Last Friday, the Supreme Court of the United States issued their decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned 50 years of legal precedent established in the Roe v. Wade decision. This ruling addressing Mississippi’s law allows for a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Thirteen other states have similar laws banning abortions, and we know that many other states across our nation will follow suit and institute similar laws.
The Asian Pacific Institute of Gender Based Violence (API-GBV) is extremely disappointed and concerned about how the Supreme Court’s decision impacts survivors of gender-based violence.
API-GBV’s mission is to is to disrupt gender-based violence, which causes physical, sexual, emotional, spiritual, reproductive, and economic harm within the larger Asian, Asian American. Pacific Islander and the Asian and Pacific diaspora (AAPI) throughout the U.S. and its territories.
As a national culturally specific resource center for the AAPI community, we know that that the Dobbs decision will impact women and pregnant people. The decision will result in yet another tool for abusers to keep survivors in dangerous and harmful situations. We hear the pain of survivors and direct service organizations who lament how this decision takes choice and control over one’s own health and safety out of survivors’ hands, and keeps them cemented in abusive relationships. This decision additionally places an insurmountable burden and cost to survivors who cannot travel and leave their work in order to obtain an abortion, if they choose to. API-GBV will continue to work on removing obstacles to safety and autonomy for survivors, whether they are barriers to reproductive healthcare, immigration barriers, racism, or language barriers.
Survivor advocates, please know that we stand with you and will work tirelessly to assist and advocate for survivors. As part of the litigation challenging the Mississippi law, API-GBV, alongside its partners, submitted a brief in informing the Court about the harsh impact of abortion restrictions on survivors of domestic and sexual violence, especially survivors from communities of color. We will continue to collaborate in advocacy to improve access to reproductive healthcare for survivors in our communities, as well as uplift the work of our partners. It is undoubtedly a difficult time for this country and we will continue to lean into our mission of disrupting gender-based violence by defending reproductive justice for the AAPI community. Our work is not done!
