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Dear Fellow Vermonter,
I’m writing to you today following the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and end the constitutional right to abortion.
In my view, the decision was deeply flawed and dangerous and way out-of-touch with where the American people are. It is hard to believe that in the year 2022, six justices could make the reactionary and outrageous assertion that more than half of the population of our country do not deserve the right to control their own bodies and their own destinies.
But the reality is we should not be surprised. For decades, my conservative colleagues in the House and Senate – as well as their allies across the country – have done everything possible to get us to this point. From denying President Obama a lawful Supreme Court seat, to chipping away at abortion access in states across the country, they have stopped at nothing to undermine the rights of women. The Dobbs decision –including Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion that the Court should reconsider so many settled issues, from access to contraception to marriage equality – is one part of a long effort to decide who in our nation is deserving of rights and who is not.
It is no exaggeration to say that the consequences of this decision will be deadly, and will threaten the very lives of women. The reality is that banning legal, medically-assisted abortion will force people to seek out risky, unsafe care. It will force women to delay lifesaving medical care like chemotherapy or continue unsafe pregnancies that could literally kill them. In a country with already unacceptably high levels of maternal mortality, even more women will die during childbirth or live the rest of their lives with dangerous health care conditions caused by unsafe pregnancies, labor, and delivery.
While some in this country want to return to the days when women were second-class citizens under the law, we cannot go backward. Just as we cannot remove a woman’s right to vote, or to have her own bank account, or to secure the job she wants, we cannot go back to the days when a woman in this country does not have the same rights as a man to control her body and her future.
I know many of you are hurting and unsure of what to do next. But one thing is certain. While the road ahead will be a difficult, we must all stand together and continue to fight this gross injustice.
For my part, as your senator, I will do all that I can to demand the Senate vote to end the filibuster and codify Roe v. Wade into federal law. That's what the American people want, and that's what we must do.
Sincerely,
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