FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 1, 2021

Contact: Kathy Melley, (617) 791-0708, kmelley@communitycatalyst.org

(BOSTON, MA) — Today, a new extreme Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, before the vast majority of people even know they are pregnant, went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block it. The law, which is one of the most restrictive in the country, will not only jeopardize the lives and liberties of people seeking safe access to abortion, it also sets a dangerous precedent by granting private citizens the right to enforce the law. This essentially empowers anti-abortion vigilantes who can sue anyone who performs an abortion or ‘aids and abets’ the provision of abortion. The high court’s decision follows its recent announcement it will take up a Mississippi case challenging a ban on abortion after 15 weeks – a direct challenge to people’s constitutional right to abortion under Roe v. Wade.

Statement of Emily Stewart, executive director of Community Catalyst, in response to the Supreme Court’s failure to block a Texas law banning abortion, which went into effect today.

“Texas’s extreme abortion ban law is an outrageous and cruel attack on people’s reproductive freedom and overall health and well-being. This unconstitutional and discriminatory law will have a particularly harmful impact on people with low-incomes, disproportionately Black and brown people, who already face barriers to abortion and essential sexual and reproductive health care because of racism and unfair barriers to economic security.

 “The Texas abortion ban undermines the health, well-being and fundamental rights of Texans, a majority of whom support access to safe and legal abortion. Community Catalyst condemns the Texas abortion ban law in the strongest terms possible and urges the Supreme Court to take swift action to stop it. We further urge Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act.”

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About Community Catalyst: Community Catalyst is a leading non-profit national health advocacy organization dedicated to advancing a movement for health equity and justice. We partner with local, state and national advocates to leverage and build power so all people can influence decisions that affect their health. Health systems will not be accountable to people without a fully engaged and organized community voice. That’s why we work every day to ensure people’s interests are represented wherever important decisions about health and health care are made: in communities, state houses and on Capitol Hill. For more information, visit http://www.communitycatalyst.org. Follow us on Twitter @CommCatHealth.