STOP THE VILE ATTACK ON RIGHTS OF WOMEN, FAMILIES

As a young Latina studying political science at Southwestern College, I learned of the injustices that women across the globe were experiencing because of a lack of access to reproductive health care.

I was outraged to learn of women who were jailed because of a miscarriage and others who were convicted of a crime because they had an abortion. I would ask myself questions. How could society and the nation’s leaders let this happen? What could I do to change that?

Well, it was these types of stories that lit a fire in me and drove me to become a young activist and advocate for women’s rights and reproductive justice.

Today, after 30 years of advocacy for women’s rights, I feel as angry and infuriated to know that women in the U.S. are experiencing these types of injustices and in some cases being convicted of first-degree manslaughter because of a miscarriage.

I have spent a large part of the past three decades as a reproductive justice champion, and I would have never imagined that we would be seeing the same type of stories in our country all while on the verge of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade, as suggested by the court’s leaked draft ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that Politico published on May 2.

Yet, here we are, at the crossroads of what has become, once again, one of the biggest and most important fights for individual rights in our nation.

Almost 550 pieces of legislation have been introduced across the country that are incursions on the fundamental right to abortion, including one which has been enacted in our neighboring state of Arizona. This is not a coincidence. It is a vile attack on the autonomy of women and families, and it will not end with the expected decision by 26 states to make abortion immediately illegal if the Supreme Court paves the way for it in Dobbs v. Jackson.

Overturning Roe v. Wade will put thousands of women at risk, and it will disproportionately impact people of color, people with low incomes, immigrants and young people.

Limited access to health care, lack of choices in no-cost birth control, comprehensive sex education and the cost of transportation are all existing barriers. Access to reproductive health care continues to be a right in name but not a reality in many communities across the country.

Restricting access to safe abortion will not only mean putting thousands of women in danger across the nation, but it will accelerate the undoing of more than 100 years of work to advance and protect women’s right to equity.

It also has the potential to threaten other sexual rights and will further erode sexual freedoms that have been gained from years of advocacy and change. Access to contraception and same-sex marriage are just two of these rights that may seem guaranteed but are in jeopardy based on the reasoning of the leaked draft opinion.

At a legislative level, the potential decision represents a catastrophic failure by Congress to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law — an opportunity it has failed to accomplish. But as in any fight on issues that are paramount, not all is lost.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon are working to enshrine the right to safe and legal abortion in the state Constitution. Last month, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a policy in support of that effort.

In addition, the Board of Supervisors approved a policy to strengthen accessible and safe reproductive health care in the county, building upon last year’s declaration of San Diego County as a champion of reproductive freedom, which I proudly lead. Our declaration motivated other government entities around the nation to do the same.

This is why our collective efforts are so important. We need to do our part and fight to preserve the right to and access to reproductive health care in this county, the state and the nation. We cannot sit back and watch as decades of work are wiped out, and our rights are stripped away. As elected officials, we have a responsibility to protect these rights.

We need to stand with organizations that advocate for these freedoms and ask the question of everyone who is on any election ballot, will they openly and intentionally defend our rights? Representation matters, and now more than ever, we cannot take it for granted.

In San Diego County and across California, if an individual wants to have an abortion, she can do it, and we will continue to do everything we can to protect that right — because abortion is health care.

We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. In the face of great adversity, we will organize and fight for reproductive justice and access to reproductive health care, and we will continue to fight so that abortion is safe and legal across the nation.

Vargas represents District 1 and serves as vice chair on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. She lives in the South Bay.