Roe at 34: It’s Still a Long Journey to the World We Want

Thirty-four years ago, the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, recognizing the right to decide when and whether to become a parent.  The decision was a true landmark, but it represents only one step in this country’s journey to true reproductive freedom.  Three decades later, we still have a long way to go.  In the world we want, women would have access to birth control, sex education, and abortion, and, when ready to have children, access to programs that foster healthy families. This expansive vision depends on a core principle: a society that respects a woman’s ability to make choices about her health and her family. It seems so simple and yet so profound.           

So simple, because we do in fact trust women to raise children, perform responsible jobs, and make most of society’s consumer decisions. Imagine, then if we extended that respect for a woman’s ability to her most intimate decisions—sexuality, childbearing, and family.

In that world, all women could freely decide whether to be sexually intimate, choose their partners and decide how many children to have and how to raise them.  Each woman would have access to comprehensive reproductive health information and care, including birth control, abortion and prenatal care.  Society would respect and support a woman’s decisions—not impose moral judgments and barriers. It would cherish the lives of young women, and ensure that they receive the medically accurate sex education and reproductive care they need to protect their health and their futures.

In California, the ACLU and our coalition partners are committed to this vision of reproductive justice.  We are fortunate to live in a state that has refused to substitute ideology for sound public health policies.  California is the only state in the nation that has never accepted federal abstinence-only funds for sex education.  It requires comprehensive, medically accurate and bias-free sex education.  The state has pioneering policies expanding access to contraception, both in employee benefit plans and to low-income women and teenagers.  California policymakers have welcomed new reproductive advances, such as emergency contraception and the HPV vaccine, and have crafted policies that make these technologies widely available.  The state is one of a few that protects poor women’s and young women’s access to abortion.  For two years in a row, California voters have refused to pass initiatives endangering pregnant teens by requiring parental notification or court orders for abortion.

We still have a way to go, even in California, and certainly around the country, to create a world that fully meets the needs of real people working to build a life for themselves and their families.  On this 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, let us work together to make the world we want a reality.  Ask yourself, what are the cornerstones necessary to build the world that you want and then start working toward these goals.  Join the ACLU, contact state legislators and members of Congress and urge them to support issues affecting reproductive rights, or write to your local paper about reproductive rights issues in your community.  Make your voice heard, and get other people talking.  Start asking friends and family about their vision for the world they want.  This is what we are fighting for and the world we want.  Join us in making this world our world.