It’s official: It’s been 100 days since Texas Senate Bill 8, the most extreme abortion ban in our country, went into effect. It’s also been 39 days since the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments and refused to block the law in Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, our fight for justice.
Every day that SB 8 is allowed to stand is a human rights crisis.
The right to safe abortion care has been upheld for nearly 50 years in the United States. Yet it’s meaningless with the avalanche of bans and restrictions we’ve seen this year alone.
We’re increasingly living in two different Americas, where abortion access depends on where you live and your income.
Since September 1st, Texans have been effectively banned from getting abortion care from trained medical professionals – like the staff at Whole Woman’s Health’s four Texas clinics. We have been forced to comply with a law that we don’t believe in and turn away 70-80% of the people who come to us for care they deserve to have in their own community.
As one patient shared, “I feel like I can’t make a decision for myself, for my body, and my family. I feel like these decisions are being made for me and I feel like I’m trapped.”
Abortion care is fundamental to the quality and autonomy of our lives. The impact on maternal and child health is already devastating, and will be even more dire in the months to come. What we’re seeing in Texas is a foreshadowing of what will happen in other states if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Twenty-six states are poised to ban abortion in a post-Roe America, causing even more stark inequalities in this country.
