FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Diego Aguilar-Canabal (DAguilarCanabal@cityofberkeley.info) (510) 981-7120
“I stand in solidarity with women, nonbinary, and trans Texans who will lose access to critical lifesaving healthcare due to the Texas legislature’s draconian abortion ban and the conservative Supreme Court’s decision to uphold it. It is impossible to ignore that the Republican Party’s aim is to use its illegitimate control of the judiciary to rob people of their civil rights. We cannot let Justice Gorsuch’s stolen seat and the Texas GOP’s rampant gerrymandering and voter suppression to continue endangering countless lives.
This backwards law does not only ban abortions after six weeks, when most pregnancies are not yet even confirmed—it also empowers any vigilante zealot, including domestic abusers, to enforce the ban through litigation while imposing all legal costs on the party seeking or providing an abortion. This has nothing to do with being ‘pro-life,’ since it applies indiscriminately to abortions that are in many cases needed to save the mother’s life. Everyone knows abortions will still happen: they will only be a riskier and more expensive undertaking without the full protection of Roe v. Wade. This will disproportionately hurt Black and Latinx communities, and rural communities with less access to healthcare. If you were still looking for proof that the GOP is the party of the Handmaid’s Tale, look no further. I urge everyone who stands for justice and bodily autonomy to make emergency donations to Planned Parenthood and other civil rights and reproductive justice groups to fight this decision and continue providing critical healthcare in Texas.
It is also increasingly urgent that all Californians come together to vote No on the Republican Recall and keep Governor Gavin Newsom in office. Republicans know that their agenda is not popular; they only advance their dangerous policies through anti-democratic means, and we the people must fight back for democracy.”
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