commemorating the anniversary.

Right-wing crankiness on full display

In his new book, The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court, Jeffrey Toobin writes that the dissent Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a case striking down part of Arizona’s notorious law on immigration (Arizona et. Al. v. United States) "marked his transition from conservative intellectual to right-wing crank." (Writing in Salon, Paul F. Campos has another term for Scalia: "Intellectual fraud.")

The crankiness was on full display last week, when Scalia spoke at the American Enterprise Institute. He discussed some of the toughest issues to face the Court. They are the kinds of cases that prompt many justices, and other Americans in all walks of life, to wrestle with their consciences.

But not Antonin Scalia, who declared:

The death penalty? Give me a break. It's easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state.

That we might have become a more civilized nation since the days when death had to be by torture for it to be considered "cruel and unusual" and the days when women effectively were the property of men, is of no concern to Justice Scalia. He prefers to party like it’s 1789.