Currently — May 6th, 2022

May 05, 2022

What you need to know, currently.

On Tuesday, Politico published a leaked draft majority opinion that, if passed, would overturn Roe v. Wade. Today, Currently published a piece by Editor-in-Chief, Abbie Veitch, on the intersection between reproductive justice and climate justice. 

“This ruling has no basis in concern for the lives of children or women,” writes Veitch. “The fact that conservatives are fighting against those measures makes it even more obvious that overturning Roe v. Wade is a targeted attack to maintain the status quo of inequality and injustice that keeps them in power, including over other people’s bodies. Access to reproductive healthcare is a necessity in this climate emergency, especially for people who already experience systematic oppression and marginalization.”

Veitch spoke with Kelly Davis, the executive director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice.

“Climate justice is reproductive justice,” said Davis. “There are a whole host of studies that have proven that environmental degradation is caustic to the lives of women, pregnant people, and folks that are in the postpartum period.”

“Exposure to displacement or disasters means folks have a harder time even accessing needed reproductive health services, and because of the stress of climate disasters, things like prematurity and low birth weight — which are the leading causes of infant death among Black Americans — skyrocket,” said Davis, “All of it exacerbates vulnerabilities, and Black women and pregnant people are left to fall through the cracks, not from our own volition… but because the state policies push us through the cracks.”