UltraViolet on the Supreme Court Decision Overturning Roe v. Wade and Eliminating Constitutional Protections for Abortion

Statement from Sonja Spoo, Director of Reproductive Rights Campaigns at UltraViolet, a leading national gender-justice organization:

"The day we have all feared has finally come. The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, and in doing so eliminated the Constitutional rights of women and pregnant people across the United States to access abortion.

"With this decision, the trigger bans in 13 states will come into effect - automatically restricting or banning access to abortion - with an additional 13 states likely to take swift steps to do the same. This is a humanitarian, civil rights and public health crisis.

"Millions of people will be forced to travel hundreds or thousands of miles for an abortion - and those are the lucky ones. For poor people, for people who live in rural communities, and for communities of color - this decision will lead to increased surveillance and suspicion of all pregnancy outcomes. Forced birth, dangerous or deadly health outcomes, increased police intrusion into our health and families-all of this will be the new reality for millions and already is for so many. This is not an exaggeration.

"This is only the beginning. Without Roe - the fundamental right to privacy does not exist. This means access to contraceptives, the ability to love whomever you want, regardless of gender or race, and the ability to marry and raise a family are all on the chopping block.

"This decision proves that the Supreme Court is broken, hijacked by radical right-wing extremists. Its legitimacy is unlikely to survive today's decision.

"But as catastrophic as this is - both for the women of this country and our nation's political institutions - we must remember that today is the day that Republicans have been working towards for a generation - and it would not have been possible unless Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans had not stolen two Supreme Court seats, undermined voting rights, and packed the bench with ideological and overtly political Justices.

"But make no mistake - these radical extremists are the minority. The majority of Americans do not support this agenda. Democrats running as pro-choice have won more votes in 7 of the last 8 presidential elections - and nearly 80% of Americans believe that access to abortion should be legal and safe.

"Black, brown and Indigenous organizers have been warning about this moment for years. They called it when voting rights were gutted, and when state governments were captured by the right - and far too many of us refused to listen to their warnings.

"Today is a difficult day. But we now re-dedicate ourselves to fighting back.

"This is a national call to action. Now is the moment that we begin the work to protect access where we have it and to push back attempts to further restrict or ban abortion care. We vow to fight states that move to pass new bans or restrictions. We will call on states that will maintain access to care to work to expand access and support people needing to travel to their state for care. At state legislatures, in the streets, at the ballot box-we will be there. This is a time for bold action from our leaders across the country and for deep organizing, community, and mobilization.

Democrats in Congress, we demand urgency. Abolish the filibuster. Pass legislation guaranteeing a right to abortion. Restore protections to voting rights so we - the majority - can make sure our voices are heard in November - and we can put in place elected officials who will fix our broken and biased Supreme Court. We also demand that President Biden steps up and leads the whole of government response this crisis moment needs

"Companies like AT&T, Comcast, Disney and more - who have supported extremist Republicans up and down the ballot for years - this is the time of reckoning. You have your notice. You need to loudly and publicly declare that you will halt all political donations to anti-choice Republican political campaigns, fund folks who will protect our rights, and implement measures to ensure that all of your employees will have access to reproductive health care and abortion, regardless of where they live.

And for social media platforms-Meta, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and more-you are responsible for ensuring that people have access to accurate information about how to access abortion as well as accurate information about abortion science. You must work to stop the spread of abortion lies and disinformation and deplatform bad actors who work to sow fear, lies, and disinformation about abortion access.

"This is just the beginning of the fight. We are the majority, and we won't go back.