One’s body is exactly that – your own. It’s a deeply personal relationship: your elbows, your face, your heart, every part of you. We are the only ones that have to live inside of our bodies. This sacred autonomy is precious.
Four years ago this week, Roe v. Wade was overturned. The court didn’t just come for abortion, it came for bodies. It came for our sacred relationship to ourselves. More than that, it came for the heart of queer and trans liberation.
Reproductive justice has never been just about the right to an abortion. It is about the right to self determination. It’s about the right to determine your gender. To decide if, when, and how to parent. To access healthcare without fear. To live fully, freely, and wholly in your body.
It is a queer framework. And it calls us to recognize that the struggle for bodily autonomy is inextricably woven with the struggle for LGBTQIA+ liberation.
At Women’s Foundation California, we’re proud to fund organizations continuing the struggle to preserve our right to bodily autonomy.
And the need is only growing. According to the National Network of Abortion Funds’ (NNAF), demand has been rising faster than funds can keep up with – even as funds scale up, a shrinking share of callers are able to receive support, and abortion costs more than ever before.
Access is shrinking too. More than a third of US counties are now OBGYN care deserts – meaning they have no obstetricians, gynecologists, or certified nurse midwives at all, and no hospitals with birthing centers or delivery capabilities.
Our grant partner SisterSong‘s cofounder Loretta Ross says, “As a Black woman, I never had the luxury of assuming the Supreme Court was going to be a source of my liberation, because it has disappointed me too many times…We have to work morally to make sure that people understand that they have a human right to control their bodies and be self-determining.”
The fight for bodily autonomy, gender affirming care, reproductive freedom, and protection from systemic violence continues to disproportionately impact Black, Brown, trans, disabled, undocumented, and low income women.
Queer and trans women are not just at the forefront. They are holding the line.
Your body is exactly that – your own. No court, no legislature, no government should disrupt that sacred autonomy. My body is precious, your body is precious, only we know who we are. Together, we will protect this right for ourselves and for each other.