Statement from CUPE National President Mark Hancock and CUPE National Secretary-Treasurer Candace Rennick on the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade:
We are alarmed and deeply concerned by today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court to overturn the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade precedent recognizing reproductive rights.
On behalf of 700,000 CUPE members across Canada, we share in the outrage in the United States today, and are sending strength and solidarity. We know this decision will impact underprivileged and vulnerable women the hardest.
Let’s be 100 % clear: restricting access to abortions means restricting access to health care. You cannot ban abortion; you can only ban safe abortion. This decision will put countless women and pregnant people at risk.
We are all too aware that political currents in the US often foreshadow things to come in Canada. We need to remain vigilant. Already far too many women cannot access abortion services in Canada in their communities.
We will not allow this to happen here in Canada. CUPE always has and always will fiercely defend gender and reproductive rights, and we will keep fighting to strengthen and expand access to health care.
Photo credit: vpickering. This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).