{"id":35563,"date":"2022-05-03T16:40:06","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T23:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rop.org\/?post_type=update&p=35563"},"modified":"2023-12-09T05:56:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T13:56:04","slug":"take-action-for-reproductive-health-care-access","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"https:\/\/rop.org\/zh\/update\/take-action-for-reproductive-health-care-access\/","title":{"rendered":"\u4e3a\u83b7\u5f97\u751f\u6b96\u4fdd\u5065\u91c7\u53d6\u884c\u52a8\uff01"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ability to access and afford healthcare is crucial to making sure that everyone can live their lives fully and thrive in rural communities.<\/strong> The Right has been spending huge amounts of money to restrict abortion access for decades, and yesterday Politico released the US Supreme Court\u2019s initial draft opinion that, if finalized, will strike down the Roe v. Wade<\/em><\/a> decision that ensures some access to abortion care. Amidst the fear, anger, and sheer frustration that many who have fought for these rights for decades are feeling today, we wanted to reach out and connect. We have won this fight before, and we will win it again if we need to!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many states, including Idaho, have been preparing for this decision and have laws on the books that will immediately ban safe, legal abortions and criminalize anyone seeking abortion care. This decision could also call into question the rights of all people to access birth control and reproductive healthcare more broadly, as well as marriage equality for 2SLGBTQIA+ people.<\/a> Regardless of the final decision, Oregon will still be a place where people can access abortion, and we know folks from neighboring states will be coming into Oregon if they can\u2019t access the care they need where they live. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are lucky that in Oregon we have passed legislation that maintains the right to access the healthcare folks need regardless of this decision. However the obstacles for rural, poor, queer, and folks of color to access reproductive healthcare remain: clinics are often several hours\u2019 drive away, open during narrow hours, and the cost is often prohibitive to travel and access care. We can show up to defend the right to choose and to expand healthcare access for everyone who needs it across Oregon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Folks all across the country are taking immediate action today, Tuesday, May 3rd, at 5 pm local time to protect Roe and show up in support of reproductive healthcare!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u21d2 Gather<\/strong> your human dignity group and head down to your town square, town hall, courthouse, or post office TODAY at 5 pm. Take a sign-in sheet like this one<\/a> to make sure you can stay in touch in the weeks and months to come with any new friends you meet out there! We know this won\u2019t be the only time we need to rally. Send us your photos and we\u2019ll share them on our social media (@RuralOrganizingProject)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u21d2 Call<\/strong> your senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden to vote YES on the Women\u2019s Health Protection Act by dialing 1-202-601-3441.<\/a> If passed, this legislation would protect the right to abortion throughout the United States and guard against the dangerous abortion bans and medically unnecessary abortion restrictions being pushed forward by state politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u21d2 Donate<\/strong> to Northwest Abortion Access Fund<\/a> to support folks to be able to access abortion care across our region! To support folks outside our region, donate to this fund that will split contributions between abortion funds and pro-choice groups across the country.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u21d2 Register for the <\/strong>Rural Caucus & Strategy Session<\/strong><\/a> today!<\/strong> This year we are meeting on Saturday, June 25th in Redmond to strategize together with community leaders, organizers, and activists from across rural Oregon about how we can defend and expand reproductive justice. We have extended the early bird discount deadline to May 25th!<\/em> Please note that we are offering scholarships, coordinating interpretation, carpools, childcare, community housing, and more, so please let us know how we can support you and your group coming to the Caucus. More info at rop.org\/caucus.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the article below<\/a> and let us know what your human dignity group is doing! Are you finding other ways to take action? Let us know at Emma@rop.org<\/a>! We would love to strategize with you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this moment is heavy, we know that we will make it through together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In solidarity,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma and the ROP Team<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,\u201d Justice Alito writes in an initial majority draft circulated inside the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Josh Gerstein<\/a> and Alexander Ward<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

