{"id":48762,"date":"2022-05-27T08:48:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T15:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=48762"},"modified":"2022-05-27T08:48:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T15:48:36","slug":"supreme-court-ban-on-abortions-will-disproportionately-harm-communities-of-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=48762","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Ban on Abortions Will Disproportionately Harm Communities of Color"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Sunita Sohrabji<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Almost two thirds of women seeking abortions come from communities of color, a data point often overlooked in the conversation around a woman\u2019s right to choose.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a\u00a0leaked draft<\/a>\u00a0of the Supreme Court\u2019s decision on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Center appeared on the website Politico. In the draft, Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, stating that the 1973 seminal Roe vs. Wade case was \u201cegregiously wrong from the start,\u201d and \u201cmust be overruled.\u201d<\/p>\n

26 states currently have \u201ctrigger laws,\u201d effectively banning legal abortions once the Supreme Court decision is officially announced.<\/p>\n

At a\u00a0May 13 news briefing<\/a>\u00a0hosted by Ethnic Media Services, panelists noted the impact of the decision on women of color, particularly AAPI women, who account for 20 percent of those seeking abortions. One in four women in the U.S. have had an abortion.<\/p>\n

Speakers included Rep. Judy Chu, D-California; Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington state; Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director of\u00a0The National Asian Pacific American Women\u2019s Forum<\/a>; Aliza Kazmi, Co-Executive Director,\u00a0HEART Women and Girls<\/a>; and John C. Yang, President and Executive Director,\u00a0Asian Americans Advancing Justice<\/a>\u2014AAJC.<\/p>\n

Banning abortion will hit most vulnerable hardest<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cThe people that will bear the burden of these laws are people who can\u2019t afford to go across state lines, who can\u2019t afford to pay whatever it\u2019s going to cost for an abortion,\u201d said Jayapal. \u201cIt is not that abortions are going to go away. But safe and legal abortions will go away, and it will be the people who are most vulnerable who are left,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbortion is an issue that happens in every community. There is no community where this is not something that pregnant people are thinking about,\u201d said Jayapal, who herself had an abortion, but did not initially tell her family because of the stigma among Indian Americans. The congresswoman said it was a difficult but necessary choice she had to make; she finally told her mother and daughter before she wrote an\u00a0op-ed on the issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking about millions of people across this country whose lives will quite literally be in danger because an extremist court decided to politicize health care. This will be a literal death sentence for millions of people,\u201d said Jayapal.<\/p>\n

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