Dear members,
The gut punches keep coming this year. Yesterday, in the dead of night, the Supreme Court turned its back on 50 years of precedent, rendering Roe v. Wade effectively meaningless in Texas.
This decision is a travesty for the nearly 7 million women of reproductive age in Texas, and everyone who supports access to safe, legal abortion.
Many people do not know that they’re pregnant at six weeks. Approximately 85% to 90% of people who obtain abortions in Texas are at least six weeks into pregnancy, meaning this law would prohibit nearly all abortions in the state.
Many Black, Latino and Indigenous people, those with low incomes, and people in rural areas will face the greatest barriers to abortion access.
S.B. 8 empowers vigilante bounty hunters and incentivizes them to surveil and harass people. This unprecedented “sue thy neighbor” law means people who help or intend to help someone get an abortion after six weeks in Texas could be sued by a neighbor, distant relative, abusive partner, or even a stranger from out of state — and those people could collect $10,000 for each successful claim.
This is the loudest alarm yet that abortion rights are in grave danger, in Texas and across the country. While this bill is extreme, make no mistake - it is part of a national agenda to end access to abortion in this country.
We at IndiMarin are strongly committed to the fight for reproductive rights and will be staying in close touch with national allies regarding the best ways that we can be part of a unified fight to protect Roe v Wade. We will keep you apprised of ways engage in this work in the weeks and months ahead. STAY TUNED FOR WAYS TO HELP!
In the meantime, please review this list below, courtesy of our allies at Indivisible SF, of ways you can offer immediate help to women in Texas:
- Help providers in Texas prepare for an onslaught of lawsuits as they fight to keep their doors open, as well as providers in surrounding states who will have to expand their ability to serve patients as people travel from Texas to get care.
Six clinics in Texas are operated by Planned Parenthood.
The rest are independently owned. (Even though they have less name recognition and thus fewer resources than Planned Parenthood, independent clinics serve 3 out of 5 abortion patients in the US.)
The Center for Reproductive Rights is leading the court battle against the law.
- Support abortion funds, which help people afford care and related expenses like childcare and travel. Funds in Texas will now need to budget for lawsuit defense as well as helping more people travel longer distances, while funds in other states will need to step in to backstop them.
Donate to specific Texas funds:
Send your donation to the National Network of Abortion Funds, which will distribute it where the need is greatest, primarily in the South and Midwest.
Donate to and volunteer with a fund near you.
Thank you for being warrior in the fight to protect a woman's right to choose, which is a key tenet in IndiMarin's mission to help build a more just, caring and inclusive America.
Stay strong, stay loud,
~ The IndiMarin Steering Committee ~ Betsy, Laurie, Justine, Susan S, Betty, Joy, Nanda and Susan M
"Hear me as a woman, Have me as your sister, On purpled battlefield breaking day, So I might say our victory is just beginning, See me as change, Say I am movement, That I am the year. And I am the era Of the women." ~ Amanda Gorman from Won’t You Be My Sister, 2018