APABA-PA Signs on to U.S. Supreme Court Amicus Brief Supporting Access to Reproductive Healthcare for AAPI Women

September 30, 2021

APABA-PA supports access to reproductive healthcare as part of APABA-PA’s mission to promote justice, equity, and legal access for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in Pennsylvania and across the Delaware Valley. Accordingly, APABA-PA has signed on to an amicus brief filed by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC in the United States Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The amicus brief addresses the intersectional experiences of AAPI women and the need for AAPI women to access reproductive healthcare.  Section one of the amicus brief addresses the significant language, economic and immigration status barriers AAPI women face in obtaining abortions, as well as a form of abortion ban – called a sex-selective abortion ban – that is rooted in racist and xenophobic stereotypes about AAPI women that they prefer sons to daughters.  Section two of the brief addresses how an adverse ruling in this case would exacerbate existing barriers and disproportionately impact AAPI women with harsher treatment and criminal prosecution.  Finally, the brief discusses the large and growing AAPI population – including that several of the states seeking to ban access to legal abortion have experienced the largest growth in AAPI population – and the impact an adverse ruling would uniquely have on AAPI women’s ability to access their constitutional right to abortion care.

The brief is available here!