Subject: “It’s complicated”

Ed. note: This post was originally published on the Community site.

Dear Congressional Pro-Choice Leaders: 

We write on behalf of young people throughout the U.S., who believe that all people should be able to access safe, legal abortion care. Did you get our notification? That we want to switch our Facebook relationship status from “in a relationship” to “it’s complicated?”

We know that these are tough times. State houses across the country are introducing and passing an unprecedented number of restrictions on access to reproductive and sexual health services. (Almost 800 have been introduced in the last 3 months alone!) Many in Congress are dead-set on enacting similar laws on a federal level. When they can’t, they are sneaking harmful abortion coverage restrictions into important legislation, including legislation to help trafficking survivors and improve the provision of healthcare services. And the burden of these attacks fall disproportionately on people — including young people, people of color, low-income people, and people living in rural areas — that are already so harmed by decades-long policies like the Hyde Amendment.

Relationships are a two-way street, and we have long been your strong supporters. We are thankful to have leaders like you in Congress to fight back and will be there when you need us to fight those fights with you. But recently we have been getting tired of waiting for you to show us that you support us as well. Standing up to the attacks on the ability of all people make their own medical decisions is not just about rhetoric. Standing up for us means taking real action to fight back. It means introducing and pushing for legislation to combat abortion coverage restrictions that exist. Yet, the Hyde Amendment has been renewed every year since 1976, and we have not seen a real Congressional effort to repeal it in decades. It means drawing the line against any abortion coverage restrictions snuck into other legislation. And we were so happy to see Senate leaders stand up to sneaky restrictions in the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act this past month. Yet, harmful restrictions on abortion coverage and referrals continue to make their way into legislation like the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that died in the House in February, and the Medicare “Doc Fix” Package that was passed this past month.

So you can see why we’re a bit frustrated. And we’ve decided to reevaluate this relationship. We want to make it work with you, we really do! And we’re willing to do whatever it takes: spend more quality time together, talk more openly about our feelings, and have frank conversations to really make this relationship a healthy one. But, for the sake of all of the people relying on you to help ensure our access to healthcare we have a right to, we can’t just keep sitting and waiting and hoping you’ll come through.

Sincerely,

Abbey Marr
Reproductive Justice Law & Policy Fellow
Advocates for Youth Policy Team

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