On Tuesday, 21st May at noon local time at statehouses, town squares, and courthouses across the USA – with other events throughout the week – advocates for the right to safe, legal abortion will show up to speak out and fight back against the unconstitutional attempts to revoke Roe v Wade and punish women.
Across the country, we are seeing a new wave of extreme bans on abortion, stripping away reproductive freedom and representing an all-out assault on abortion access. This is Trump’s anti-choice movement… and it’s terrifying, particularly for women of color and low-income women who are most affected by these bans. bans.
Politicians shouldn’t be making decisions best left to women, their families, and their doctors.
On the form that activists are asked to fill in to register an event, they are asked to endorse the following four principles:
- Resist Trump’s agenda. We believe Trump’s agenda is racist, misogynistic, authoritarian, and corrupt, and it must be stopped.
- Embrace progressive values. We model inclusion, respect, and fairness in all of our actions.
- Coordinate and collaborate. We partner with other groups on advocacy and campaigns.
- Build a strong and strategic movement. We focus our efforts to maximize our impact, winning progressive policy victories and taking power at the local, state, and federal level.
As one of the partners in #StopTheBans, Catholics for Choice director Jon O’Brien wrote in an op-ed for The Hill:
“Moral decision making, such as whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy, must be guided by an individual’s conscience. As Catholics and as Americans, we support a woman’s right to follow her conscience and we denounce these immoral laws that deny her this most basic human right.
Catholics for Choice opposes these extremist bills and, in doing so, represents the voice of the majority of Catholics who disagree with punishments and stigma being forced upon women seeking abortion care. Six in ten U.S. Catholic voters believe abortion can be a moral choice. The one glimmer of hope is that abortion today remains legal in the United States and there is an army of good citizens ready to fight tooth and nail to defend it. The extremists have scored a victory in Alabama – but by going too far they might also blow themselves up.”
#StopTheBans is a partnership of the following US groups:
ACLU, ACLU of Georgia, Advocates for Youth, AL Coalition on Black Civic Participation, All* Above All Action Fund, Catholics for Choice, Center for American Progress, Center for Popular Democracy, Community Catalyst Action Fund, CREDO, Daily Kos, EMILYs List, Gender Justice, Hope Clinic for Women, Illinois Choice Action Team, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, Indivisible, International Women’s Health Coalition, Jane’s Due Process, Legal Voice, Lilith Fund, MARCH ON, MoveOn, NARAL Pro-Choice America, NARAL Pro-Choice Arizona, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, National Abortion Federation, National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Council of Jewish Women, NCJW Louisville Section, National Council of Jewish Women St. Louis, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Institute for Reproductive Health Action Fund, National Organization for Women, National Partnership for Women & Families, National Women’s Health Network, National Women’s Law Center, NH Sierra Club, People For the American Way, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, People’s Defense, SEIU, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, Shout Your Abortion, Sierra Club, State Innovation Exchange, Swing Left, Texas Freedom Network, The Clinic Vest Project, UltraViolet, #VOTEPROCHOICE, Voto Latino, Whole Woman’s Health, Women’s March, Women’s March Minnesota, Women Winning. Additional partners to be added.
SOURCE: Catholics for Choice, 20 May 2019 ; The Hill, by Jon O’Brien, 16 May 2019 ; PHOTO: Getty