Dear John,
It’s relatively rare to see a U.S. congressperson so angry that they’re having trouble speaking. Which is why I was surprised and inspired when earlier this week I noticed a video of Sen. Elizabeth Warren making the rounds online. In the video, Warren stands in front of the Supreme Court, surrounded by pro-abortion rights protestors and the media. And she’s shaking with rage.
“I am angry because of who will pay the price for this,” she says, referring of course to Monday’s leaked draft Supreme Court opinion that signals the overturn of Roe v. Wade and the sweeping bans on abortion access passed in Republican controlled state legislatures across the country.
“It will not be wealthy women,” Warren continues. “Wealthy women can get on an airplane, they can fly to another state, they can fly to another country, they can get the protection they need. This will fall on the poorest women in our country. This will fall on the young women who have been abused, who are victims of incest. This will fall on those who have been raped. This will fall on mothers who are already struggling to work three jobs, to be able to support the children they have.”
Even before Monday’s leak revealed that the Court was planning on reversing the 1973 ruling that provided a constitutional right to abortion for 50 years, advocates have known that the end of Roe was possible. From the mounting state-level abortion restrictions to the stacking of the nation’s highest court with right wing justices appointed by two Republican presidents who lost the popular vote, our constitutional rights have never been fully secured. Even today, though abortion still technically remains legal, there are multiple states with only one abortion clinic remaining. The lack of safe abortion access is already impacting the people Warren mentions in her fiery speech: poor women, young women and teenaged girls, mothers, disproportionately women of color, women who are victims of rape and incest.
We know this from the stories of reproductive rights and justice advocates; independent clinic directors struggling to stay afloat with limited funding, targeted by anti-abortion extremists and harassment; by the stories of everyday women who can’t afford to skip the days off work it would take for them to drive three states over to the closest abortion clinic.
But like Sen. Warren, we will not let this anger and rage pass by. “I am angry. Angry and upset and determined,” she said on Tuesday. “The United States Congress can keep Roe v. Wade the law of the land. They just need to do it.”
Like Warren, we’ve seen a world without Roe. And we refuse to go back.
