title
To express the City's opposition to the U. S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org. decision, and to ask the General Assembly of Virginia to protect and expand abortion access.
body
WHEREAS, in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org., 2022 U.S. LEXIS 3057 (2022), the Supreme Court of the United States of America reversed 50 years of precedent upholding a constitutional right to abortion; and
WHEREAS, abortion care is an essential reproductive health service and its availability is an important part of every American's right to safe and accessible health care; and
WHEREAS, there is no decision more important than whether and when to have children, especially since patients who give birth to a child after being denied an abortion are 100 times more likely to die during childbirth than patients who actively wanted to carry a child to term; and
WHEREAS, abortion is a safe and common health service, and nearly one in four people who become pregnant in the United States of America will have an abortion by age 45; and
WHEREAS, history has shown that it is not possible to ban abortion; instead, it is only possible to ban safe abortions; and
WHEREAS, evidence shows that limiting legal access to safe abortion drives increased domestic violence; and
WHEREAS, laws criminalizing abortion can have profoundly negative impacts on those who have miscarriages; and
WHEREAS, the negative impacts of limited legal access to safe abortion disproportionately affect our most vulnerable, especially Black and Brown communities, those living in poverty, and survivors of child abuse, sexual assault, and domestic violence; and
WHEREAS, the maternal mortality rate in the United States of America is the highest among developed nations, with a staggering 23.8 deaths per 100,000 childbirths, with a disproportionate impact on Black patients; and
WHEREAS, restricting access to abortion will significantly in...
Click here for full text