Our Vote, Our Access, Our Right, Our Fight

Voting rights and abortion access are human rights

 

With the actual overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court, many communities, especially Black and Brown ones, are left scrambling for information, resources and a path forward. For many of us — Black, Indigenous, and people of color, young people, LGBTQ+ folks, women, gender-fluid persons,  immigrants, rural communities, and disabled people — a post-Roe world is our current reality. As advocates who seek to change structures of oppression into systems of justice, it has not helped the impact or rage around this event but we recognize that as states increase their power over our autonomy, we have the ability to fight back through our vote

Now is the time to act, to plan, to strategize, to gather and to fight! With the surge of state level abortion bans and access, we call this out for what it is- the erosion of our rights.

This assault of our freedoms is embedded in racism, colonialism, and patriarchy used to weaponize

our communities and our bodies.

But let’s not allow this stunning blow to keep us stunned for too long. 

While our fundamental rights have been pummeled, we can come back. 

We recognize that our voting rights and our abortion access & rights are in fact one in the same and that the Supreme Court has played the same detrimental role in our voting rights when they weakened the voting rights act in 2013 and less than a decade later ruled against Roe vs Wade. Despite the increasing and ongoing efforts by states, the government and right-wing politicians to suppress our vote, create restrictive and repressive laws that make it harder to vote, and erect barriers to the ballot box, we understand that our present day obstacles around voting and abortion access are rooted in historical and institutional racism. We understand all of the tricks used to keep us from our right to vote including impos­ing strict voter ID laws, cutting voting times, restrict­ing regis­tra­tion, and purging voter rolls. We also understand that these attacks against our right to vote and abortion access primarily target communities of color- especially Black communities. These attacks deteriorate our democracy and this is intentional by design to block our access

Access to vote, Access to abortion services.  

With the power going to the states at the time of the midterm elections in November, now is the time to act. There has never been a more important moment than this one. We must use our people power to vote as a way to send a message, to let the courts and states know we will fight for our freedoms and we reject their cruel and unjust actions. Voters and especially, Black voters, must engage in the primary elections and elect/re-elect more progressives to Congress. We must galvanize our communities, our peers, our neighbors and our young adults to take to the polls. This is our fight!

We urge you to get involved by registering to vote, voting in the midterm elections, learning more about voter suppression antics and supporting your local progressive candidates who will protect our state level abortion access by electing or re-electing them to office. You can also find out more about the Global Fund for Girls  and follow us on socials or donate today to support our work.

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Resources:

State by State Voter Registration Requirements

Online Voter Registration by State

State By State Voting Information

State by State Abortion Laws

Pro-Choice Politicians by State

National Black Women’s Agenda 

Image by VICTORIA GUERRERO