DREDF Statement on the Supreme Court’s Ruling Overturning the Right to Abortion

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AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, FileDisabled people have the right to self-determination and bodily autonomy. We have the right to make our own decisions. Our human rights include reproductive rights. Abortion rights are disability rights.

People with disabilities already face barriers to abortion and contraception. Sex ed is not accessible to us. Health care and telehealth are not accessible. Transportation is not accessible.

We are more likely to live in poverty and we are more likely to rely on the government for health care. Many of us are multiply marginalized.

We are more likely to be sexually assaulted. Especially people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Some of us have complex medical conditions and pregnancy is dangerous. The government already tries to control our lives and our bodies. Disabled people need abortion.

Abortion bans do not protect people with disabilities. Abortion bans do not help us end eugenics. DREDF fights to make information about disability and disability supports available to pregnant people who have received prenatal diagnoses. DREDF fights for the services that disabled people and families with children with disabilities need to live meaningful lives in their communities.

The Court’s opinion takes away our abortion rights but also threatens many other rights. Read the memo joined by DREDF, the American Association of People with Disabilities, Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, Little Lobbyists, and Be A Hero describing the potential devastating consequences of the Court’s decision, and how this fallout would disproportionately harm disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color.

DREDF with our partners decries the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning our constitutional right to abortion. We call on Congress to codify the right to abortion into federal law.