The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee advances human rights through grassroots collaborations.

“A Roadmap to Eviscerate Rights”: UUSC Condemns Draft Supreme Court Opinion Dismantling Reproductive Rights, Calls for Revitalized Movement to Advance Reproductive Justice

In the evening of Monday, May 2, Politico and other news outlets published a leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—a case affecting a range of rights that impact many in this country, including the right to abortion. UUSC’s President Rev. Mary Katherine Morn issued the following response:

Women’s rights, trans and nonbinary people’s rights, pregnant people’s rights, reproductive rights, are long-standing human rights. The decision of whether and when to give birth is tied to one’s economic, political, social and cultural rights. The conservative legal movement’s efforts to unwind reproductive rights and more must be met with a vigilant and inspired effort to advance values of justice and equity throughout our communities. Any effort to undermine reproductive justice is a threat to individual and community health. Patriarchy and gender-based oppression in any form must be challenged.

As troubling as this moment is, we recognize that our communities are prepared. Efforts to chip away at the constitutional right to abortion have been unfolding for years, and the movement to defend these core reproductive rights is ready to meet and overcome them. This is not a time for fatalism or resignation. We can and must support the work of those fighting for reproductive justice, in particular BIPOC women. We can and must call on our elected officials to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, codifying Roe v. Wade into law, and the Equal Rights Amendment.

Resources and Next Steps

Learn more and take action with Side With Love, a public advocacy campaign sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Association that has been active on supporting abortion access and reproductive rights at the local and grassroots level for many years.

The following organizations work to advance reproductive justice through the leadership of women of color:

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The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) is a human rights and solidarity organization founded as a rescue mission in 1940 during the Holocaust. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and with a membership of more than 35,000 supporters across the United States, UUSC’s programs focus on the issues of climate and disaster justice, migrant justice, and international justice and accountability.

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