APABA-PA Statement on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Chi-Ser Tran, [email protected]

June 28, 2022

The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania (APABA-PA) is disappointed by the opinion of the United States Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. The majority’s decision to overrule half a century of precedent, which guaranteed the fundamental right to bodily autonomy and reproductive choice, represents a disturbing shift away from stare decisis (a key legal principle designed to ensure consistency and reliability in the law) and upends the guaranteed rights of millions of women, non-binary individuals, and transgender individuals who are capable of bearing children.

As United States Supreme Court Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan state in their dissenting opinion in Dobbs, this decision “eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards women’s freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Court’s legitimacy.” We could not agree more.

The decision to eliminate the constitutional right to make choices about one’s own reproductive health and bodily autonomy will have far reaching effects. It will disproportionately affect the health, safety, and socioeconomic lives of individuals and families of lower socioeconomic status, including those in the Asian Pacific American (APA) community and other minoritized communities. The state laws banning, restricting, and criminalizing abortion that will become effective in certain states as a direct result of Dobbs will negatively impact many APA women and families, who already experience significant barriers to accessing needed healthcare and have already been prosecuted for their pregnancy outcomes, in part due to stereotypes about Asians. We oppose any attempts to pass similar laws in Pennsylvania and encourage everyone to review Pennsylvania Senate Bill 956 with this perspective in mind.

Today, we stand with all those, like Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, in sorrow for the Supreme Court’s decision. But, as lawyers, we are in a unique position to advocate for change, and we will do just that. APABA-PA remains committed to supporting reproductive choice and has adopted a policy resolution that recognizes that all women, non-binary individuals, and transgender individuals have the right to access reproductive healthcare and should not be punished for making decisions about their healthcare and family planning. We will continue to urge federal, state, local, and tribal governments to support the right of all people to access reproductive healthcare and to refrain from adopting requirements that are not medically necessary and burden the ability of patients to access healthcare services. We encourage our members to engage in these complex issues, educate themselves, and exercise their civil, political, and voting rights.

See also NAPABA Statement on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health