Massachusetts Peace Action believes that all people have a right to make decisions about their own bodies and that comprehensive health care includes the option of abortion. This right to bodily autonomy is a foundational value of human rights which applies equally to all people. We see that peace and the preservation of life are ultimate values which are in alignment with the right to bodily autonomy.
With the inauguration of the second Trump Presidency this month it is unclear what additional actions will be taken to continue the undermining of reproductive rights which has been proceeding apace since the addition to the Supreme Court of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett during the first Trump Presidential term. The votes of these three judges made possible the retrograde SCOTUS decision of 2022, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This decision struck down the US constitutional protections for abortion care established by the Roe v. Wade decision 50 years earlier. While Roe v. Wade was not comprehensive equal rights for women as stated in the Equal Rights Amendment, it was a tremendous victory for women’s autonomy, and a legal precedent that influenced thinking about human rights for half a century.
The 2022 SCOTUS Dobbs decision is part of a broader push to roll back rights and to undo efforts to promote fair treatment for women and other groups of historically marginalized citizens in the United States, including people of color, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQI community. Since the Dobbs decision we are seeing a new effort in certain states to criminalize women who experience a pregnancy miscarriage. There is also a campaign by anti-reproductive rights activists to ban access to medication abortion, which today enables access to abortion care to the majority of people seeking abortion in the US.
Reproductive rights are fundamental human rights and as such are integral to the mission of the peace movement where we fight for human rights around the world. Ensuring access to abortion, high quality prenatal care, and comprehensive health care for all must be part of the larger struggle within the United States to maintain and advance human rights and freedom for all. Massachusetts Peace Action stands with all people and progressive organizations who unequivocally support the right to choose to have an abortion, and we say “Not One Step Back”.
— Adopted by the MAPA Board of Directors, January 27, 2025
