A version of this op-ed by our Executive Director Sarah Preston was printed in the News & Observer on June 29.
While Roe v. Wade established a right to abortion, what followed the decision was a 50-year assault on access to this basic health care at the state level. Since Roe was decided, state legislatures across the country have enacted over 1,300 abortion restrictions, nearly half of those in just the last decade.
Roe was never sufficient to secure abortion or gender equity, and it has always been clear to us that if we really want to secure abortion care for anyone who needs it, the battle would be in the states. Lillian’s List was founded 25 years ago to secure reproductive freedom at the state level and ensure that women, who are consistently underrepresented in elected office, would be at the table when decisions that profoundly affect them are being made. We were literally built for this.
With the Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Roe, the Court has handed immense power over health care decisions off to state legislators and made our work at the state level that much more important.
With most of our neighboring states already poised to ban or severely restrict abortion, the North Carolina General Assembly will become the last line of defense against anti-abortion, anti-woman forces intent on dismantling access to abortion and reproductive health care, not just in the state, but in the Southeast. And the 2022 election will determine which direction we go. Will North Carolina be the next South Carolina, Texas or Mississippi?
While most of our neighbors move to ban abortion, together, our Featured Candidates have ensured that abortion remains legal in North Carolina by flipping enough seats in 2018 to sustain a veto and defending our gains in 2020. We must continue to support our Lillian’s List Featured Candidates to protect legal abortion in North Carolina.
We are grateful to have you, our Lillian’s List community, in this fight with us. We are in this for the long haul and this year, we need all hands on deck. We hope you will join us at one of our upcoming volunteer, training, or fundraising events to make sure we keep legal abortion in North Carolina, not just for those of us who live here, but for all those who will need to seek an abortion throughout the Southeast!
