June 2024 marks the two-year anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the disastrous Supreme Court decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion and left abortion rights up to the states.
Since the Dobbs decision, over 25 states have significantly restricted access to abortion, with 17 states implementing total bans. Check out the latest updates in the states.
However, attacks on abortion have not stopped there. In 2024, two cases reached the Supreme Court working to further limit access to abortion. In FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone (one of two common forms of medication abortion) but explicitly left the door open for future challenges to medication abortion. In Idaho v. United States, the Supreme Court temporarily paused Idaho’s near-total abortion ban that lacked a clear exception for emergency abortion care but returned the case to courts for future litigation, allowing states to deny life-saving abortion care. Additionally, numerous state legislatures and courts have attacked IVF and birth control.
Now more than ever, it's necessary to protect reproductive rights in every way we can. Join the Reform Movement in taking action to protect and advance abortion access.
TOP ACTIONS TO PROTECT ABORTION ACCESS WITH THE RAC AND WRJ:
- Contact Congress and urge them to support
- Reproductive rights legislation to ensure comprehensive and affordable health care.
- The Women's Health Protection Act to create a federal safeguard against state bans and restrictions that obstruct or delay access to care
- The EACH Act to repeal the Hyde Amendment and eliminate a financial barrier to care
- The Right to Contraception Act to codify an individual's right to access contraception and for healthcare providers to provide them
- Join RAC-FL's campaign to put reproductive freedom on the ballot in 2024.
- Join RAC-NY and Women of Reform Judaism's campaign to protect rights and reproductive freedoms by putting an Equal Rights Amendment in New York state constitution.
- Support the RAC and WRJ our efforts to mobilize a Reform Jewish response at the national, state, and local levels.
TO FIND INFORMATION ON RECEIVING ABORTION CARE
- AbortionFinder: A comprehensive directory of trusted (and verified) abortion service providers in the U.S.
- Call 1-800-230-PLAN or text "hello" to 202-883-4620 to find the clinics closest to you
- Keep Our Clinics: Independent community providers who provide most of the abortion care in the US.
- M+A Hotline: A confidential, private, and secure phone and text hotline for people in need of support for self-managed miscarriage or abortion.
- National Abortion Fund Hotline: The largest national, toll-free, multi-lingual Hotline for abortion referrals and financial assistance in the U.S. and Canada.
- Repro Legal Helpline: A free, confidential source for legal advice and information on self-managed abortion. Visit ReproLegalHelpline.org or call 844-868-2812.
- Abortion On Our Own Terms: A resourced website for people to manage their abortion safely and effectively, on their own terms.
- INeedAnA.com: Find a clinic - to find vetted, up-to-date, and personalized info on how to get an abortion; no search or user data saved.
- Apply to volunteer and join their digital abortion access support network
- Find abortion pills at Plan C or AidAccess.
- For legal advice, go to If/When/How: Lawyering for reproductive justice which provides a confidential legal helpline and legal-defense fund.
TO SUPPORT PROVIDERS AND ABORTION SEEKERS:
- Donate to Abortion Funds: Funding for patient care. Learn about NNAF's demands for creating a future where all people have access to abortion without shame or stigma.
- Support/Share Practical Support Organizations (PSO's): PSOs help abortion seekers with travel and logistical support
- Volunteer with Operation Save Abortion!
- Adopt-A-Clinic: Abortion Access Front works with clinics across the country to keep track of urgently needed items like underwear, snacks, and gift cards for patients traveling for care. You can select the clinic or fund you want to support and then purchase items that will be shipped to that clinic or funded directly.
TO DESTIGMATIZE ABORTIONS
- Discuss abortion with friends and family, say the word "abortion," and tell your story to destigmatize abortions.
- Have heart-to-heart conversations with people in your life about abortion and the work of abortion funds using these Heart-to-Heart Abortion Conversation tools and talking points.
JEWISH RESOURCES ON ABORTION
- Discuss Reproductive Rights on the Bima with the Reform Movement Resource Guide, which includes sample prayers, song suggestions, and sermon starters.
- WRJ's Reproductive Health and Rights Resource Guide
- Abortion and Reproductive Justice: A Jewish Perspective, excerpt from 'The Social Justice Torah Commentary,' Rabbi Emily Langowitz and Rabbi Joshua R. S. Fixler
- Jewish Perspectives on Abortion, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
- Some Key Sources on Abortion, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg