|  | Since Roe, Planned Parenthood has provided vital health care and education to more than 25 million women, men, and teens.
Let's put that bond we share, and the power we have, to work in 2010. Volunteer!
|
|
|
Celebrating the 37th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade | | As we mark the 37th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, the importance of protecting women’s access to abortion is as clear as ever. Anti-choice legislators are using the ongoing health care reform debate as an opportunity to severely restrict women’s access to abortion. Anti-choice organizations and lawmakers still aim to overturn Roe v. Wade, but in the absence of their ability to do that at this time, they are working tirelessly to enact restrictive laws and regulations that result in additional barriers to women seeking health care.
Anti-choice forces are campaigning for the inclusion of the Stupak amendment in the final health care reform bill. This amendment would essentially ban private health insurance coverage for abortion, and it goes far beyond existing laws that bar the use of federal dollars for paying for abortion care.
Planned Parenthood supports meaningful health care reform that expands women’s access to health care coverage, but it must not come at the expense of coverage women currently have.
It is incumbent upon Congress to remove these harmful restrictions on abortion from the final health care reform bill. Women will not stand for their benefits being taken away. Women will reject a health plan that puts a special interest agenda before the health care they need. There is no better time to remind our elected leaders of this than on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. | | |
|
|
| Quick Facts - Roe v. Wade: | |
- January 22, 2010 marks the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide.
- Planned Parenthood believes that women deserve access to all reproductive health care options. It is our goal to ensure that women have the right to seek and obtain medically safe, legal abortions.
- The ability to control our own fertility is a fundamental human right, and decisions about childbearing should be made by a woman, in consultation with her family, her doctor, and her conscience, not by the government or politicians.
- If Roe v. Wade is overturned, Wisconsin women and their doctors could go to prison for having or performing an abortion. Even in cases of rape and incest or if a woman's health is in danger.
|
|
|
Roe v. Wade |  On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision, Roe v. Wade, recognizing the constitutional right to privacy and a woman's right to choose abortion. Many of us don't recall the deadly days before Roe when abortions were illegal and "choice" for too many women meant a dangerous back-alley procedure. In fact, in 1965, before Roe, nearly one-fifth of all maternal deaths in the United States were due to illegal, unsafe abortions.
It's more than three decades later, yet a woman's constitutional right to choose still isn't safe and Roe is in serious jeopardy. In 2005, Congress confirmed the appointment of two new anti-choice Supreme Court justices -- Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., both of whom had been nominated by President George W. Bush. As a result, the court is closer than ever to overturning Roe.
Two years later, in a 5-4 decision, the court upheld the federal abortion ban passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2003. Although Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land, the ban criminalizes abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy that doctors say are often the safest and best to protect women's health. Thus, the ruling allows politicians to make medical decisions that should be made by women and their doctors. Now, anti-choice legislators are attempting to launch a wave of state abortion bans, in the hope that the new anti-choice court will overturn Roe, leaving a woman's right to choose safe and legal abortion in the hands of 50 different state legislatures.
Planned Parenthood continues to fight to make sure the right to choose a safe and legal abortion remains secure for women, regardless of where they live. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
