DREDF Statement

Thoughts on the Leaked DRAFT of the Supreme Court Opinion Overturning Roe v. Wade

Leave a reply

May 4, 2022
People with disabilities know what it means to be denied control over our own bodies. We have been told what is good for us and what we can and cannot do, including in the area of reproductive decision-making. Abortion bans continue this legacy. Abortion bans rob all people who can become pregnant of control over their bodies and the loss is even greater for disabled BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and low income people. We stand in solidarity with reproductive rights and justice advocates who fight against the overturning of Roe v. Wade. [...]

DREDF Opposes Elimination of Fundamental Protections in California’s End of Life Options Act

1 Reply

April 14, 2022
Assisted suicide doesn't exist in a vacuum. It must be considered against the backdrop of the United States' tragic history of state-sanctioned discrimination against people with disabilities and chronic illnesses in health care settings. This sordid history includes nonconsensual experimentation, forced sterilization, the denial of essential medical care based on biased and/or inaccurate quality of their life assessments, issuing of "Do Not Resuscitate" orders without patient consent, and most recently, employing COVID crisis standards of care and health care rationing systems that explicitly, openly devalue disabled lives. [...]

DREDF Honors the Life of Disability Rights Champion Senator Robert Dole

Leave a reply

December 6, 2021
On April 14, 1969 – nearly three and a half months after being sworn in, Robert Dole, a freshman Senator from Kansas – delivered his first speech on the Senate floor. It was the 24th anniversary of the day he was wounded in Italy during the final days of World War II, and not coincidentally, Dole spoke about the discrimination faced by disabled Americans. [...]

DREDF Applauds President Biden’s Plan To Increase Essential Support for Disabled Americans

Leave a reply

October 29, 2021
DREDF applauds President Biden for delivering on his campaign pledge to make government work better for disabled people in yesterday's announcement of the Build Back Better Framework which would go a long way to improve the lives of disability communities, and the individuals who live in them, across our entire nation. Systemic change doesn't happen by accident. It requires the allocation of deliberate, strategic resources as President Biden's plan does. [...]

DREDF Opposes Fast Tracking Assisted Suicide

Leave a reply

October 7, 2021
On Tuesday, October 5, Governor Newsom signed SB-380 – which shortens the wait time for receiving lethal assisted suicide medication to 48 hours – into law without comment. Previously the period between making two separate requests to take the deadly drugs had been 15 days. The law, which was originally set to expire in 2026, was also extended for five additional years. [...]

Supreme Court Ruling Leaves ACA Intact

Leave a reply

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund applauds the June 17, 2021 Supreme Court decision in California v. Texas, which upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its critical nondiscrimination and healthcare expansion provisions.  The ruling by the nation's highest Court rejected a significant challenge to the constitutionality of the ACA.  In 2020, DREDF and a number of allied organizations filed an amicus brief opposing attempts to dismantle the ACA provisions that people, including many with disabilities, rely on to receive the healthcare services and supports they need. [...]

DREDF Condemns Domestic Terrorism

Leave a reply

January 8, 2021
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund condemns the violent insurrectionists loyal to Donald Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, January 6, in an attempt to overturn the presidential election, threaten the nation’s democracy, and keep a duly elected President from taking office.[...]

In Honor of Richard “Dick” Thornburgh 1932-2020

Leave a reply

January 1, 2021
"Perhaps the most satisfying change the ADA has brought about is a change in attitude. As new generations of Americans have worked, lived and played side-by-side with persons with disabilities, the debilitating barriers of stereotypes and prejudices are disappearing. Participation in everyday American life has brought a sense of self-worth for persons with disabilities."
- Richard A. "Dick" Thornburgh, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 2, 2015

DREDF Condemns ICE’s Involuntary Sterilization of Immigrant Women

2 Replies

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund ("DREDF") is horrified by reports of coerced hysterectomies being performed on women in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") custody. On September 14, 2020, Project South filed an administrative complaint on behalf of immigrants detained at a Georgia detention center. Among other allegations of medical neglect, inadequate protection against COVID-19, and hazardous living conditions, the complaint alleges that women in the facility have been sterilized en masse without proper consent or medical necessity. Numerous women described being coerced into surgery and confused as to why the procedure was performed. Some described being yelled at by medical staff when they resisted the procedure. Many explained that they felt as if ICE was "experimenting with [their] bodies."

  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3