Celebrate Roe!
This Sunday, January 22 marks the 39th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in the case Roe V. Wade.
The Roe anniversary serves as an important opportunity for us to reflect on this significant decision’s impact in the lives of American women since 1973. The Roe decision is about more than abortion. Through giving women the legal right to privately decide whether to continue a pregnancy to term or to have a safe and legal abortion, the decision gave women a sense of self-determination and control over their own body. As we commemorate this anniversary, antichoice extremists are still mounting attacks against a woman’s right to access basic reproductive health care and are seeking to roll back the only law that keeps abortion care safe and legal.
Polling consistently shows that a majority of Americans support Roe and respect the decision each woman makes about her own reproductive health and pregnancy. Yet, in 2011, anti-women’s health politicians across the country did just about everything in their power to undermine Roe and gut access to safe and legal abortion care along with access to family planning and Planned Parenthood health centers. According to the Guttmacher Institute, twenty-four states enacted 92 new abortion restrictions in 2011, shattering the previous record of 34 adopted in 2005.
This anniversary provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on the way Roe has impacted all of our lives. What does this court decision mean to you? Read some of the testimonies our supporters sent us to see why this decision still remains so important in our lives nearly forty years later.