The overturn of Roe v. Wade means the end of the constitutional right to an abortion, but also spells major consequences for healthcare, criminalization and other rights such as same-sex marriage — and the decision will impact people of color the most, community experts told Callie Crossley on Basic Black.
Renée Graham, associate editor and opinion columnist for the Boston Globe’s op-ed page, said, "The draft opinion that came out last month was like the warning of a category five hurricane and now it's hit land. It's going to upend this country like nothing I've ever seen in my lifetime."
Other Basic Black guests reacted similarly to the ruling, which came down Friday morning.
Renée Landers, law professor and faculty director of the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration and the Masters of Science in Law: Life Sciences program at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, said the decision will be "terribly undermining" the availability of reproductive healthcare services.
Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director for Lawyers for Civil Rights in Boston, called the decision "extremely damaging and dangerous," and Chastity Bowick, executive director of the Transgender Emergency Fund of Massachusetts, said she was simply speechless.
Landers said many women of color seek abortion due to economic reasons or lack of appropriate healthcare and insurance coverage. She said people of color in states with restrictive abortion laws will have a significantly harder time in gaining access to the care they need.
"This notion that this is a decision about respecting the health and wellbeing of women and children, or pregnant people and children, is just not credible given current status of things," Landers said.
Many questions remain about potential criminal charges for women seeking abortion in restrictive states, especially if they cross state lines to access the procedure. Madrigal noted that criminalization already impacts communities of color disproportionately.
"We need to be extraordinarily vigilant about how we go about organizing our day-to-day lives. With the landscape, the risk of criminalization, it is really important to get legal advice, especially if you're in a state where these trigger laws are starting to pop up," Madrigal said.
All of the guests said the Roe decision creates a "slippery slope" for the Supreme Court to potentially overturn other laws that protect the right to same-sex marriage and contraception.
Graham said it is important that states such as Massachusetts don't get comfortable, and that they enhance existing laws to protect citizens. "It puts everything on the table, all rights are now under assault."
Bowick noted that LGBTQ rights will soon be up for discussion. "We have to do something to try and hold onto the rights that we have before they're taken as well."
Bowick highlighted 240 bills in process across the country that challenge trans people and other members of the LGBTQ community.
"What this does is it gives those bills, more lights for the people who put them in place."
Watch Basic Black: What does the future look like now that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade
