Press Release
Joint Statement from Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the Liberate Abortion Campaign Rejecting Threats of Violence
For Immediate Release: Friday, June 24, 2022
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Planned Parenthood Federation of America: [email protected]
NARAL Pro-Choice America: [email protected]
Liberate Abortion Campaign: [email protected]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Planned Parenthood Federation of America, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the Liberate Abortion Campaign, a coalition comprised of more than 150 reproductive justice and rights organizations, groups, and abortion providers, today issued a statement rejecting any and all threats of violence related to the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“We reject the tactics and threats of groups that use destruction and violence as a means to an end. They do not speak for us, our supporters, our communities, or our movement. We are committed to protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive freedoms through peaceful, non-violent organizing and activism.
“People deserve to both provide and access abortion care in a safe and supportive environment. Abortion providers, health center staff, patients, and supporters of reproductive freedom have long faced daily threats and violence. Anti-abortion activists have harassed, intimidated, and bullied patients for simply seeking abortion and other essential sexual and reproductive health care with little or no accountability for decades. Abortion providers and reproductive freedom advocates have been threatened, stalked, and even murdered for doing their jobs. Health centers have been regularly vandalized and targeted by arsonists, including a Knoxville health center that was burned to the ground less than six months ago.
“We also recognize that those most loudly lifting up the actions of groups threatening violence have historically been silent as health centers, providers, and patients have been under threat for far too long. They continue to attack abortion and those who seek it with increasingly misleading and hostile rhetoric. Let’s be clear: these actors are not concerned with anyone’s safety; their only goal is to score political points and distract from a decision that could erase 50 years of reproductive rights and put millions more pregnant people at risk. The American people do not want lawmakers controlling their bodies, their lives, or their most personal medical decisions, and we will proudly continue to do the work of protecting their health and rights.”
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 2.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.