8 | SEPTEMBER 23 • 2021 

essay
Protecting Reproductive Rights
T

hough I was born before Roe v. 
Wade was the law of the land, I 
grew up only knowing abortion 
to be legal. But from its inception, abor-
tion has been a right in name only for so 
many people — mostly indi-
viduals with low incomes, 
LGBTQ folks and people of 
color. Because the reality is 
that access to abortion has 
been under attack since the 
Supreme Court’s 1973 deci-
sion.
Take the discriminatory 
Hyde Amendment, first passed in 1976, 
which denies abortion coverage through 
Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s 
Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Added 
to annual appropriations bills every year, 
Hyde also extends to federal employees 
and dependents, military personnel and 
dependents, Peace Corps volunteers, 
Native Americans receiving care from 
federal or tribal programs, pregnant indi-
viduals in federal prisons and detention 
centers, pregnant individuals receiving care 
from community health centers, survivors 
of human trafficking and low-income 
Washington, D.C., residents.
Look also at Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 
a 1992 case, in which the basic framework 
of Roe was altered to allow restrictions 
that did not place an “undue burden” on 
a woman’s ability to exercise her right to 
obtain an abortion. From this decision 
(and to be sure even before), states made it 
their business to get in other people’s busi-
ness to regulate what we can and cannot 
do with our bodies.
Despite the constitutional right to abor-
tion — regardless of who you are, how 
much money you make or where you 
live — efforts to chip away at access, like 
what just happened in Texas, have been the 
focus of conservative lawmakers across the 
county.
States employ a variety of tactics to limit 
abortion access, including outright bans 
tied to gestational age, mandatory biased 
counseling, waiting periods, parental con-
sent, restrictions on public funding and 

private insurance coverage, physician and 
hospital requirements (targeted restrictions 
on abortion providers or “TRAP” laws), 
and refusals of care based on moral and 
religious objections. The right wing won’t 
stop until people who can get pregnant do 
not have the right to make their own deci-
sions about their body, health and futures.
It is no surprise that in states like Texas, 
where their leadership is hell-bent on 
restricting abortion access, they are also 
doing everything they can to suppress the 
vote. SB1, which would decrease vote-by-
mail options, roll back expanded voting 
options making it easier to vote, and boost 
protections for partisan poll watchers and 
set new rules — and possible criminal 
penalties — for those who assist voters in 
casting their ballots, just passed in the lone 
star state.
It surpasses Georgia’s more well-known 
sweeping voter suppression law in its 
extent, impact and cruelty. These restric-
tions primarily target the same populations 
as abortion bans: women, people with 
low income, people of color, immigrants, 
LGBTQ individuals and young people.
Without federal legislation to protect 
our rights, we are at the mercy of the 
courts, remade under the former presi-
dent, packed with mostly white, young 
men who oppose voting rights, abortion 
rights, LGBTQ rights, and more. As we 

are all too aware, three of the justices on 
the U.S. Supreme Court were nominated 
by Trump. And what many may not know 
is that six Trump judges sit on the Fifth 
Circuit, where the Texas law, SB8, has been 
returned thanks to the Supreme Court’s 
inaction.
The systems of white supremacy and 
white supremacists in power only care 
about just that: keeping the power to white, 
Christian males. Reproductive oppression 
is one way of holding on to their power, 
despite widespread support of reproduc-
tive freedom in the U.S. In a recent survey, 
close to 60% of Americans say abortion 
should be legal in all or most cases, a result 
mostly unchanged over the last few years.
It is long past time to change this 
power dynamic. Though there are more 
Democratic-leaning voters in this coun-
try, we are in the process of redistricting 
without the protections of the federal 
government for the first time in decades, 
all but assuring the dilution of minority 
and Democratic voters in Republican-led 
states.
With a Democratic president and a 
Democratic majority in Congress, we can 
and must enshrine our rights in statute. 
Now is the time for strong federal legis-
lation to protect and advance our rights, 
including the right to abortion. 
Tell your lawmakers to pass the Women’s 
Health Protection Act (WHPA) to guar-
antee federal abortion protections. WHPA 
would safeguard access to high-quality 
care and secure our constitutional rights 
by protecting patients and providers from 
the dangerous political interference we’re 
seeing in states like Texas no matter where 
you live. Everyone deserves the abortion 
care they need to thrive in their commu-
nities and live their lives with economic 
security and dignity.
Connect the dots. The urgency is real. 
We cannot miss the moment. 

Jody Rabhan is a progressive social justice advocate 

at the National Council of Jewish Women fighting for 

health care, abortion rights, gun safety and everything 

in between.

Jody Rabhan

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