05\/02\/2022 08:32 PM EDT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updated: 05\/03\/2022 02:14 PM EDT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade<\/em> decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion<\/a> written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision \u2014 Planned Parenthood v. Casey<\/em> \u2014 that largely maintained the right. \u201cRoe<\/em> was egregiously wrong from the start,\u201d Alito writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hold that Roe<\/em> and Casey<\/em> must be overruled,\u201d he writes in the document, labeled as the \u201cOpinion of the Court.\u201d \u201cIt is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people\u2019s elected representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deliberations on controversial cases have in the past been fluid. Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before a decision is unveiled. The court\u2019s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The immediate impact of the ruling as drafted in February would be to end a half-century guarantee of federal constitutional protection of abortion rights and allow each state to decide whether to restrict or ban abortion. It\u2019s unclear if there have been subsequent changes to the draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case was still pending. The unprecedented revelation is bound to intensify the debate over what was already the most controversial case on the docket this term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft opinion offers an extraordinary window into the justices\u2019 deliberations in one of the most consequential cases before the court in the last five decades. Some court-watchers predicted that the conservative majority would slice away at abortion rights without flatly overturning a 49-year-old precedent. The draft shows that the court is looking to reject Roe<\/em>\u2019s logic and legal protections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRoe<\/em> was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe<\/em> and Casey<\/em> have enflamed debate and deepened division.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  \u2013Justice Samuel Alito in an initial draft majority opinion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A person familiar with the court\u2019s deliberations said that four of the other Republican-appointed justices \u2014 Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett \u2014 had voted with Alito in the conference held among the justices after hearing oral arguments in December, and that line-up remains unchanged as of this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three Democratic-appointed justices \u2014 Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan \u2014 are working on one or more dissents, according to the person. How Chief Justice John Roberts will ultimately vote, and whether he will join an already written opinion or draft his own, is unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document, labeled as a first draft of the majority opinion, includes a notation that it was circulated among the justices on Feb. 10. If the Alito draft is adopted, it would rule in favor of Mississippi in the closely watched case over that state\u2019s attempt to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the draft opinion and said he was ordering an investigation into the disclosure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed. The work of the Court will not be affected in any way,\u201d Roberts pledged in a written statement. \u201cThis was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts also stressed that the draft opinion \u201cdoes not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.\u201d The court spokesperson had declined comment pre-publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

POLITICO received a copy of the draft opinion from a person familiar with the court\u2019s proceedings in the Mississippi case along with other details supporting the authenticity of the document. The draft opinion runs 98 pages, including a 31-page appendix of historical state abortion laws. The document is replete with citations to previous court decisions, books and other authorities, and includes 118 footnotes. The appearances and timing of this draft are consistent with court practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disclosure of Alito\u2019s draft majority opinion \u2014 a rare breach of Supreme Court secrecy and tradition around its deliberations \u2014 comes as all sides in the abortion debate are girding for the ruling. Speculation about the looming decision has been intense since the December oral arguments indicated a majority was inclined to support the Mississippi law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under long-standing court procedures, justices hold preliminary votes on cases shortly after argument and assign a member of the majority to write a draft of the court\u2019s opinion. The draft is often amended in consultation with other justices, and in some cases the justices change their votes altogether, creating the possibility that the current alignment on Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em> could change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chief justice typically assigns majority opinions when he is in the majority. When he is not, that decision is typically made by the most senior justice in the majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Exceptionally weak\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A George W. Bush appointee who joined the court in 2006, Alito argues that the 1973 abortion rights ruling was an ill-conceived and deeply flawed decision that invented a right mentioned nowhere in the Constitution and unwisely sought to wrench the contentious issue away from the political branches of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito\u2019s draft ruling would overturn a decision by the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that found the Mississippi law ran afoul of Supreme Court precedent by seeking to effectively ban abortions before viability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roe<\/em>\u2019s \u201csurvey of history ranged from the constitutionally irrelevant to the plainly incorrect,\u201d Alito continues, adding that its reasoning was \u201cexceptionally weak,\u201d and that the original decision has had \u201cdamaging consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation\u2019s history and traditions,\u201d Alito writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito approvingly quotes a broad range of critics of the Roe<\/em> decision. He also points to liberal icons such as the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, who at certain points in their careers took issue with the reasoning in Roe <\/em>or its impact on the political process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito\u2019s skewering of Roe <\/em>and the endorsement of at least four other justices for that unsparing critique is also a measure of the court\u2019s rightward turn in recent decades. Roe <\/em>was decided 7-2 in 1973, with five Republican appointees joining two justices