The Hispanic Health Council considers access to safe, high-quality healthcare to be a human right for everyone and strongly opposes the recent United States Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, revoking the constitutional right to reproductive choice. This decision will inevitably have negative consequences for women’s health and wellbeing and widen health disparities.
This decision will result in an increase in unsafe abortion practices, resulting in unnecessary deaths with a higher impact on women of color. Worldwide, it is estimated that 4.7 to 13.2% of deaths for women are due to unsafe abortion. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of all developed nations and preventing access to safe abortions will inevitably result in even more deaths—particularly for low-income, Hispanic, Black, and other people of color, who have historically faced systemic barriers in accessing healthcare.
Thankfully, our state of Connecticut will continue to provide access to safe abortion through recently enacted safe haven laws. But many states have already enacted trigger laws that ban or severely restrict abortion, subjecting pregnant people to continue unwanted pregnancies and stripping them of one of their most basic human rights: freedom to make their own reproductive decisions.
The Hispanic Health Council is committed to working with our community and legislators to address inequities in reproductive healthcare and will continue to advocate for this important cause.