June, 29 2020, 12:00am EDT
UltraViolet Responds to SCOTUS Verdict for June Medical Services vs. Russo
Women’s group celebrates the Supreme Court’s verdict to protect reproductive freedom, warns the fight to protect Roe v. Wade is far from over.
WASHINGTON
Moments ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Louisiana Unsafe Abortion Protection Act is unconstitutional in the case of June Medical Services vs. Russo.
The decision, which comes after months of public pressure and advocacy from women's and reproductive justice groups, eliminates the requirement for physicians who perform abortions in Louisiana to have "active admitting privileges" at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility where doctors provides abortion services.
In response, Shaunna Thomas, Executive Director of the national women's group UltraViolet, said:
"Women across the country are breathing a sigh of relief today, but make no mistake that the anti-choice movement will continue organizing to tilt our legislatures and courts against women throughout the nation and their right to choose when to start or grow a family. It is Black women, women of color, Indigenous women and women who live in rural areas who will suffer the most.
"While we celebrate today's legal victory, we also must keep our eye on the future and ensure that we hold accountable both the political and corporate powers that collude to push the extremist anti-abortion, anti-women agenda we see around the country. Now is the time for us to mobilize voters, and consumers, so that our elected officials and their corporate sponsors, hear that the majority of Americans support access to legal abortion and demand an end to attempts to infringe on our basic rights.
"We should not have to wait every June to see if a bunch of men, put on the Court by the racist anti-choice movement, will take away our rights.
"The landmark decision of Roe vs. Wade is the floor, not the ceiling, for access to reproductive healthcare. The fact that we are still arguing to protect women's health and bodily autonomy at a time when a pandemic is decimating our Black, brown and Indigenous communities, maternal mortality is sky-rocketing, and state violence continues to destroy lives, shows how much more work we have left to do to achieve justice and liberation. We must continue to center a vision for reproductive freedom and justice that meets the needs and hopes of all our communities.
UltraViolet is a powerful and rapidly growing community of people mobilized to fight sexism and create a more inclusive world that accurately represents all women, from politics and government to media and pop culture.
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