Our Statements

Friday, June 24, 2022 – Today the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) handed down a decision striking down Roe v. Wade, leaving access to legal and safe abortion up to the states – about half of which plan to ban the medical procedure. The Center for Family Representation (CFR) condemns this harmful decision and stands in solidarity with all those whose access to abortion will be restricted or eliminated entirely.

Reproductive healthcare  – including abortion – is a human right and its access is deeply intertwined with the work we do at CFR. Historically, Black babies were sold into slavery and ripped from their parents; we cannot separate how America’s history of slavery frames current debates about reproductive freedom. Today, the family regulation system routinely tears Black babies from their families. Every day, our clients have to fight for the bare minimum: the ability to control their bodies, their destinies, and when and how they parent, which has a generational impact. Reproductive justice includes both the right to have a child and the right to choose not to have a child, or to decide that your family cannot support an additional child. Our clients are judged for bearing more children, but are also condemned for deciding to terminate a pregnancy. Both decisions relate to our clients’ right to self-determination. Additionally, for our clients with children in foster care, a new baby means prolonged involvement in the family regulation system and almost always a separation at birth, causing trauma to the child and our client.

Restricting reproductive healthcare harms pregnant people, particularly Black pregnant people. According to a recent study by the University of Colorado, Boulder, a nationwide abortion ban could increase deaths among pregnant Black people by about 33%. Black people are already three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white people. Research has also shown that states that have already restricted abortion have seen decreases in Black women’s college completion rates, drops in their future income, and more families living below the poverty line. 

We must call this SCOTUS decision what it is: another racist, sexist, and classist affront to the parents society has been more invested in punishing than supporting. Striking down Roe v. Wade most impacts marginalized, low-income communities of color – further policing and criminalizing them for seeking essential reproductive healthcare. It violates the bodily autonomy of our clients and all pregnant people, greatly limiting their ability to decide what is in their own and their families’ best interests.

CFR denounces SCOTUS’s decision and urges our community to unite in demanding the right to access all forms of reproductive healthcare. We encourage you to continue speaking out about what’s at stake and contacting your elected officials to urge them to protect abortion rights. Click here for seven simple but powerful actions you can take right now to support the right to legal abortion. During these trying times, we must stand together and never be silent.