09/27/2024
Abortion Care Network
September 28 is International Safe Abortion Day – first celebrated as a day for action and decriminalization in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Abortion Care Network is committed to building a future where every person can get abortion care when and where they need it. We are working toward a day where that is true within the US and follow the leadership of others, making sure it’s true across the world.
Abortion is extremely safe. Medication abortion is safe, the compassionate care provided in clinics is safe, and self-managed abortion is safe — it’s bans, restrictions, and criminalization that are dangerous. Bans limit our options, bans keep people from getting the care they need, and bans cause confusion and chaos. Abortion bans are racist, classist, sexist, and ableist, disproportionately targeting and harming historically excluded and marginalized communities.
Abortion bans are deadly: our movement is mourning the deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller: Black mothers who died because of abortion bans.
We have everything we need to ensure every person has access to abortion care where and when they need it — instead, access to abortion in the United States has been decimated over the last two years.
• Access to medication abortion is a pivotal piece of the abortion access puzzle. Tomorrow, we celebrate 24 years of safe, common use of Mifepristone, one of two pills that are used in medication abortion — and yet attacks on Mifepristone in the courts and state legislatures are relentless. The attacks on abortion pills must stop.
• Monday is the anniversary of the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion care and increases the financial burdens on people seeking abortions. No one should be denied an abortion just because of where they get their insurance or because they are working to make ends meet — Hyde must be repealed.
The US has a pattern and practice of undermining access to abortion care at home and abroad — but this could all be different. All people, regardless of who they are or where they live, deserve meaningful access to abortion care. That requires:
• overturning abortion bans and restrictions at the state and national level
• political leaders repealing the Hyde Amendment and other bans on abortion funding
• all of us working together to ensure meaningful access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare throughout every person’s life.
Abortion is a human right, and the people who work at independent abortion clinics are devoted to defending and affirming that right. Abortion Care Network is committed to supporting, uplifting, and celebrating the independent abortion providers who fight for our rights and show up for their communities every day—we invite you to join us in that fight.
It will take generations of work to ensure that everyone, everywhere, can access the care they need to live the lives they imagine—the global movement to ensure safe, affordable, decriminalized, and supported abortion is undeniable, and we’re proud to be a part of it.
