For Immediate Release | June 24, 2022
Contact: Jim Hile – Director of Digital Engagement and Communications
jim@expectations.org
A Call for a Faithful Witness in Pursuit of Collective Liberation
Today, The Expectations Project released a statement in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, effectively overturning the 50-year precedent established in Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to an abortion as protected by the consitution.
“Today we lament the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade because this assault on women’s bodily autonomy is also dangerous for children.” shared Zakiya Jackson, president of The Expectations Project, adding, “This decision will have widespread and devastating consequences for women and others needing access to abortion and other reproductive health care. People at the margins – most especially Black women, trans people, and people victimized by poverty – of our society suffer the most when policies and legal rulings restrict or deny our basic right to bodily autonomy as a part of our collective work for liberation.”
According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs, in 2020 the teen birth rate was 15.4 (births for every 1,000 females ages 15-19), down eight percent from 2019, and down 75 percent from the 1991 peak of 61.8. Limiting access to critical health care for children and others will retrograde our society and increase the volatility our children and marginalized communities are already living through.
“As a part of a faithful witness we must ask ourselves if the decisions and policies we are supporting are bringing about a living death for the most marginalized of our society,” added Cami King, Director of Advocacy and Training. King expands on the role a faithful witness plays in the fight for bodily autonomy in a piece titled Concerning the Repeal of Roe v. Wade.
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The Expectations Project mobilizes people of faith to act nationally and locally to eliminate education inequity.
