FCCPR General Assembly
Thursday July 7th
7:00pm
As the country hurtles backwards in history – no abortions, no separation of church and state, more guns – please join other CPR members to figure out how we respond to current events.
Four of the current members of the Supreme Court were appointed by “presidents” who lost the popular vote.
Draft FCCPR Statement on SCOTUS Abortion Decision, guns and separation of church and State
As Progressives who believe that our government should be protecting the rights to freedom and equality to all, regardless of gender, race or class, we are outraged at the recent Supreme Court decision that eliminates the 50 year old constitutional right to abortion in the US. We believe this is not just a question of denying women and pregnant people the right to choose whether or not to have a child but is also a question of racial and economic justice. FCCPR demands that our government create policies that support reproductive justice, that is, that guarantee the rights of all, regardless of race or income, to parent or not to parent in economic and social conditions that allow for the raising of healthy children, as well as to respect women’s rights to bodily autonomy. Abortion bans create forced births and income crises for families that not only harm the women and pregnant people forced to undergo them, but also negatively impact their other children and their families’ future well-being.
Abortion bans are not just a question of gender injustice but also of economic and racial justice. They will force many pregnant women and people in red states to lose jobs when forced to travel long distances to blue states to get abortions or to deal with after effects of dangerious self-induced procedures, as well as potential criminalization. Twenty-six states, more than half of US states, are now poised to pass near total abortion bans that will disproportionately impact the poor, young people, and women of color in states which already lack social supports for medical care and few welfare benefits for poor families. These are also states that deny workers’ rights to unionize by right to work laws, and states that are undermining voter rights by gerrymandering and other policies. Many of them are states that permit the concealed carrying of guns, which can be used to promote vigilantism against abortion providers and those seeking abortions, LGBTIQ people and those promoting sex education and access to contraception, as well as those seeking to promote democratic elections that fairly represent the interests of poor people and people of color.
We demand that the Democratic Party unequivocally wield their power to promote gender, racial and economic justice to immediately implement:
Pressure Points for Discussion
- Measures to rein in the present Supreme Court of the United States, which has shown that its politicized reactionary decisions on matters of abortion rights, gun regulation, voting rights and other economic justice issues are unconstitutional, corrupt and are anything but impartial. These could include policies that restrain Judicial Review, for example, laws that restrict certain types of bills from being considered by SCOTUS.
- Action to overturn the Senate filibuster precedent that requires a supermajority to pass a bill, thus allowing a simple majority to pass laws protecting the rights of women and others and making the Senate more democratic.
- Laws and policies at the state level that outmaneuver unjust Supreme Court rulings.
Also we agree with the following policy suggestions of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Elizabeth Warren, among others:
- Place Abortion and Family Planning Clinics on Federal Lands in all states.
- Expand Education and Access to Plan C (abortion through pill medication).
- Repeal the Hyde Amendment which bans the federal government from supporting the costs of abortions for low income people.
- Floor votes in Congress to codify into law previous progressive SCOTUS decisions. guaranteeing the right to contraception (Griswold), gay marriage (Obergefell), gay sex (Lawrence), interracial marriage (Loving).
- Vote on Escobar’s bill protecting abortion clinics.
- Support Senator Markeys’s Judiciary Act of 2021 to expand the United States Supreme Court by adding four seats, creating a 13-justice Supreme Court.
Further Action Steps? To be discussed