For Immediate Release:
June 24, 2022

WASHINGTON – Today, the United States Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, overturning nearly a half-century of precedent. The National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), a multiethnic, multiracial coalition of 60 of the nation’s largest immigrant and refugee rights organizations working across 40 states, views this decision as an abject failure of SCOTUS to uphold fundamental rights of safety, agency, bodily autonomy and access to healthcare, and is committed to working with members, partners, and allies all across the country to ensure every person has a right to choose their bodily autonomy. 

The controversial Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health threatens the safety and agency of our communities – especially that of Black and brown women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, immigrants, and low-income people. Over 36 million people of reproductive age stand to lose access to abortion, including 5.7 million Latinx people, 5.3 million Black people, 1.1 million Asian Americans, and over 340k native American people. This decision will lead to all but total bans on abortion in nearly half the states and cause tremendous upheaval for those seeking and providing abortion services. But as a clarion call about the importance of gender justice in the immigrant inclusion field, this decision also holds the possibility of catalyzing change at the state level. 

“It’s a moral outrage and a failure of our democracy to limit a person’s right to make their own decisions about their bodies and their fundamental right to abortion care,” said Nicole Melaku, NPNA executive director. “We are living in a dangerous time where extremist justices on the Supreme Court are restricting essential liberties, causing deep concern for the future of contraception, same-sex and, interracial marriage, sexual privacy, and other privacy rights. Today’s decision in Dobbs erodes the legitimacy of the Court itself and will disproportionately harm women of color and low-income and working-class women. We stand proudly with our siblings who lead the reproductive justice movement to ensure that all people have the right to maintain the autonomy of their bodies, their lives and the right to choose how their lives unfold.”

“We say this unequivocally: a government cannot protect life by making war on women. As a woman-led, progressive organization, CHIRLA must affirm women’s agency in this most private and personal of decisions,” said Angelica Salas, CHIRLA Executive Director. “We recognize this decision as part of a barrage of political attacks that aim to disappear us. We refuse to disappear, and we will continue to fight to assert our humanity.  We will work with our elected leaders in California to continue protecting abortion rights in this state and we pledge our support to women facing persecution elsewhere for seeking one.”