Hi Friend,
A lot is happening around Reproductive Justice right now, here’s the quick and dirty...

On Friday, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas issued a decision [[link removed]] in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA case to halt the FDA’s 2000 approval of Mifepristone (one of the medications that can be used for medication abortion), which would effectively take this safe, effective and widely-used medication off the market. Kacsmaryk then gave the federal government 7 days to appeal his decision.

Less than an hour after the Texas ruling, a competing decision from Washington state [[link removed]] came down from Judge Thomas O. Rice, partially granting a request from 17 states and the District of Columbia to stop the FDA from making any decisions regarding accessing Mifepristone in the states that filed suit. Then, the federal government filed an appeal [[link removed]] of the Texas decision and asked for clarity [[link removed]] in the Washington case because they are just as confused as the rest of us about what the conflicting opinions mean. The bottom line for right now is that access to medication abortion remains the same as it was prior to all these decisions, at least for now.

As we wait for more information from the courts, we shift our focus to Black Maternal Health Week (BMHW). Founded and led by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Black Maternal Health Week is a weeklong campaign that occurs annually to build awareness, activism, and community-building to amplify the voices, perspectives, and lived experiences of Black mamas and Black birthing people. The theme this year is “ Our Bodies Belong to Us: Restoring Black Autonomy and Joy! [[link removed]] ” and we couldn't agree more. Black mamas and Black birthing people deserve access to quality and holistic health care, and that cannot be achieved until we invest collectively in the advancement of the movement for racial and birth justice.
While this may be a lot to digest, we know that all of these things are interconnected. Reproductive Justice provides the framework through which we recognize intersectional issues impacting folks from marginalized communities. And we need your help to fight all these battles at once.

Here’s how you can get involved:
*
Sign
this
petition
[[link removed]]
asking
the
Biden-Harris
administration
to
do
everything
in
their
power
to
keep
medication
abortion
accessible.
*
Join
URGE
members
for
a
Town
Hall
[[link removed]]
on
Thursday,
April
20th
at
5:30
PM
ET
for
an
update
on
the
next
steps
for
the
Mifepristone
case.


*
Take
action
on
social
media
[[link removed]]
by
viewing
and
sharing
our
Black
Material
Health
Week
resources,
including
our
first
installment
of
the
Coffee
Talk
video
series,
and
visit
the
Black
Mama's
Matter
BMHW
event
page
[[link removed]]
for
a
full
schedule
of
online
actions.
TAKE ACTION [[link removed]] DONATE [[link removed]] LEARN MORE [[link removed]]
Having to worry about nationwide access to mifepristone, an abortion and miscarriage management medication, flies in the face of a week celebrating Black women and Black birthing people’s reproductive autonomy and Black joy. It’s another sad reminder of how far we have to go, but we know that we are going to do what we have always done – take care of our people.

In solidarity,
Kwentoria Williams
(she/her)
Senior Director of Communications


P.S. Share information about the If/When/How’s Repro Legal Helpline, which provides free legal information and advice for people having an abortion and those who are supporting them: [link removed] [[link removed]] or 844-868-2812.

Building Young People Power for Reproductive Justice
1012 14th Street NW, Suite 305, Washington, DC xxxxxx
You are receiving this email because you signed up to be part of the young people’s movement for reproductive justice centering the leadership of young people of color who are women, queer, trans, nonbinary, and people of low-income. If you no longer want to receive emails from URGE, you can unsubscribe here unsubscribe: [link removed] .