WATCH: National Youth Poet and Vital Voices Board Member Amanda Gorman on Abortion Bans
Gorman published this piece on NowThis in May 2019
8 REASONS to stand up today against abortion bans in the United States
When the penalty for rape is less than the penalty for abortion after the rape, you know this isn’t about caring for women and girls. It’s about controlling them.
Through forcing them into motherhood before they’re ready, these bans steadily sustain the patriarchy, but also chain families in poverty and maintain economic inequality.
Pregnancy is a private and personal decision and should not require the permission of any politician.
For all time, regardless of whether it’s a crime, women have and will always seek their own reproductive destinies. All these penalties do is subdue women’s freedom to get healthy, safe services when they most need them.
Fight to keep Roe v. Wade alive. By the term ‘overturn Roe v. Wade‘, the main concern is that the Supreme Court will let states thwart a woman’s path to abortion with undue burdens.
One thing is true and certain: These predictions aren’t a distortion, hypothetical, or theoretical. Women already face their disproportion of undue burdens when seeking abortions. If the sexes and all people are to be equal, abortion has to be actually accessible and not just technically legal.
Despite what you might hear, this right here isn’t only about women and girls. This fight is about about fundamental civil rights.
Women are a big part of it, but at the heart of it are freedom over how fast our families grow goes farther and larger than any one of us. It’s about every single one of us.
This change can’t wait. We’ve got the energy, the moment, the movement, and the thundering numbers.