December, 10 2021, 11:35am EDT
UltraViolet Reacts to the Supreme Court Decision on SB8, Texas' Extreme Anti-Abortion Law
Statement from Sonja Spoo, Director of Reproductive Rights Campaigns at UltraViolet, a leading national women's organization:
"The Supreme Court's decision on SB8 shows just how completely enthralled our nation's highest court has become with theradical right-wing political movement that has spent decades focused on eliminating access to abortion for women and pregnant people across the United States.
WASHINGTON
Statement from Sonja Spoo, Director of Reproductive Rights Campaigns at UltraViolet, a leading national women's organization:
"The Supreme Court's decision on SB8 shows just how completely enthralled our nation's highest court has become with theradical right-wing political movement that has spent decades focused on eliminating access to abortion for women and pregnant people across the United States.
"Make no mistake: the simple reality is that because of the Supreme Court's continued lack of action, pregnant people in Texas will still be unable to access lifesaving reproductive health care if they want or need it. The cruelty of the Court's inaction is unfathomable.
"And while today's decision was ultimately a narrow win for abortion providers - allowing them to continue their suits against the law- it sends a chilling signal to the large majorities of Americans who support abortion access that reproductive rights are on the chopping block, and gives the go ahead to anti abortion extremists around the country to continue pushing copy-cat laws. We could be just months away from the court formally overturning or gutting Roe
"If Democrats showed just an ounce of political courage, they could stop this and ensure that the rights of all Americans to access abortion care remains protected. It's time for the Senate - where Democrats have the majority to act - to eliminate the filibuster, pass the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA) and secure legislation that will end the right-wing takeover of the Supreme Court.
"Now is the time for action."
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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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
While Israel argues that its invasion of Syria does not violate a 1974 armistice agreement between the two countries because the Assad dynasty no longer rules the neighboring nation, Dujarric said Guterres maintains that Israel must uphold its obligations under the deal, "including by ending all unauthorized presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the cease-fire and stability in Golan."
Israel conquered the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1967 and has illegally occupied it ever since, annexing the seized lands in 1981.
Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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