(Above): Gen-Z group of young people march in protest to affirm the right to abortion, as protesters raise placards praising women’s rights. (Giuseppe Lombardo/Shutterstock)

AAPI Women have largely remained invisible in the divisive fight over abortion rights. The Supreme Court is preparing to release its opinion on the Dobbs vs. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization case. The Court’s decision – a draft of which was leaked recently – is expected to immediately gut abortions in at least 22 states. At an Ethnic Media Services briefing, May 13, panelists – Congresswoman Judy Chu, D-California; Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington; Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director of The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum; Aliza Kazmi, Co-Executive Director, HEART Women and Girls; and John C. Yang, President and Executive Director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – will discuss the impact of the expected Supreme Court decision.

(Above, l-r): Congresswoman Judy Chu, D-California; Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington; Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director of The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum; Aliza Kazmi, Co-Executive Director, HEART Women and Girls; and John C. Yang, President and Executive Director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice—AAJC. (EMS)

Congresswoman Judy Chu, D-California, started the briefing, “Right now, when abortion rights are under threat like never before, I want to say one thing loud and clear, abortion is health care, and it is a right. It is a right and a personal decision that no one should make other than the pregnant woman and her doctor.

“Nearly one in four American women has had an abortion in her lifetime including my colleague Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, the first South Asian woman elected to Congress, she’s told her story about how after an extremely difficult first pregnancy where her child was born premature and had significant medical needs, she found out she was pregnant again even though she was on birth control.

“She went to her doctor who told her there was no guarantee she wouldn’t face another extremely difficult pregnancy that would be life threatening and she just knew she could not go through with that but as a new immigrant to the United States, abortion was extremely stigmatized in her community.

“She never even told her own mother for fear of the stigma and shame it would bring, and it was not until just a few years ago that she even told her story publicly because even though as she puts it she does not regret her decision. She was concerned though about the backlash she could face but Congresswoman Jayapal was inspired to speak up by the relentless attacks on abortion in recent years and these attacks culminated in the draft supreme court opinion that was leaked last week [early May].

“When I first read Justice Alito’s draft opinion to overturn Roe vs. Wade, I was disgusted, appalled and heartbroken, but i was not shocked because Republicans have been telling the American people that they plan to overturn this decision for decades. This draft opinion is just the culmination of an organized anti-abortion strategy to strip away constitutional rights from millions of Americans.

“I was gratified that Senator Schumer immediately announced that the Senate would once again take up my bill HR-3755, the Women’s Health Protection Act which would enshrine the protections of Roe into law and prevent these state-level abortion bans we are seeing in states like Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and so many others.

“The House of Representatives has already passed this bill in September of 2021 by a vote of 218 to 211 making the Women’s Health Protection Act the most supported abortion rights bill in the history of Congress.

“The Senate vote was held on Wednesday (May 11) and just before the vote, I joined with dozens of my colleagues to march to the Senate to protest in support of abortion rights.

“We knew we were facing an uphill battle because even if we could get 50 Democratic votes, this bill is subject to the filibuster, a tool of segregation that lets the minority block the will of the majority, and we know protecting abortion rights is the majority opinion of Americans for nearly 50 years. In poll after poll, majority of Americans support access to abortion, making sure that as the senators debated if they wanted to stand up for our right to choose what to do with our own bodies, that they would hear from us.

“Though the vote on Wednesday (May 11) was not successful it was not the end. It was just the beginning. We are just getting started in our fight to protect abortion access and I am especially invested in this fight as I know that the impacts of these abortion bans are felt most acutely by communities of color including the Asian American Pacific Islander community,” said Congresswoman Judy Chu, D-California.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal added, “I have been sitting in anger as well at this naked attempt by an extremist radical Supreme Court to strip away our constitutional reproductive rights.

“Abortion is an extremely personal and sometimes, a very difficult choice. I know this because I am one of the one-in-four women in this country who has had an abortion and yes, I never plan to tell my story. I don’t think that we should have to, but I do think as an Asian-American woman, it is important for me to represent, by publicly telling my story to represent the millions of Asian Americans across this country who have been in a similar situation.

“Let me be clear, if this leaked opinion does come to pass in the next month or so, abortion is not going to miraculously go away, no, all that this opinion will do is end access to safe and legal abortion, and the people who will pay the steepest price for this rollback are our communities Black, Brown, Asian, Indigenous low-income folks.

“Survivors of incest and abuse will also bear the brunt of this unconstitutional and unjust decision, we are talking about millions of people across this country whose lives will quite literally be in danger because an extremist court decided to politicize health care and overturn, what was lawful and settled precedent. Infringing on our reproductive freedoms will be a literal death sentence for millions of people.

“We didn’t get here by mistake, as Judy said, this was the culmination of decades of insidious work by Republicans who have rigged the system in their favor. We got here because two presidents who lost the popular vote appointed these extremist justices, these five justices, some of whom even lied under oath about Roe with the help of Republican senators who represented 40 million less people than their Democratic counterparts.

“When you read this opinion what you see is the argument that Justice Alito is making is that there is no right, that is clear and attributable, unless it is named in the constitution, a document that was written 200 years ago.

“On Wednesday (May 11), we saw this flawed system at work again when Republicans filibustered abortion rights from being codified into law. I was in the room with several of my Democratic colleagues.

“As an organizer, I helped lead that march across the Capital of all our colleagues, who then sat in the Senate. It never gets easier or less frustrating to watch Republicans obstruct the will of the people, and the right to an abortion is the will of the people. It is supported by majority of the country, 80 percent, to be exact,” said Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington.

Sung Yeon Choimorrow said, “We worked with University of Chicago Law School and conducted a survey of Asian, Chinese-American, Korean-American, and Indian-American women living in the United States, and our findings show that Chinese and Korean-American women are actually having more girl babies than their white counterparts in the United States.

“The sex selective abortion practices in the immigrant communities here don’t reflect the same kind of numbers in our countries of origin.

“We are at a critical point for abortion access and reproductive rights. If Roe is overturned as the leaked Supreme Court opinion clearly suggests, it will threaten the lives of those who depend on abortion care the most,” said Choimorrow.

John Yang said, “If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, and given what we know to be the state of the law, states such as Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina, states where we have seen increases of 138, 128, and 154 percent, respectively, of the Asian American population, women would no longer have access to legal abortions.

“I would remind people that many judges that were nominated under President Trump when asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee about Brown vs. Board of Education, refused to affirm that that it was well-reasoned law, simply relying on the formulation that it was settled precedent. This should be deeply troubling to all of us and not simply to women in our society. “As a Chinese American male and as the father of two daughters, this is my responsibility to speak up about this issue, and it is not solely the responsibility of women, it is a responsibility that should be held by all of us as people that believe in civil and human rights,” said Yang.

Aliza Kazmi discussed the impact to Muslim American women if Roe is overturned, “I am an American Muslim, and second generation Pakistani from California.

“There are serious misconceptions within mainstream media about Muslims stance on this issue.

“According to the most recent American Muslim poll in 2022, 56 percent of Muslims in the U.S. support abortion access, in terms of they believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases,” said Kazmi.