U.S. Supreme Court must rule in favor of equal abortion access

On WGBH's Boston Public Radio with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, our executive director Carol Rose discussed abortion access as a human rights and economic issue. WGBH's Tori Bedfod summarized the segment:

“The key issue is access,” ACLU Executive Director Carol Rose said on Boston Public Radio. “The question is, whether you agree or don’t agree with it—should it be denied to people simply because they’re poor?”

According to Rose, the issue of access is a civil liberties problem when certain segments of people in rural or poor districts are deprived of care. “You can create these classes where people don’t have equal access,” she said. “Just like blocking the right to vote, there are lots of ways to block people’s right to obtain healthcare.” ...

Ultimately, Rose says that Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt comes down to fundamental human rights. “It’s an equal protection claim, basically,” she said. “It says everybody has to have equal access to whatever the rights are that are available. The notion that it becomes discriminatory based on people’s race or gender or their poverty status...once you go down that road, you begin to talk about equal rights. That’s why I really see abortion, as well as access to contraception and to neonatal care really is a question of giving women —and families, frankly, not just women—economic power. Anybody out there who has a child, you know how expensive it is. You know what a burden it is, and what a deep responsibility it is. We need to let families make these incredibly difficult private decisions away from the law and with access to making it as safe as possible.”

You can read the article and listen to the full interview here.

Learn about the Supreme Court case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, and our visit to the Supreme Court reproduction rights rally in Washington D.C.