The Hidden Majority: Indian Americans Support Abortion Rights—So Why Aren’t We Speaking Out?

Indian Americans widely support abortion rights, yet remain largely silent. It’s time to turn private beliefs into public advocacy and protect women’s autonomy.

1/21/2025
by Jaime Patel

On Jan. 22, we mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that affirmed a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. Yet, nearly two years after its reversal, reproductive rights remain under relentless attack—making this anniversary a sobering reminder of what’s at stake.

Indian Americans have built a reputation as one of the most successful and influential immigrant communities in the United States, celebrated for our dedication to education, hard work and family values. Yet, when it comes to reproductive rights, our community has largely remained silent, even as these rights come under increasing attack across the country. This silence, quite frankly, is no longer acceptable.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/01/21/indian-american-support-abortion/

21.01.2025

Commentary

Aruna Miller

Indian-Americans and abortion

Women’s Health Protection Act

United States

Activism

Human Rights

Our Abortion Stories: ‘I’m a Registered Nurse, a Wife and a Mother. This Story Is Personal and Painful.’

Feb 13, 2024
by AMY ROGERS

My name is Amy Rogers; I’m a registered nurse, a wife and a mother. I am writing this in support of House Bill 12, the Women’s Health Protection Act. This story is personal and painful. I am sharing this for myself, my daughters, and the 25 million women of childbearing age living in states with abortion bans or restrictions.

In 2011, my husband and I were newlyweds. We had primary custody of his 8-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. I had just turned 43 and was shocked and delighted to discover that I was pregnant. Due to my age, I assumed my chances of conceiving without fertility treatments were slim to none.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2024/02/13/dobbs-abortion-story-healthcare-genetic-testing-abnormality-womens-health-protection-act/

Abortion rights groups don’t want to “restore Roe” — but they won’t fight Biden on it

Many reproductive health organizations want to codify stronger standards. They’re not going to pick that fight this year.

By Rachel M. Cohen
Feb 5, 2024

When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris held their first joint campaign event of 2024 last month in northern Virginia, they left no doubt that codifying abortion rights would be central to the president’s reelection bid. With the rally timed to honor what would have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Biden stood under a large “Restore Roe” sign and beside supporters holding smaller posters to “Defend Choice.”

“We need the protections of Roe v. Wade in every state. And we can do it. You can do it,” Biden stressed at the event. “Give me a Democratic House of Representatives and give me a bigger — a bigger Democratic Senate, and we will pass a new law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade, and I will sign it immediately.”

Continued: https://www.vox.com/24056692/abortion-roe-dobbs-2024-biden-election-presidential

On Roe anniversary, Biden and Democrats point to November as crucial to restoring abortion

Biden must sell the actions he’s taken on abortion and contraception while convincing voters he and the party can do more if they hold the White House and take control of Congress.

Grace Panetta, Political reporter
January 22, 2024

White House officials and congressional Democrats are marking the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade with a renewed urgency — and framing the 2024 election as pivotal to restoring federal abortion protections.

A year and a half after the Supreme Court struck down Roe’s federal abortion protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, over a dozen states have total abortion bans in effect, and more restrict it before fetal viability, leaving patients without access and providers in limbo. While Republican-led legislatures have passed such restrictions, in the same time frame voters have consistently voted to expand abortion rights and rebuked anti-abortion politicians in high-profile elections.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2024/01/roe-v-wade-anniversary-biden-abortion-election-2024/

‘Deeply Disturbing’: Federal Court Rules Texas Can Ban Emergency Abortions

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray called the 5th Circuit's ruling "a horrifying and astonishingly dangerous decision from a court that has shown repeatedly they have absolutely no regard for women's lives."

JAKE JOHNSON
Jan 03, 2024

The conservative-dominated 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled late Tuesday that Texas hospitals and physicians are not required by federal law to perform abortions under emergency circumstances.

The 25-page decision stems from a legal challenge that Texas filed in response to guidance issued in July 2022 by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The guidance states that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) "protects providers when offering legally-mandated, life- or health-saving abortion services in emergency situations."

Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/news/5th-circuit-texas-abortion

The Abortion Justice Act Is the Reproductive Rights Legislation the US Needs

While the act may have little chance of passage, it’s a message to those who need an abortion that they are not alone.

By Lauren Rankin , TRUTHOUT
July 16, 2023

Marking the tragic one-year anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in which the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, a group of progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives unveiled their latest attempt to protect abortion rights: the Abortion Justice Act.

