The United States Supreme Court effectively gave the go-ahead to a nationwide attack on reproductive rights today with its formal opinion overturning 50 years of precedent established by Roe v. Wade.
We stand with our partners at Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) and others working to protect abortion rights because we know an attack on one progressive cause is an attack on all progressives.
This outrageous decision is the latest step the emboldened conservative majority on the court is taking as it looks to roll back progress.
Days like today highlight the need for ongoing, persistent advocacy for issues that impact our community. We are not only working to advance our causes, but also fighting all efforts that can move us backward.
That was made clear in today’s concurrent ruling, in which Justice Clarence Thomas wrote: "For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” adding that the court has “a duty to correct the error established in those precedents.”
Translated: Very little stands in the way of conservatives and this court coming after same-sex marriage, rights to contraception and the right to private sex between two consenting adults.
Little, that is, except for advocates like Voces Unidas and our allies.
Recognizing that efforts to restrict and criminalize abortions in the United States are intensifying, Voces Unidas Action Fund, our sister organization, was a vocal supporter of the Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA), a new law passed this year to protect reproductive rights as fundamental rights in Colorado.
RHEA allows any person the right to choose or refuse contraception; gives any pregnant person the right to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion, and affirms that a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights under State law.
RHEA was particularly important because of the national efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade and because nothing explicitly protected abortion access in Colorado law.
We will not shrink back as a result of today’s ruling. Far from it.
We are more committed than ever before to efforts to organize and advocate around issues to lift up and protect Latinos, women, LGBTQ individuals and other underserved or marginalized communities.
Alex Sánchez is President and CEO of Voces Unidas de las Montañas and Voces Unidas Action Fund.