Pro-life feminist groups file amicus brief in Dobbs v. Jackson

Secular Pro-Life is proud to be one of the amici represented by this amicus brief just filed. Details below.

DOBBS AMICUS FILED BY PRO-LIFE FEMINIST GROUPS AND 240 WOMEN SCHOLARS AND PROFESSIONALS  EXPOSES THE LIE THAT WOMEN NEED ABORTION FOR EQUALITY

For Immediate Release: Media Contact: Helen Alvaré, halvare@gmu.edu, Teresa S. Collett, teresa.s.collett@gmail.com 

July 29, 2021- Washington, D.C. In an amicus brief filed in Dobbs v. Jackson by pro-life feminist organizations and 240 women scholars and professionals, amici urge the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule Planned Parenthood vs. Casey (1992) and Roe vs. Wade (1973). Law professors Teresa S. Collett and Helen Alvaré and legal scholar Erika Bachiochi represented amici. 

On behalf of amicus Feminists Choosing Life of New York, Michele Sterlace, Esq., LLM, commented: “This brief overthrows the fiction that women need and rely upon abortion rights to participate equally in civil society; this was central to the Casey Court’s decision to uphold Roe.”  

The brief summarizes the empirical evidence and data relating to women’s economic and social achievements since Roe, and concludes: “There simply is no causal link between the availability of abortion and the ‘capacity of women to act in society.’”  The brief empirically shows that “no consistent correlation” exists between “abortion rates or ratios” and “women’s participation in the labor market and entrepreneurial activities, as well as their educational accomplishments, professional engagement, and political participation.”

“Pro-life feminists have argued for decades that abortion rights harm rather than empower women and their opportunities to advance,” states Sterlace, “and the brief also explores and proves this with objective evidence.”  The brief makes an evidentiary showing that abortion correlates with “ the feminization of poverty, and women’s declining levels of happiness.”  It also reveals that the entire argument that women need abortion to achieve equality is based on a “male normative experience of reproduction as the model for economic and social participation.” This has “actually retarded meaningful accommodation of pregnancy and motherhood in the workplace and other spheres of society.”  

According to Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, founder of New Wave Feminists, another organizational amicus: “For far too long feminists have been fighting for a piece of the pie while settling for the crumbs. We’re here to demand a future where women are able to participate in society without having to sacrifice their children on the altar of ‘equality.’ We are able to do something men cannot – bring new life into this world. Patriarchy gained its power by using violence against the vulnerable, and we refuse to replicate that model as it has no place in a truly equitable future for every member of the human family.”

And Kathy McQueen, president of Feminists for Nonviolent Choices, another organizational amicus, states: ”Pregnant women, especially poor pregnant women, need economic and social resources, in order to achieve equality, not abortion. The  pro-choice narrative dehumanizes children in utero and their pregnant mothers. It elevates the right to kill unborn offspring as a rite of passage to equal status. This not only twists reality, as the brief demonstrates, but undermines efforts to enact and implement crucial policies necessary for pregnant women and mothers to participate in society on equal footing with men. Roe and Casey have hurt women. It’s time both are overruled.” 

To review the filed brief, go to any of the above amici’s websites or https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization/.