What Comes Next: America After Dobbs
This morning, the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs vs. Jackson overturned our long-standing rights to abortion access. We must now find our way to what comes next.
In Maine, a legal right to abortion will still exist - so long as we continue to elect policy makers at every level who support this right. But nation-wide, we are facing a future without national protection for our bodily autonomy.
Today’s decision looks back at our Constitution for guidance - a document written by and for white, land-owning men. The needs, lives, and experiences of women were explicitly left unaddressed and unprotected. Women were not considered citizens. This was doubly true for women of color, who not only were not seen as citizens but were more often than not enslaved. The norms set in the founding have made abortion nearly impossible for people who experience white supremacy and patriarchal oppression: Black, Indigenous, and women of color; trans people; poor people, and people located in states where there access to cast free and fair votes is denied or restricted.
Now, the Supreme Court - a body made up almost exclusively for and by white, cisgender men - are looking back to that time as the light that they follow. In doing so, they are dimming the light of freedom and autonomy for so many. Abortion care opens the door to gender equity, and no matter what, we refuse to let that door close.
While they look backward, WE must look forward.
We look forward to rising with our friends, neighbors, and communities to speak out against injustice, misogyny, and the dehumanizing effects of this decision.
We look forward to November, when we must cast votes up and down the ballot for candidates who support the right to abortion and reproductive healthcare.
We look forward to making sure people in Maine know they can still access care, and sharing our resources with those outside Maine to make sure they have the same opportunity.
We look forward to next legislative session, when we will continue to expand our rights here in Maine, and set a model for how to make sure that everyone can access affordable, safe, and community-focused abortion care.
We look forward to taking to the streets, to the courts, and to the halls of power, because we will not stop until we build a world where all people have the right - and the resources - to make decisions about their lives, bodies, families, and communities.
Here’s what you can do today and in the coming weeks:
Join the rally TODAY in Portland at 5:15 to march in solidarity with our community.
Join the virtual “reflect and react’ session on Saturday from 6:00 - 7:00 PM with Maine’s three abortion care providers, Mabel Wadsworth Center, Maine Family Planning, and Planned Parenthood.
Demand that Senator Collins to follow through on her commitment to make abortion a nationally-protectted right.
Make a donation to support independent abortion care providers. In Maine, you can support Mabel Wadsworth Center or Maine Family Planning. The Abortion Care Network supports the national network of independent abortion care providers.
Support legislation advocacy to protect our rights by making a gift to the Maine Women’s Lobby.
Make a plan to vote, and commit to asking every candidate you speak with if they support abortion rights.
Find one person in your network who isn’t registered to vote and help them make a plan.
Don’t lose hope - together we will build our own liberation.
In solidarity,
Destie
& the Maine Women's Lobby Team
