Dear MoveOn member,
Across the South and Midwest, elected officials have been exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to push their extreme—and unpopular—anti-abortion agendas. Governors and attorneys general in Ohio, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee have deemed abortion care as "non-essential" and ordered clinics to close their doors.1 Some, like Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, have gone even further and are harassing abortion clinics that are still open and serving their communities' needs.2
Abortion is time-sensitive, essential health care, even more so during a pandemic. Forcing people to travel out of state to access abortion care, or carry an unwanted pregnancy to term and give birth, would increase someone's risk of contracting COVID-19 and completely undermine each governor's stated goal of preserving personal protective equipment (PPE), since Trump's inaction has left hospitals with a critical deficit.
But this was never about preserving PPE. It's about using a global health pandemic to push an extreme, right-wing agenda and going against the trusted medical advice of the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the World Health Organization.3,4,5 Most of these same states also have medically unnecessary 24- to 72-hour waiting periods for an abortion procedure, forcing patients to make multiple trips to the clinic, and also ban the use of telemedicine for medication abortion services.
We know that when states pass unnecessary bans on reproductive health care services, it's marginalized people who suffer the most. Those who are working-class, low-income, people of color, and LGBTQ are already facing a myriad of uncertainty during the pandemic. From loss of jobs to their communities suffering from the coronavirus at disproportionate rates, marginalized communities bear the brunt of these conservative policies. It's not surprising that of the states to issue a shutdown order, only Louisiana and Ohio expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Our friends and allies are fighting back! The Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, The Lawyering Project, and ACLU state affiliates have all filed lawsuits in federal courts to rescind these attacks on bodily autonomy. And they're winning. Already, they've blocked bans in Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee, and Oklahoma, while the fight continues in Arkansas, and clinics are still open and providing care in Louisiana and Mississippi.
There's still much to be done, but the fight isn't over. Ways you can advocate for reproductive health care during this time include these:
- Watch activist and organizer Charlene Carruthers explain the importance of reproductive justice in the time of COVID-19
- Start a petition asking the governor in your state to follow the leads of Washington and Massachusetts and declare that abortion is essential health care.
- Sign now to join our partners at UltraViolet in demanding that the Food and Drug Administration and state lawmakers lift the restrictions on telemedicine abortion care.
We know that the majority of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. We are the majority, and we're fighting back! At a time when we're all coming together, let's show these anti-abortion extremists that we won't allow this assault on our hard-fought rights.
Thanks for all you do.
–Mary, Julia, Jayne, Elsie, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Republicans Are Using the COVID-19 Crisis to Kill Abortion Rights," The Nation, April 2, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/120669?t=11&akid=262426%2E10220574%2EPM60ah
2. "Louisiana officials investigate abortion clinics during coronavirus stay-at-home order," NOLA.com, April 9, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/120670?t=13&akid=262426%2E10220574%2EPM60ah
3. "AMA statement on government interference in reproductive health care," American Medical Association, March 30, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/120671?t=15&akid=262426%2E10220574%2EPM60ah
4."Joint Statement on Abortion Access During the COVID-19 Outbreak," The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, March 18, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/118628?t=17&akid=262426%2E10220574%2EPM60ah
5. "WHO releases guidelines to help countries maintain essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic," World Health Organization, March 30, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/120672?t=19&akid=262426%2E10220574%2EPM60ah
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