nominated by Democratic presidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overturning of Roe <\/em>would almost immediately lead to stricter limits on abortion access in large swaths of the South and Midwest, with about half of the states set to immediately impose broad abortion bans. Any state could still legally allow the procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion,\u201d the draft concludes. \u201cRoe<\/em> and Casey<\/em> arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft contains the type of caustic rhetorical flourishes Alito is known for and that has caused Roberts, his fellow Bush appointee, some discomfort in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At times, Alito\u2019s draft opinion takes an almost mocking tone as it skewers the majority opinion in Roe,<\/em> written by Justice Harry Blackmun, a Richard Nixon appointee who died in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRoe <\/em>expressed the \u2018feel[ing]\u2019 that the Fourteenth Amendment was the provision that did the work, but its message seemed to be that the abortion right could be found somewhere<\/em> in the Constitution and that specifying its exact location was not of paramount importance,\u201d Alito writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito declares that one of the central tenets of Roe<\/em>, the \u201cviability\u201d distinction between fetuses not capable of living outside the womb and those which can, \u201cmakes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In several passages, he describes doctors and nurses who terminate pregnancies as \u201cabortionists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Roberts voted with liberal jurists in 2020 to block a Louisiana law imposing heavier regulations on abortion clinics, his solo concurrence<\/a> used the more neutral term \u201cabortion providers.\u201d In contrast, Justice Clarence Thomas used the word \u201cabortionist\u201d 25 times in a solo dissent<\/a> in the same case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito\u2019s use of the phrase \u201cegregiously wrong\u201d to describe Roe<\/em> echoes language Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart used in December in defending his state\u2019s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The phrase was also contained in an opinion<\/a> Kavanaugh wrote as part of a 2020 ruling that jury convictions in criminal cases must be unanimous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that opinion, Kavanaugh labeled two well-known Supreme Court decisions \u201cegregiously wrong when decided\u201d: the 1944 ruling upholding the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, Korematsu v. United States<\/em>, and the 1896 decision that blessed racial segregation under the rubric of \u201cseparate but equal,\u201d Plessy v. Ferguson.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high court has never formally overturned Korematsu<\/em>, but did repudiate the decision<\/a> in a 2018 ruling by Roberts that upheld then-President Donald Trump\u2019s travel ban policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legacy of Plessy v. Ferguson<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Plessy<\/em> remained the law of the land for nearly six decades until the court overturned it with the Brown v. Board of Education<\/em> school desegregation ruling in 1954.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quoting Kavanaugh, Alito writes of Plessy<\/em>: \u201cIt was \u2018egregiously wrong,\u2019 on the day it was decided.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito\u2019s draft opinion includes, in small type, a list of about two pages\u2019 worth of decisions in which the justices overruled prior precedents \u2014 in many instances reaching results praised by liberals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The implication that allowing states to outlaw abortion is on par with ending legal racial segregation has been hotly disputed. But the comparison underscores the conservative justices\u2019 belief that Roe<\/em> is so flawed that the justices should disregard their usual hesitations about overturning precedent and wholeheartedly renounce it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito\u2019s draft opinion ventures even further into this racially sensitive territory by observing in a footnote that some early proponents of abortion rights also had unsavory views in favor of eugenics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome such supporters have been motivated by a desire to suppress the size of the African American population,\u201d Alito writes. \u201cIt is beyond dispute that Roe<\/em> has had that demographic effect. A highly disproportionate percentage of aborted fetuses are black.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito writes that by raising the point he isn\u2019t casting aspersions on anyone. \u201cFor our part, we do not question the motives of either those who have supported and those who have opposed laws restricting abortion,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito also addresses concern about the impact the decision could have on public discourse. \u201cWe cannot allow our decisions to be affected by any extraneous influences such as concern about the public\u2019s reaction to our work,\u201d Alito writes. \u201cWe do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond to today\u2019s decision overruling Roe<\/em> and Casey<\/em>. And even if we could foresee what will happen, we would have no authority to let that knowledge influence our decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the main opinion in the 1992 Casey<\/em> decision, Justices Sandra Day O\u2019Connor, Anthony Kennedy and Davis Souter warned that the court would pay a \u201cterrible price\u201d for overruling Roe<\/em>, despite criticism of the decision from some in the public and the legal community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile it has engendered disapproval, it has not been unworkable,\u201d the three justices wrote then. \u201cAn entire generation has come of age free to assume Roe<\/em>\u2018s concept of liberty in defining the capacity of women to act in society, and to make reproductive decisions; no erosion of principle going to liberty or personal autonomy has left Roe<\/em>\u2018s central holding a doctrinal remnant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Dobbs<\/em> was argued in December, <\/em>Roberts seemed out of sync with the other conservative justices, as he has been in a number of cases including one challenging the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the argument session last fall, Roberts seemed to be searching for a way to uphold Mississippi\u2019s 15-week ban without completely abandoning the Roe<\/em> framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cViability, it seems to me, doesn\u2019t have anything to do with choice. But, if it really is an issue about choice, why is 15 weeks not enough time?