After a blizzard of state-level Republican attacks on the right of women to choose whether to carry a fetus to term, Elizabeth Warren has added another plank to her campaign platform: Congressional Action to Protect Choice, a four-point plan to rescue reproductive rights from religious extremists and misogynists.
Warren’s plan would enshrine the rights established in the Supreme Court’s Roe vs Wade ruling in federal law, prohibit states from taking measures to undermine these rights, require all medical insurers to include reproductive health in their plans, and take a suite of actions under the banner of “ensuring equal access and reproductive justice,” from limiting harassment by abortion-clinic picketers to undoing the gag laws and other rules enacted by the Trump administration.
I am a donor to Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential election campaign.
And these issues are bigger than Roe. The women of color who have championed the reproductive justice movement teach us that we must go beyond choice to ensure meaningful access for every woman in America — not just the privileged and wealthy few. We must go beyond abortion, to ensure access to contraception, STI prevention and care, comprehensive sex education, care for pregnant moms, safe home and work environments, adequate wages, and so much more. We must build a future that protects the right of all women to have children, the right of all women to not have children, and the right to bring children up in a safe and healthy environment.
Congressional Action to Protect Choice [Elizabeth Warren/Medium]
(Image: Tim Pierce, CC-BY; TitiNicola, CC-BY-SA)
