STATEMENT: Roe v. Wade Overturned by SCOTUS
June 24, 2022
Ottawa, Ontario
It is a terrifying day to be a woman in America. I am furious and heartbroken, but also emboldened.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade has dealt a devastating blow to women’s most fundamental civil and human rights. The impacts of the Supreme Court’s decision will resoundingly impact Black, Indigenous, and racialized women, victims of incest and rape, and those subject to the structural inequities and systemic barriers that contribute to unplanned pregnancies. At its core, it violates the liberty and equality of women and their access to vital health care.
As Canadians watch the ideological backsliding of the United States’ once-enshrined reproductive rights, we now hold two moral obligations: to remain a country able to provide abortions to anyone in need; and to ensure the same erosion of fundamental bodily autonomy never finds its way onto our country’s legislative or judicial agenda.
The rights enshrined in Roe—and in Casey, too—are not isolated. They are intertwined with other settled freedoms: bodily integrity, contraception, and same-sex intimacy and marriage. As Roe falls, we cannot take for granted the hard-won victories of LGBTQ+ advocates, reproductive service providers, and women across America.
It's time to organize. It's time to protect the reproductive rights we hold as Canadians—and resoundingly deny any political intention to amend or reverse those rights. It’s time to vote–and to vote out those who don’t believe that the right to choose is a woman’s decision and hers alone.
It is a terrifying day to be a woman in America. As state trigger laws come into effect, the fear and reality of today’s decision will only become starker. As Canadians, we cannot stand idly by behind the safety and privilege of our own country, and—perhaps most importantly—we cannot let it happen here.
"Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens." – Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan.
