Over a million rally against Supreme Court's upcoming ruling that could take away abortion rights

TWITTER

Washington DC had one of the largest rallies Saturday.

Over million people in over 400 events across the nation Saturday demonstrated in support of abortion rights. The rallies were parked by a pending Supreme Court decision that could deal a serious blow against abortion rights.

A leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women Health Organization written by Justice Sam Alito indicated that a majority of justices intend to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision which has established a constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

"If Roe is overturned, the impact would be swift and devastating and would severely limit abortion access in at least 26 states and territories, leaving nearly 40 million individuals without access to a crucial part of reproductive care," says the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.

“Now, more than ever, it is imperative we protect our right to choose and access safe and legal abortions –especially in the midst of the growing assault on abortion access and, most recently, with the leaked draft opinion by Justice Alito signaling intention to overturn Roe v. Wade," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

"I am especially invested in this fight as I know that the impacts of these abortion bans are felt most acutely by communities of color, including the Asian American Pacific Islander community," Chu continued.

"Roe cannot and must not fall," says Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF). "The path to proper abortion care is already arduous for AAPI communities – filled with language barriers, cultural stigmas, and low rates of insurance for our most vulnerable members. Although opportunities to defend abortion rights in court are shrinking, we can still protect abortion access state by state."

WOMENS MARCH SAN FRANCISCO

Hundreds of demonstrators marched in San Francisco, one of 450 rallies held in the U.S.

The Guttmacher Institute in 2021 released the first-ever study to detail abortion rates among specific Asian populations in the United States. The study, which focuses on Asian groups in New York City, finds that the abortion rate for Asian women is lower than the rates for most other major ethnic and racial groups.

• During 2014-2015, the abortion rate for Asian women in New York City was 12.6 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44 years, lower than the rates for other major racial or ethnic groups (33.8 for all women, 15.7 for White women, 63.5 for Black women and 33.9 for Hispanic women). 
• Among country-of-origin groups, Indian women had the highest rate (30.5 abortions per 1,000 women), followed by Japanese women (17), Vietnamese women (13), Chinese women (8.8), and Korean women (5.1). 
• The abortion rate for U.S.-born Asian women was about 1.5 times higher than for foreign-born Asian women, although differences varied by country of origin. For example, the abortion rate for U.S.-born Chinese women was nearly twice as high as that for foreign-born women, while among Japanese women, there was a nearly five-fold difference in the abortion rate between foreign-born and U.S.-born women. 

"Our most vulnerable communities, including people of color, low-income communities, and survivors of abuse will bear the brunt of the consequences of this unlawful and unjust rollback of set precedent," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA., who is one of four members of Congress who had an abortion. "We cannot and will not go back on decades of reproductive freedom because of extremist, right-wing Justices trying to infringe on our constitutional right to choose.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.