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Reproductive Rights are LGBTQ+ Rights
Spring 2022 • Carolyn Simon She/Her
The threat to abortion access across the country is not hypothetical – our right to abortion is being crushed right now.
As of press time for Equality magazine, our deepest fears are coming true. We are at a crisis moment for abortion access.
Roe v. Wade has constitutionally protected reproductive rights for nearly 50 years. This Supreme Court is the most extreme and out-of-step in decades, and they have shown us where they want to go on abortion rights. Overturning Roe is as dangerous as it is unprecedented, and will open the floodgates for states across the country to ban abortion. Many have already passed severe restrictions and bans in anticipation of this moment.
It has devastating consequences for women and all LGBTQ+ people – including queer people, many non-binary people, and transgender men, who need access to reproductive health care. This includes abortion. But it also includes contraception, and could extend to hormone therapy, IVF and other treatments.
We're furious. We’re outraged. And we're going to keep fighting. Because reproductive rights are LGBTQ+ rights.
Many are wondering what this decision means for more recent victories won in the courts for LGBTQ+ people.
If Roe is overturned, there is no immediate impact on any other case decided by the Supreme Court including Lawrence and Obergefell. But it encourages state lawmakers pandering to the base to test the limits of court recognized LGBTQ+ equality.
Anti-equality leaders have been showing us a road map of where they want to go — a future where all our fundamental rights are diminished and eroded.
We know our opponents are not going to stop here. We are at Code Red. This attack on reproductive justice comes as anti-equality lawmakers in states across the country continue their legislative assault on our community, particularly trans and non-binary kids, and on our nation’s civil liberties. Antiequality lawmakers are determined to tell us what we can say, what we can learn, what we can teach, what we can believe, and who we can be.
This is an emergency for our community and our democracy. As LGBTQ+ people, we need to be putting it all on the line. And we need all our allies to hold the line with us. We need to support the groups that are leading in this space — including Planned Parenthood for America and NARAL at the national level, and countless others who are on the frontlines at the state and locals levels. We need you to add your voices to our shared megaphone. We need you to tell your friends, your loved ones, your employers and your elected officials to get off the sidelines and actually pick a side.
Our side.
The right side of history.
It’s time for everyone who cares about where this nation is headed to pick a side and act now. We can help to make history. Or history will be made for us.
Our community is about to see the most destructive attack on our civil rights in a generation. We will fight back. We know what to do with our outrage — we turn it into action. So let’s go out there and make our voices heard.
Like the heroes who came before us, like the heroes who surround us, like the heroes that each of us have within, we will keep fighting, and keep bringing justice to life.
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