Naples Pride mourns today. After 50 years of precedent, the Supreme Court took away the right to abortion, opening the floodgates for states across the country to restrict a woman’s right to access a safe abortion. Today, it has been decided a woman is not allowed to make informed decisions about her own body and instead, politicians can control her body and her destiny.

 

The late Justice Ginsburg notoriously said, “It is essential to woman’s equality with man that she be the decisionmaker, that her choice be controlling… If you impose restraints that impede her choice, you are disadvantaging her because of her sex.”

 

Michelle Obama captured our sentiments when she said, “I am heartbroken- for the teenage girl, full of zest and promise, who won’t be able to finish school or live the life she wants because her state controls her reproductive decisions; for the mother of a nonviable pregnancy who is now forced to bring that pregnancy to term; for the parents watching their child’s future evaporate before their eyes; for the health are workers who can no longer help them without risking jail time.”

 

And all of this in a country without paid leave, healthcare, childcare, formula, or safe schools.

Dark days are ahead. Before Roe, many lives were lost to unsafe, illegal abortions. Many healthcare workers were jailed for trying to help. Further, Justice Thomas said in his concurring opinion the legal rationale for today’s decision could be applied to overturn other major cases, including those that legalized gay marriage. "For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell," he wrote.

Our rights are being attacked and Naples Pride will continue to stand up and shout, “WE DISSENT!”