On June 24th, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion that had been upheld for nearly 50 years. In response to this decision, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) co-hosted a virtual briefing to discuss the details of the SCOTUS decision and how it will affect AAPI communities. The event, which this reporter attended, was moderated by Isra Pananon Weeks of NAPAWF, took place on June 29th and featured a panel of five speakers.

Weeks introduced the event by stating how the ruling is a “direct assault on communities of color, including Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders” and emphasized that the overturning of Roe v. Wade will make the path to abortion even more difficult for the AAPI population, which already struggles with obstacles such as language barriers, lack of medical insurance, and cultural stigma in relation to reproductive health.

This was followed by Niyati Shah of AAJC who contextualized the decision. Shah
summarized the ruling, recounting that Justice Alito delivered the majority opinion with the support of Justices Thomas, Barrett, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch. “Tellingly, Justice Alito [in his opinion] fails to acknowledge how the U.S. Constitution was drafted affording women no rights. He also fails to acknowledge how women couldn’t vote until the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920…It is not a coincidence that as women gained a voice and the right to vote, that abortion laws began to change,” Shah said. Further, she broke down Justice Thomas’ concurring opinion which argued that the Supreme Court “should reconsider” the rulings of Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell — past cases that respectively allowed for the right to contraception access, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage.

The other panelists spoke to the intersectionality of abortion rights, the importance of
turning to community in this time, and next steps in getting the right to abortion back. Jeana Nam, who is a member of NAPAWF, gave an account of her personal abortion experience at 21 and emphasized the importance of fighting the stigma that surrounds abortions. “We fight stigma by sharing our abortion stories…and by being radically, unapologetically, and publicly pro-abortion,” Nam said. She is also a Board Member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights, and cited that most people who get abortions identify as religious and specifically Christian. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 62% of people who get abortions identify as religious.

Nadia Hussain of the advocacy group MomsRising spoke to how the overturning of Roe
will affect the economic prosperity and stability of women, citing the Reuters statistic that women who are refused abortions are almost four times as likely to be living in poverty four years later. Additionally, she highlighted how this decision will further endanger already vulnerable populations, such as her own Bangladeshi-American community and minority groups in general, citing the fact that the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate out of all other high-income nations. Black women especially are 2.5 times more likely to die during childbirth than white women.

Rep. Anna Eskamani of the Florida House of Representatives expressed what action is
required to restore the right to abortion. “There is no easy fix to restoring reproductive freedom in this country,” Eskamani said. “It won’t be solved through executive orders, it won’t even by solved through one election cycle. This is going to take all of us, coming together to break abortion stigma and share our stories, to elect the right people into office…and hold those accountable who wish to ban abortion.” President Biden has alluded to taking executive action to restore Roe v. Wade, but has not made concrete plans as of yet. Seri Lee of NAPAWF also outlined action items, emphasizing that the fight for abortion rights needs to be approached from a myriad of different angles as it is an issue interconnected with many others, such as voter rights and LGBTQIA rights. She expressed that the most important work that the AAPI community must do in the wake of this decision, however, is to “hold open conversations with the people in our communities about abortion,” especially in culturally relevant ways. Lee mentioned apps such as WeChat, WhatsApp and Facebook as platforms that need to be utilized in engaging with community members to destigmatize conversations about abortion.

The speakers from this event communicated that they are maintaining hope above all in
the fight for abortion rights and that it is important to build strong communities now more than ever. “This is not the end, this is the beginning because we will get this right back…and we will win,” Hussain said.

This reporter spoke with Shah who reflected that the motivation for this briefing was to
“help our community members understand how such a ruling may impact them and what can be done to protect the reproductive rights and care for individuals in this country.” Shah continued, “Advancing Justice – AAJC has always fought for the civil and human rights of not only Asian Americans, but all people of color who have been marginalized in our country. It was important for us to say to those on the webinar, and who will listen to it later, that they are not alone and there are organizations out there who will fight for them.”