Men must understand that denying access to safe abortion is a form of gender-based violence and a denial of fundamental human rights, dignity and freedom
JOINT STATEMENT: Urgent response to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn Roe vs. Wade
On 24 June 2022, the US Supreme Court has made the decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, putting an end to 50 years of recognized constitutional right to safe abortion in the United States of America.
We, MenEngage Global Alliance and North American MenEngage Network (NAMEN) are deeply outraged about the concerted attack on rights already recognized, protected, and exercised by women, girls, trans and nonbinary people, in all their diversities and intersectionalities.
Friday’s Supreme Court deliberation in Dobbs vs. Jackson clearly illustrates the court’s biases and authoritarian views that ignore the voices and needs of women, girls, trans and nonbinary people and deny them of their fundamental rights to health, safety and bodily autonomy and privacy.
This decision will disproportionately burden Black, Latino, Indigenous, and women of color, youth, LGBTIQ individuals, women of lower-income and in informal labor, further marginalizing and directly harming them.
We call on men and boys to step up to support the fundamental human rights to bodily autonomy, dignity, and freedom for all women, girls, and individuals of diverse gender identities.
Men must understand that denying access to safe abortion is a form of gender-based violence and a denial of fundamental human rights, dignity and freedom.
Controlling reproductive choices is state-sponsored control over the bodies of women and individuals who can become pregnant.
If we speak out against all other forms of violence against women, we must speak out against this form of violence too.
The Supreme Court, the highest court of the country, has lost its fundamental integrity today.
Instead of standing by the existing rule and placing the well-being, rights, and bodily autonomy of all women, girls and nonbinary people at the center of their decision, the Supreme Court has chosen to side with their own views over those of the vast majority of the nation.
We understand this decision as part of an anti-democracy, anti-human rights, anti-bodily autonomy and anti-feminist agenda, by groups eager to roll back all rights that support gender equality, SRHR and inclusion.
We will continue to resist such attempts and to follow the leadership of feminist gender and reproductive justice organizations, leaders and movements.
We stand with all people in the United States who are determined to resist this political backlash, and will stand up and act to restore and take back the fundamental right to access basic health, safety and wellbeing services with no undue burdens or punishment from State authorities. We call on all countries to uphold the right to safe abortion, and to show leadership at this time, in protecting sexual and reproductive health and right for all.
We are encouraged by the outpour of voices and solidarity by social justice activists ready to work together. The rights of all women, girls and people who can become pregnant to self-determination, their right to bodily autonomy and to make their own health choices, are too important to be ignored.
MenEngage Alliance will continue to advocate for the protection of reproductive rights for all, and we stand in solidarity with abortion rights activists in the US and around the world.
Feminist, SRHR and LGBTIQ Voices