Introduced by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts), chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus’s Abortion Rights and Access Task Force, and Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri), this latest attempt at securing federal abortion rights goes beyond simply codifying Roe — it would provide a unique federal pathway to achieving reproductive justice.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/the-abortion-justice-act-is-the-reproductive-rights-legislation-the-us-needs/

16.07.2023

Commentary

Abortion Justice Act

Abortion Rights and Access Task Force

Ayanna Pressley

Cori Bush

Pro-Choice Caucus

Women’s Health Protection Act

United States

Human Rights

Law

USA – Doctors Have a Moral Obligation to Disobey Abortion Bans

Academic medical centers’ lackluster defense of abortion access is moral malpractice. It’s time for civil disobedience.

By Martin Donohoe , TRUTHOUT
July 9, 2023

It has been more than one year since the United States Supreme Court, in a controversial decision not supported by a majority of Americans, overturned Roe v. Wade, returning authority over abortion’s legality to the states. Since the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 14 states have prohibited abortion and another six have added restrictions on this basic component of reproductive health care. These states’ policies are already the least supportive of mothers and their children, and the U.S. as a whole has the highest maternal and infant mortality in the developed world.

Organized dissent has been surprisingly lacking, even from groups with a long history of promoting comprehensive reproductive health care. A recent New Yorker article called out Planned Parenthood for not supporting independent abortion providers and for focusing more on self-preservation and legal attempts to curb abortion restrictions, attempts unlikely to be broadly successful given the makeup of a relatively young Supreme Court stacked with conservatives — even as the court faces criticism over previously undisclosed levels of influence peddling by private citizens and companies, eroding public trust in a once-respected institution.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/doctors-have-a-moral-obligation-to-disobey-abortion-bans/

09.07.2023

Commentary

civil disobedience

independent abortion providers

Martion Donohue

Planned Parenthood

Roe v. Wade

Women’s Health Protection Act

A year after Dobbs, the pro-choice movement has never been stronger

By Jennifer Rubin
June 26, 2023

A year after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization stripped women of nearly 50 years of constitutional protection to make their own health-care decisions, women have faced trauma and near-death experiences and been deprived of medical care. That includes women who never contemplated having an abortion. The Dobbs-aggravated shortage of doctors practicing obstetrics-gynecology, especially in rural areas, leaves millions of women without access to health care.

A recent KFF survey of 569 OB/GYNs underscores the health-care crisis Dobbs has wrought. Twenty percent of respondents “report they have personally felt constraints on their ability to provide care for miscarriages and other pregnancy-related medical emergencies since the Dobbs decision.” Forty-four percent of doctors “and six in ten practicing in states where abortion is banned or where there are gestational limits, say their decision-making autonomy has become worse since the Dobbs ruling.” And 36 percent nationally “say their ability to practice within the standard of care has become worse.”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/26/dobbs-ruling-anniversary-health-political-fallout/

26.06.2023

Opinion

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Women’s Health Protection Act

A year after Dobbs: Congress takes a back seat on federal abortion policy

BY: JENNIFER SHUTT
JUNE 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, the courts rather than a divided Congress are leading the way on decisions on reproductive rights that would affect the entire nation.

Congress has not enacted federal legislation to either preserve reproductive rights or to restrict abortion in the year since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling nullified the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. And that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

Continued: https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2023/06/19/a-year-after-dobbs-congress-takes-a-back-seat-on-federal-abortion-policy/

19.06.2023

News

Alliance Defending Freedom

Autumn Katz

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Roe v. Wade

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America

Suzanne Bell

Women’s Health Protection Act

USA – Don’t rule out a national abortion ban in 2025

Activists think they have a path to stopping abortions nationwide. It runs not through Congress but through the White House, the Supreme Court, and an arcane 19th-century law.

By Mary Ziegler
May 30, 2023

Almost a year ago, when the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the court promised that each state would make its own decision on abortion. At the time, a national statute of any kind seemed impossible. Democrats had tried and failed to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have secured abortion rights nationwide. And once Republicans gained a majority in the House of Representatives, they didn’t try to pass a national abortion ban. Their legislative wish list did not include one, and poll after poll showed that most Americans believed abortion to be a right and wanted it to be legal, especially early in pregnancy.

The antiabortion movement had never wanted the issue left to the states. Since the 1980s, the movement had made sure that the Republican Party platform had a plank endorsing a human life amendment. But in the immediate aftermath of the Dobbs ruling, it seemed that there was little chance that antiabortion advocates could get their wish for a national ban.

Continued: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/30/opinion/abortion-ban-comstock-act-mary-ziegler/