Bodily autonomy is a human right.

 
SCOTUS’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — ending our protected right to access abortion care and jeopardizing precedents regarding our bodily autonomy, families, and relationships — was swiftly followed with a decision to narrow the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to effectively address climate pollution, undermining the successes of the Clean Air Act and further subjecting people to harm.

These actions are devastating.

They are cruelly designed to further target people based on their gender, class, age, race, or their ability — and continue to feed a system that devalues human dignity and the health of individuals, family, and environment.

Bodily autonomy is a human right. Creating barriers and bans that remove the right to live and raise our families in a safe, sustainable, and healthy environment is violence. This violence is reflected by stripping us of vital healthcare needs, while at the same time stripping us of protections to keep the air we breathe free of toxic pollution. As we continue to navigate a pandemic, watch testimony of a deadly insurrection, witness the loss of human life at the border, bear the collective consequences of gun violence again and again — there is a lot to carry during this prolonged uncertainty, and SCOTUS’s recent actions have created additional chaos and crises for everyone.

If you’re grieving, if you’re reeling, if you’re enraged, if you’re exhausted, if you’re embracing loved ones closer… we relate and are sitting in all of these responses. We are right here with you.

Let us say it again. We are right here with you.

We have seen what community can do. And this is why we know we are stronger than ever.

Together we’ve pushed back against gender oppression, raising our voices for public health, and holding leaders and corporations accountable for decades. We’ve fought for people to take priority over profits and for each of us to have the right and the ability to control our health and our body. Thank you for your passion. Thank you for the dedication you have brought to this work. It matters.

It is a powerful time to think about the efforts ahead of us. And these efforts come in many forms: With rest. With joy. With sadness. With votes. With voices.

So, bring what you can when you can. We will be here. We are here. We have made so much progress together over the years and we will continue to act in solidarity with you — with the numerous reproductive, social and environmental justice organizations, concerned communities, and power-house individuals to reject devastating rhetoric, actions, and policies that jeopardize the health and safety of people and planet.

For the month of July, this statement is our homepage. We hope it will remind you of the power of community. We hope it will remind you to take rest. And we hope it will inspire you to take bold actions to build a thriving, joyful, and just future.