(C) Tennessee Lookout
This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout and is unaltered.
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One year post-Dobbs: The work continues. – Tennessee Lookout [1]
['More From Author', 'June', 'Robyn Baldridge']
Date: 2023-06-23
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed what millions of Americans had been fearing, by overturning Roe v. Wade.
Within weeks, 13 states, including Tennessee, would have near total abortion bans in place.
When news of the opinion leaked, thousands of Tennesseans marched and rallied in the streets and signed up to support local reproductive justice advocacy organizations. People felt outraged thinking about life without the right to access an abortion and make fundamental decisions about our own bodies and future.
The horrifying future that Tennesseans imagined when they took to the streets is now our reality. Tennessee has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.
A year after the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, a person living in Nashville needs to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest clinic to access care, take time off work, and spend up to thousands of dollars, in addition to travel costs. These barriers put life-saving care out of reach for so many people and families in our state.
That’s why we formed Abortion Care Tennessee (ACT) back in 2019: to support Tennesseans seeking abortions by reducing the financial barriers to accessing care.
While we knew the fall of Roe was imminent, like much of the southeast, we were already navigating a post-Roe reality. Tennessee has been restricting access to comprehensive abortion care for decades, even when we had constitutional protection under Roe v. Wade. The inaccessible landscape primarily impacted Black, brown and low income communities. We joined this fight to advocate for reproductive access for all Tennesseans alongside other incredible organizations like Mountain Access Brigade, ARC Southeast and Healthy and Free TN.
A year after the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a person living in Nashville needs to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest clinic to access care, take time off work, and spend up to thousands of dollars — barriers that put life-saving care out of reach for so many people and families in our state.
Last year’s Supreme Court ruling was a powerful call to action for millions to join the fight for abortion access. Donations made to Tennessee’s abortion fund have ensured that people can continue to access this essential healthcare, even in our hostile climate.
In the weeks after the opinion was leaked, hundreds of people from across the country made a donation to ACT. The outpouring of support made it possible for us to quickly scale up and meet the moment. In 2022, we were able to provide 12 clinics with funding to support more than 400 Tennesseans to access abortion care. So far in 2023, our funding has supported clinics to serve 200 Tennesseans.
In the face of one of the nation’s most extreme bans, supporters from across the country came together to fund abortion care and ensure that Tennesseans, regardless of income level, could continue accessing the care they need out of state. One year later, that support and solidarity is more important than ever.
Since the Dobbs decision and that initial outpouring of support, the Tennessee legislature has continued to assault the rights and freedoms of so many of us — to stay safe in our schools and community, to access gender-affirming care, to be represented by the people we elect. We’ve had to take to the streets in protest too many times to defend our communities and our democracy.
They want us to get tired and feel hopeless, but we can’t give up or let the onslaught of attacks dull our outrage or our resistance.
As we mark the one year anniversary since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, we note that Tennesseans continue to tap into the sense of outrage they felt the last year when they first read the news and support reproductive rights organizations.
It’s more essential than ever that we organize and build the power we need to win the future we deserve here in Tennessee. And as we fight for that future, we can come together and create and strengthen networks of support like the abortion fund to help each other in accessing care and safety.
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https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/06/23/one-year-post-dobbs-the-work-continues/
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