Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights (Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada) stands with our colleagues in the U.S. who are facing the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and strip millions of their right to an abortion. This ruling is an attack on human rights and will have devastating and inequitable repercussions that ripple beyond the American border.
We extend our solidarity to abortion organizers on the ground in the U.S., many of whom have already built grassroots abortion networks to support people the state has left behind. For those who already face the most barriers to the full range of sexual and reproductive health services– Black and Brown, poor, disabled, young and 2SLGBTQIA+ people – legal abortion has not translated into meaningful access.
We have witnessed this firsthand through our Norma Scarborough Emergency Fund, which has supported people facing financial barriers to abortion for over a decade. This includes people who do not have citizenship status or health insurance, who lack funds to travel outside of their community, and who do not have access to paid sick days to take time off to attend appointments. Without dismantling intersecting systems of economic, racial, and patriarchal oppression, abortion remains out of reach for many, regardless of legality.
The decision to repeal Roe v. Wade is the culmination of decades of attacks on abortion rights, led and funded by allied anti-human rights groups who are concurrently organizing attacks on the rights of women, racialized people, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, sex workers, and other marginalized communities. We see it in the U.S. today, but we have also seen it in every region of the world in the last decade.
For years, anti-abortion organizers have worked hand-in-hand with anti-democratic movements to overturn Roe v. Wade. It would be naive to ignore the impact of these groups on abortion access and human rights in Canada. We must remain committed to building solidarity across borders and human rights movements as we work to protect and advance abortion rights in Canada and globally.