Native women are breaking down barriers

Recent Supreme Court confirmation threatens the well-being of NM families

(On Nov. 6), an outpouring of celebratory cries and joy filled living rooms across the state of New Mexico when Debra Haaland secured a seat in the U.S. House. She is one of two Native American women ever elected to Congress. While this is a huge step forward for Native Americans nationwide, we still face a stark reality.

There are now two Supreme Court justices who have been accused of sexual misconduct. And our reality is that the Supreme Court of the United States is now led by a conservative majority.

While there have been countless articles and commentary on the judiciary future of the United States, there is a conversation that is not being had.

The confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh further threatens the well-being of Native women and families across the country — especially in New Mexico.

Let me put that into perspective. A study conducted with over 1,700 rural New Mexicans found that 46 percent of Native Americans self-reported having experienced sexual violence at some point in their lives. In many cases, these assaults go unreported because of previous negative interactions with law enforcement.

Many times, we are denied justice in our own local communities. Now, the federal government is asking the impossible of us. Native Americans absolutely cannot trust someone who is a known predator to make fair decisions about our bodies, lives, families or state when he has shown that he does not respect the autonomy of women and their right to reject his advances.

Respecting the legal rights of survivors isn’t the only place that those wary of a Kavanaugh court need to be watching. The Supreme Court is also likely to overturn Roe vs. Wade, turning back the clock on legal abortion to when individual states decided if abortion was legal.

New Mexico has policies in place that make it one of the best places in the country for women and their families to access abortion care. But for New Mexicans, overturning Roe is especially concerning, because even with many good policies in place, an archaic statute that criminalizes abortion has been sitting dormant on the books in New Mexico since the 1960s. If the new conservative-majority Supreme Court overturns Roe, that archaic statute can then be used to criminalize people who get an abortion as well as the doctor that provides it. Forbidding us from governing our own bodies is a fundamental attack on our sovereignty over our own bodies.

Right now, community members and organizations across the state, including Strong Families New Mexico and my organization, Indigenous Women Rising, are working to garner support for a bill that would protect abortion access in New Mexico. We know that New Mexicans value each person and each family’s right to self-determination over their own bodies and family. The upcoming 2019 state Legislature will be presented with a bill that would repeal the outdated statute that can criminalize abortion seekers and providers and protect the decades of work by New Mexicans to create policies that respect the personal decision-making of women and their families. We need bills that protect our autonomy and our safety; using our collective people power paired with this legislation can do just that.

Brett Kavanaugh is the proverbial straw that will break the judicial back of this country. This year, the SCOTUS will hear multiple cases that address fundamental questions of tribal sovereignty, and I am fearful that we will lose even more of the rights we were guaranteed in countless treaties. Even so, our communities will not rest in fear and we will not sit idly while the SCOTUS attempts to chip away at our reproductive health and our right to govern our own communities, bodies and families. Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation is downright deadly for Native families, our livelihoods, our culture and our bodily autonomy.

Our communities have united at the polls, and now we are gearing up to protect the health and self-determination of all our New Mexican families.

Join us.