FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: July 30, 2024

Contact: media@ravenlab.org

Abortion Advocates and Providers Release Detailed Policy Demand Ahead of the Democratic National Convention

More than 200 reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations and supporters back Abortion Justice Now, a policy memo demanding pro-abortion allies end viability and gestational bans.

Watch the press briefing here.

Today, ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention, Raven Lab for Reproductive Liberation called on pro-abortion allies to adopt the Abortion Justice Now (AJN) policy position. AJN uses a legal, human rights, justice, and access lens to address long-standing problems with gestational and viability bans in U.S. abortion laws. It urges pro-abortion advocates to support federal abortion policies that ensure every person can experience pregnancy free from government interference in every state nationwide. Addressing today’s problems starts with rejecting viability and gestational bans in proactive and defensive abortion policy work. Total decriminalization of abortion is the foundation for equitable policies nationwide. AJN is an invitation for federally focused policymakers to commit to this proactive position because outdated calls to “Restore Roe” are simply not enough.

Drs. Jenni Villavicencio and Colleen McNicholas, co-founders, Raven Lab for Reproductive Liberation:

“The majority of people recognize and support abortion as a fundamental human right more than ever in our country’s history. We will no longer accept hollow campaign slogans that end in compromise behind closed doors. Abortion Justice Now gives allies a detailed explanation for why abortion policies must affirm and protect later abortion care in order to achieve reproductive liberation, full stop. 

“Consider this memo a message to elected officials, advocates, and other allies: we demand unity around expansive abortion laws and an explicit rejection of time-based abortion bans.”

Pamela Merritt, senior advisor, Raven Lab for Reproductive Liberation:

“AJN is a position we urge every pro-abortion ally to take in our collective quest to liberate all reproductive health care from political gamesmanship. It’s not enough to say ‘abortion’ or ‘go beyond Roe’. We want to hear clear and specific plans that will pave the way for abortion access free from government interference. And yes, that means throughout the entirety of pregnancy. 

“There is no point in pregnancy when the government is better positioned to make decisions about pregnancy and abortion than patients and their health care providers. Anything short of this is an affront to justice, liberty, and freedom and no longer will we be quiet about it.”

AJN co-authors (Drs. Jenni Villavicencio and Colleen McNicholas, co-directors, Raven Lab for Reproductive Liberation; Pamela Merritt, executive director, Medical Students for Choice; Erika Christensen and Garin Marschall, co-directors, Patient Forward) come from the reproductive health, rights, and justice movements representing the same stakeholders disproportionately impacted by time-bound abortion bans — later abortion patients, all-trimester providers, and future abortion providers in training. The policy memo is a detailed explanation of how gestational age and viability bans in abortion laws, including state constitutional amendments, threaten, criminalize, and harm pregnant people and their providers. 

By the time the Dobbs decision overturned Roe, 43 states banned abortion at some point in pregnancy, forcing 1 in 10 abortion seekers to travel out of their home state for abortion care. Today, 41 states ban abortion at some point in pregnancy, including states many think of as “accessible” like California and New York. Between January 2006 and the end of Roe, nearly 1,400 people faced criminalization because of viability restrictions in their state’s abortion laws. Since Dobbs, two (Ohio and Michigan) states have permanently codified limited abortion rights into their state constitutions. Eight more states (Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota) are poised to do the same. Yet, leading medical organizations including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Society of Family Planning, and the American College of Physicians oppose all abortion restrictions, including those based on gestation or potential fetal viability. There is no reasonable amount of pregnancy criminalization.

Read the entire Abortion Justice Memo here.

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Raven Lab’s mission is to contribute to the development and implementation of a sustainable, values-based, nationwide strategy that will build and grow support for truly unrestricted abortion rights throughout pregnancy.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: August 23, 2024

Contact: media@ravenlab.org

CHICAGO - Raven Lab for Reproductive Liberation shared the following statement in gratitude to Personal PAC and Shout Your Abortion for their justice-centered approach to abortion advocacy in Chicago this week. 

Statement from Drs. Jenni Villavicencio and Colleen McNicholas:

“We applaud Personal PAC and Shout Your Abortion for amplifying the rallying cry behind the Abortion Justice Now policy position. The Illuminator art pays beautiful tribute to America’s support for abortion. Together, we demand allies near and far — reject gestational and viability limits and help us liberate abortion once and for all.”

Read the Abortion Justice Now policy memo. 

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