Women Enabled International is deeply distressed by the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization today, which overturns a nearly 50-year legal precedent and eliminates a federal right to abortion in the United States.
As a result of this decision, abortion could become illegal or severely restricted in over half of U.S. states and territories, with devastating consequences for the lives and health of more than 40 million women and other people with the biological capacity to become pregnant.
The impact of this decision will be felt deeply across the United States and around the globe. WEI is committed to working in partnership with disability and reproductive rights and justice organizations across the country to mitigate the harmful effects of this decision on our community and to ensure that the voices and perspectives of women and gender minorities with disabilities are included in this important fight for our human rights.
In addition to WEI’s ongoing work to bring an intersectional gender and disability lens to discussions and advocacy around abortion rights, in the coming months we plan to:
· Give guidance to abortion funds about how to ensure that funding reaches and is inclusive of women and gender minorities with disabilities.
· Develop and disseminate accurate information about the impact of the Dobbs decision in accessible formats.
· Bring the learnings from our sisters in other countries who have participated in their countries’ movements for abortion rights to inform the longer-term response of U.S. disability rights and justice actors to this human rights crisis.
Today’s decision is a significant attack on our fundamental rights, and we share the pain, anger, and exhaustion that so many of you feel. But while this marks the end of an era in abortion rights in the United States, the fight does not end here—WEI remains committed to engaging in strategic and collective advocacy to reclaim our right to bodily autonomy.
- Click here to read WEI’s full statement regarding the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
- Click here to read our joint statement with other leading disability organizations united in opposition to this ruling.
- Click here to read WEI’s groundbreaking publication outlining an international legal framework for abortion at the intersection of gender and disability: Abortion and Disability: Towards an Intersectional and Human Rights-Based Approach.
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