\u201d Roberts asked during the arguments. \u201cThe thing that is at issue before us today is 15 weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nods to conservative colleagues<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While Alito\u2019s draft opinion doesn\u2019t cater much to Roberts\u2019 views, portions of it seem intended to address the specific interests of other justices. One passage argues that social attitudes toward out-of-wedlock pregnancies \u201chave changed drastically\u201d since the 1970s and that increased demand for adoption makes abortion less necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those points dovetail with issues that Barrett \u2014 a Trump appointee and the court\u2019s newest member \u2014 raised at the December arguments. She suggested laws allowing people to surrender newborn babies on a no-questions-asked basis mean carrying a pregnancy to term doesn\u2019t oblige one to engage in child rearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t the safe haven laws take care of that problem?\u201d asked Barrett, who adopted two of her seven children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of Alito\u2019s draft is devoted to arguing that widespread criminalization of abortion during the 19th and early 20th century belies the notion that a right to abortion is implied in the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conservative justice attached to his draft a 31-page appendix listing laws passed to criminalize abortion during that period. Alito claims \u201can unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment\u2026from the earliest days of the common law until 1973.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUntil the latter part of the 20th century, there was no support in American law for a constitutional right to obtain an abortion. Zero. None. No state constitutional provision had recognized such a right,\u201d Alito adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito\u2019s draft argues that rights protected by the Constitution but not explicitly mentioned in it \u2014 so-called unenumerated rights \u2014 must be strongly rooted in U.S. history and tradition. That form of analysis seems at odds with several of the court\u2019s recent decisions, including many of its rulings backing gay rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hold that Roe<\/em> and Casey<\/em> must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision….\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2013Justice Samuel Alito in an initial draft majority opinion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liberal justices seem likely to take issue with Alito\u2019s assertion in the draft opinion that overturning Roe<\/em> would not jeopardize other rights the courts have grounded in privacy, such as the right to contraception, to engage in private consensual sexual activity and to marry someone of the same sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,\u201d Alito writes. \u201cNothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alito\u2019s draft opinion rejects the idea that abortion bans reflect the subjugation of women in American society. \u201cWomen are not without electoral or political power,\u201d he writes. \u201cThe percentage of women who register to vote and cast ballots is consistently higher than the percentage of men who do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court remains one of Washington\u2019s most secretive institutions, priding itself on protecting the confidentiality of its internal deliberations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the Supreme Court, those who know don\u2019t talk, and those who talk don\u2019t know,\u201d Ginsburg was fond of saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That tight-lipped reputation has eroded somewhat in recent decades due to a series of books by law clerks, law professors and investigative journalists. Some of these authors clearly had access to draft opinions such as the one obtained by POLITICO, but their books emerged well after the cases in question were resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The justices held their final arguments of the current term on Wednesday. The court has set a series of sessions over the next two months to release rulings in its still-unresolved cases, including the Mississippi abortion case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ability to access and afford healthcare is crucial to making sure that everyone can live their lives fully and thrive in rural communities. The Right has been spending huge amounts of money to restrict abortion access for decades, and yesterday Politico released the US Supreme Court\u2019s initial draft opinion that, if finalized, will strike down the Roe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":35018,"template":"","areaofwork":[41,40],"class_list":["post-35563","update","type-update","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","areaofwork-advancing-democracy-for-all","areaofwork-defending-human-dignity"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update\/35563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/update"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update\/35563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39082,"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update\/35563\/revisions\/39082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"areaofwork","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/areaofwork?post=35563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}