In Support of Reproductive Rights
Adopted at the 90th Annual Meeting in 2022
WHEREAS, abortion is healthcare that should remain legal, safe, and accessible for all American women and nonbinary and transgender individuals who are able to become pregnant in all cities and states nationwide; and
WHEREAS, the Supreme Court of the United States established a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability in the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade in 1973 and reaffirmed that decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1993; and
WHEREAS, in May 2022, POLITICO published a reported 98 page draft opinion from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito with the majority decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in which a majority planned to overturn the precedent of Roe v. Wade that provided the constitutional right to an abortion and the subsequent decision of Planned Parenthood v. Casey that reaffirmed that right; and
WHEREAS, this pending decision would repeal a woman's constitutional right to choose healthcare without the influence of state government – a right that is afforded by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution that provides a right to privacy and therefore protects a pregnant woman's right to choose whether to have an abortion; and
WHEREAS, the majority opinion, if decided in current draft form, would undo nearly half a century of progress in ensuring reproductive rights, access to safe healthcare, and individual freedom; and
WHEREAS, state governments are now emboldened to wade into the personal health and religious decisions of our constituents and challenge their ability to plan for or raise families on their own terms; and
WHEREAS, striking down the precedent will lead to stricter limits on abortion access across the nation with two dozen states that could immediately or quickly enact broad abortion bans or restrictions in the weeks or months following such a decision; and
WHEREAS, those bans and restrictions will impact up to 36 million women residing in those states with a disparate impact on our most vulnerable residents, particularly low-income Americans who are in need of these healthcare services; and
WHEREAS, thirteen states including Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming have enacted trigger laws to automatically ban abortion in the first and second trimesters if the Supreme Court proceeds with overturning Roe v. Wade; and
WHEREAS, multiple states have decades-old abortion laws on the books that pre-date the Roe decision in 1973 that could be reinstated in its absence; and
WHEREAS, American women will now lack the right to govern their own personal, private health decisions and their own bodies without interference from government; and
WHEREAS, many state bans or restrictions do not provide exemptions for cases involving rape or incest, further punishing women who have been victimized by forcing them to carry a pregnancy to term; and
WHEREAS, the Brookings Center on Children and Families found that low-income women are five times more likely than their affluent peers to experience an unintended pregnancy; and
WHEREAS, a lack of access will have serious impacts on social mobility and economic outcomes in our cities as Brookings notes that "unplanned childbearing is associated with higher rates of poverty, less family stability, and worse outcomes for children"; and
WHEREAS, in overturning the 50 years of precedent of Roe v. Wade after recently publicly and privately acknowledging it as "settled law," a majority of Supreme Court justices could instead establish an unfortunate modern precedent that demonstrates to the American people that the institution itself is not committed to upholding its own past rulings; and
WHEREAS, this ruling signals that the Supreme Court of the United States could open the door to revisit other sacred "settled" matters such as civil rights and voting rights without regard for precedent.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that The United States Conference of Mayors supports the precedent of Roe v. Wade and reaffirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that establishes a woman's constitutional right to choose; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the nation's mayors lament that a majority of the Supreme Court of the United States intends to strike down Roe v. Wade in favor of political expediency without consideration for how revoking the precedent will diminish federalism and the institution itself, or impact our residents' ability to access to critical healthcare services with a resulting patchwork of laws banning or restricting abortion; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, The United States Conference of Mayors calls on Members of Congress to swiftly pass legislation to codify a woman's right to choose and urges governors and state legislatures to protect women's access to healthcare and individual freedoms in the absence of protections at the federal level in the meantime.