Bishop Barber statement on overturn of Roe

Contact: Martha Waggoner | mwagoner@breachrepairers.org 

Statement from Bishop William J. Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach, on the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade

From Planned Parenthood rally in DC on June 24, 2022

To all women: I’m so sorry that this extreme court would vote to give a rapist more power over you than you have over your own body. 

In response to attacks on the poor, voting rights, living wages and now women’s bodies, the justice community’s response must be the most massive progressive voter turnout in the history of the nation.

We must ensure that extremist  House members and senators remain in the voting minority. We must demand that Congress act legislatively. And we must seriously consider expanding the court because of the way Republicans cheated to make the court as it is. We should also point out what else is affected by the logic of this decision.

This is not the time to step back; it’s time to step up.

We are not sounding a new alarm. The nation’s 140 poor and low-income people, including 74 million women and girls, have been sounding this alarm, particularly in the South, in the face of an all-out-attack by this court and extremist legislatures across this country.

These impacts will be disproportionately felt by poor women, poor women of color, transgender, and gender non-confirming people, all of whom already face increased healthcare disparities and economic insecurity.

In more than 20 states today women have lost or are likely to lose the right to control their bodies and reproductive health.

In 13 states, abortion will be banned within 30 days, as “trigger bans” are already in place that were designed to take effect as soon as Roe was overturned.

In five states, courts have recently struck down legislation banning abortion; and the Dobbs decision means that legislation will likely take effect in mere weeks or months.

And finally, in another 10 states, the Washington Post has declared that “the fate of abortion rights remains uncertain.”

We must now hear what Frederick Douglass said when the Supreme Court passed the Dred Scott decision:

“In one point of view, we, the abolitionists and colored people, should meet this decision, unlooked for and monstrous as it appears, in a cheerful spirit. This very attempt to blot out forever the hopes of an enslaved people may be one necessary link in the chain of events preparatory to the downfall and complete overthrow of the whole slave system.

The whole history of the anti-slavery movement is studded with proof that all measures devised and executed with a view to ally and diminish the anti-slavery agitation, have only served to increase, intensify, and embolden that agitation.”