In recent years, reproductive rights have been one of the most talked about topics that have influenced the political decisions of countries, and the United States is no exception.
The right to abortion was the pillar of the Democratic wing in the US midterm elections and gained strength since the country's Supreme Court of Justice repealed the Roe vs Wade ruling at the end of June last year, eliminating the right to abortion throughout the country and leaving each state to establish its own laws.
"Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should be able to make all decisions about their lives and their future," said Angela Vasquez-Giroux, vice president of Communications and Research at NARAL Pro-Choice America, at a press conference organized by Ethnic Media Services where experts met to discuss the influence that reproductive rights could have on the upcoming 2024 elections.
At least 17 of the country's 50 states have established abortion bans, putting thousands of women at risk, as doctors and hospitals are sometimes forced to delay medical procedures.
"We know that too many people have a number of barriers to overcome," she said, noting that health care providers are forced to deny care to people with high-risk pregnancies, including a variety of obstacles such as traveling or spending their resources to obtain care.
She also noted that communities of color have been among the most affected, but also among those that have fought hardest for reproductive rights, and indicated that "45 percent of voters said abortion played a bigger role than in previous elections."
At the time, Lupe Rodríguez, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, noted that millions of Latina women are being affected by state abortion bans and that at least 3 million of them do not have the financial resources to travel to other states to receive the medical care they need.
In addition, migrant and colored communities often run the risk of being deported and separated from their families if they have to travel to another state.
"People are very confused about the laws in their state and where they can get information about medical care, and that has shown that there is a lot of misinformation, especially in the Latino community," she said, noting that anti-abortion activists are spreading false information on social media with the goal of preventing abortions.
She also stated that since the Supreme Court decided to repeal the Roe vs. Wade ruling, a larger part of the population has voted in favor of abortion.
For her part, Ebony Baylor, Vice President of Government Affairs at In Our Own Voice: Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda, noted that women of color need laws that respect their civil rights and indicated that they are one of the communities that are most abandoned in the medical field, security, lack of resources and inclusion in issues such as elections.
"The United States has the highest mortality rate of any developed country and women of color are three times more likely to suffer complications during pregnancy than white women," she said, adding that racism is one of the reasons why this happens, as sometimes, due to their origin, they are denied medical care.
Yvonne Hsu, Head of Policy and Government Affairs at the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum —NAPAWF— lamented that women in the country are facing “a crisis of access to abortion.”
She also denounced the repeal of Roe vs. Wade as an “assault on communities of color and APPI — Asian American and Pacific Islander communities — and pointed to the need for women to have the right to decide about their reproductive lives.
Finally, Suba Srinivasaraghavan, a field organizer at They See Blue, pointed out that there are more women in the United States than men who vote and that they are the ones who vote - in greater numbers - for the Democratic wing, which represents an influence in defending reproductive rights in the country and a more hopeful path for women.
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