Statement From Emerge President A’shanti F. Gholar on the Supreme Court Draft Opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson

  • May 3, 2022
  • Emerge Staff

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 3, 2022

CONTACT: Kaleb Harmon
kaleb@emergeamerica.org

Statement From Emerge President A’shanti F. Gholar on the Supreme Court Draft Opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson

Washington, DC—A’shanti F. Gholar, president of Emerge, the nation’s premier organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office, released a statement following POLITICO’s report on the leaked opinion in Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which purportedly reveals the Court’s plans to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

“This draft opinion lays bare what we all already knew—the Supreme Court is poised to strip away access to abortion and limit our access to necessary, lifesaving health care.

Make no mistake—this is an assault on women’s autonomy and freedom. We already suffer from a lack of equal pay and paid leave, high maternal mortality rates, especially for women of color, and access to affordable childcare and mental health support. We won’t sit idly by and watch this right be stripped from us.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of state legislatures right now and the role they play in safeguarding our rights when the federal government will not. As it stands, about half of the states are set to immediately restrict abortion if this opinion is made official. We need more women in state legislatures pushing back against these policies until the federal government acts.

Emerge’s work to get more Democratic women elected at every level of government is more critical than ever. We need champions in state legislatures, on city councils, in district attorney offices, judgeships and other elected positions of power to mount a full line of defense.

If Republicans get their way, this is the first decision in a long line of plans they have to strip away our privacy and enact regressive policies. We refuse to let it happen.”

Emerge has trained more than 5,000 alums since 2002 and currently has more than 1,000 alums in elected office across the country. The organization is committed to reaching 100,000 women of the New American Majority over the next 15 years, fostering a lift as you climb culture for women in politics, and repowering political structures. There are currently 27 state affiliates, and the organization has impacted a total of 45 states, Washington, D.C. and territories.

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