By Julianna S. Gonen–
January 22 will be the 50th anniversary of the decision in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Constitution protects the right to end a pregnancy. But sadly, Roe did not live to see its 50th birthday. In June, in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court overturned Roe and held that the Constitution does not protect the right to abortion. Although not unexpected, this outcome was nonetheless shocking. While the Court overruling itself is not unheard of, this is first time in history it has reversed itself to take away, rather than expand, individual rights. The harm from this decision is already being felt, and threats to other fundamental rights are looming.
Forced pregnancy is now a reality in a dozen states—and more will surely follow suit. This is of grave concern to LGBTQI+ people. We need abortion care ourselves. Many of the clinics that provide abortion care also provide culturally competent care to the LGBTQI+ community, and state laws banning abortion will force them to close.
As LGBTQI+ people, we understand that the freedom to end a pregnancy, to access contraception, and to help our bodies align with our gender identity are essential to our health, dignity and autonomy, and to freedom from discrimination based on sex. And the Constitution’s stated promises of liberty and equality serve as the origin not only of the right to abortion, but also the rights to sexual privacy and to marry whom we love.
Or at least we thought they did.
It is no coincidence that we are witnessing the disappearance of reproductive autonomy at the same time that we are seeing a wave of hostile policies across the nation targeting LGBTQI+ people. Our common opponents are emboldened at a time when the Supreme Court has abandoned any pretense of protecting individual freedom and when democracy itself is under grave threat. The Dobbs decision showed with terrible clarity that even bedrock U.S. Supreme Court precedents are subject to reversal when political fortunes shift.
The next wave of draconian restrictions on, and outright bans of, abortion care will—like those enacted over prior decades—fall hardest on those with fewer financial resources, including, disproportionately, people of color. And the core reasoning that the Court’s majority used to scuttle Roe could easily be applied to the precedents our community holds dear, including those guaranteeing the right to sexual intimacy and to marriage equality.
While most of the justices in the majority swatted away those concerns, we should not be sanguine. As the dissenting justices emphatically stated: “Either the mass of the majority’s opinion is hypocrisy, or additional constitutional rights are under threat. It is one or the other.”
LGBTQ families have always been a core part of NCLR’s (National Center for Lesbian Rights) mission and work. We were founded 45 years ago to fight for the rights of lesbians to parent, and pursuing legal protections for LGBTQ people to be secure in their families has been our passion ever since. That’s why reproductive justice is central to our work today.
Just as no one should be denied the ability to parent because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, no one should be forced to undergo pregnancy and childbirth against their will. If liberty means anything, it means the freedom to love, share intimacy with and marry whom you want, and decide whether or not to become a parent. That’s why we show up in every way we can in the fight for abortion rights and reproductive justice more broadly.
For years we’ve filed amicus briefs in abortion rights cases at the Supreme Court, submitted testimony for congressional hearings, filed comments with federal agencies, and marched in the streets demanding reproductive justice. Across multiple venues, NCLR carries the message that the movements for LGBTQI+ equality and reproductive freedom are one and the same.
Regardless of one’s own personal feelings about abortion, making it impossible to access through barriers and bans undermines other people’s basic right of self-determination. That should be deeply unsettling to everyone, and LGBTQI+ people in particular. Forcing anyone to be pregnant against their will—denying anyone the medical care they need—is the very antithesis of the liberty guaranteed by our Constitution. But the very meaning of that word, liberty, is up for grabs right now. We must reclaim it, and we must do it together. Julianna S. Gonen is the Federal Policy Director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
Published on November 3, 2022
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