By Brittany Lang, Secretary of VOX
This past week marked the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion in the United States. This decision confirmed that the constitutionally protected right to privacy includes every woman’s right to make her own personal medical decisions, without interference by politicians.
Unfortunately, despite this explicit constitutional ruling, there are still elected officials adamant about interfering with women’s personal decisions regarding their own bodies.
However, the majority of Americans continue to support the ruling and believe that health care decisions should be left to those whose bodies they affect. On this anniversary of a historic Supreme Court ruling, it’s important to acknowledge that labels such as “pro-choice” and “pro-life” simply aren’t nuanced to reflect modern thoughts regarding abortion, with the number of Americans who support access to safe and legal abortion being consistently higher than those who identify as “pro-choice.”
What is important is that organizations like Planned Parenthood support the majority of Americans who believe the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade and continue to provide high-quality, confidential and compassionate reproductive health care to women and men.
