Dear John,
In a groundbreaking lawsuit, five Texas women who were denied abortions, along with two ob-gyns, announced this week that they are suing the state of Texas. The suit, filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) on behalf of the women, marks the first time patients directly affected by abortion bans have sought to challenge them in court.
In a press conference Tuesday, each of the women detailed the horrifying medical complications that resulted from their abortion denials. The lead plaintiff in the case, Amanda Zurawski, “was forced to wait until she was septic to receive abortion care, causing one of her fallopian tubes to become permanently closed.”
“Texas officials claim the bans they passed protect ‘life,’ but there’s nothing pro-life about them. I nearly died as a direct result of the anti-abortion restrictions in Texas,” said Zurawski. “What’s more, they put the lives of my potential future children at risk, as the damage done to my body has already had a negative impact on my reproductive health.”
CRR president and CEO Nancy Northup pointed to the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) as a potential lifeline for women like the plaintiffs, calling the Act “the federal solution for this unacceptable health crisis." And sure enough this week, on International Women’s Day, Senators Murray, Schumer, Baldwin and Blumenthal, along with democratic colleagues, took to the Senate floor to reintroduce the WHPA, which would create federal protections against “medically unnecessary restrictions” on abortion.
“Republicans have ushered in a crisis—a nightmare for women, for patients, and for doctors alike—with their non-stop attacks on every woman’s reproductive rights,” said Sen. Murray. “Democrats refuse to accept that any patient’s right to control their own body depends on the state they live in or the money in their bank account. That’s why Democrats are reintroducing the Women’s Health Protection Act today to put an end to this madness and restore every woman in America’s right to control her own body.”
As we celebrated International Women’s Day this week, we did so with the knowledge that the clock is being wound back on women’s rights. Marking the day, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres warned that gender equality is “300 years away”—citing the erasure of women and girls from public life in Afghanistan, as well as skyrocketing maternal mortality rates and the rolling back of reproductive health protections including in the U.S.
He also pointed to inequality in other areas, including in employment—highlighting the unequal representation of women in the sciences and the tech sector in particular. “As technology races ahead, women and girls are being left behind,” he noted. “Artificial intelligence is shaping our future world, let’s hope it will not be shaped in a totally gender-biased way.”
As long as women’s rights are under attack, Ms. will continue to sound the alarm. Happy International Women’s Day, to you and the women in your life—who deserve equality and rights in all areas of their lives.
Onward,
