Today, we at Showing Up for Racial Justice are outraged and grieving in light of the Supreme Court ruling that overturns the right to an abortion in every state. Though it was expected, this is a heavy and difficult day amidst a series of many difficult days before it. Find a rally near you to join in expressing collective grief and rage– practices that are absolutely essential in these times of increasing fear and despair. When you’re ready, take action with us to continue the work.
This decision is one piece of a political agenda of the Far Right to establish a nation where a number of wealthy, white, conservative elites rule over the lives and autonomy of the rest of us– communities of color, immigrants, people who can be pregnant, poor people, women, trans people, and people with disabilities.
For those of us who are white, our work in the days ahead remains the same: to out-organize the Right in our communities and bring millions more white people into our movements for justice. So many white people– today, particularly white people who can get pregnant– have so much to gain by joining multiracial fights for justice.
Over the last forty years, the Right and those at the top have built a primarily white, conservative, Christian base around this issue through dog-whistle politics– racist messaging without explicitly naming race– lies, and scare tactics. And, in doing so, they have consolidated enough political power to enact the similar conservative rulings we have seen in the past few weeks– weakening existing gun legislation, increasing the ability of the state to kill potentially innocent people, and weakening police accountability– growing the wealth and power of the elite few at the expense of the many.
Part of our collective path forward to fight back against this ruling is working to shift power in Washington and at the state level. The representatives in Congress have the power to approve or reject federal judicial appointments. Governors can veto repressive laws inclusion those that would seek to punish people seeking abortions. State houses will be the gatekeepers of legislation to allow abortion, to criminalize those seeking abortion, and we must keep organizing for bold candidates in every state.
Here are four ways white people can show up today to take action for reproductive justice:
- Find a rally near you.
- Join our mid-term elections program– Block, Build, Grow– to organize white people to shift power around issues like abortion and healthcare. Our first action is a text bank in support of Stacey Abrams for the Governor of Georgia on July 13th.
- Donate to people-of-color led organizations that fund and organize for abortion access like SisterSong and the National Network of Abortion Funds.
- Watch our webinar with long time reproductive justice activist, Loretta Ross, to better understand why abortion is a racial justice issue and why white people have a key role in organizing to defend this right.
We join with others across the nation in grief and rage. And take today as an opportunity to recommit to the work of justice.
