FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 24, 2022

MEDIA CONTACT: 

e: jeanette.lenoir@mail.house.gov

c: 202.480.5737

Washington, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) issued the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturns the constitutional right to abortion:

“Today stands among the darkest in our nation’s history. To undo Roe v. Wade after 50 years of established precedent amounts to nothing less than a war on women’s reproductive rights and freedoms, and we cannot and will not stand for it. For the countless people across this nation who will suffer under this ruling, for the many who will lose their lives on account of its cruelty, for the Black and brown women, low-income women, and rural communities who have already faced lifetimes of the traumatic impacts of systemic discrimination, we must act. The time has long passed to end the filibuster and codify the Women’s Health Protection Act into law. Today, more so than ever, it is incumbent upon elected officials at every level of government to ferociously protect a woman’s right to choose. Forced pregnancy is an inhumane and immoral travesty, and one that will become commonplace in America unless we act deliberately and with haste,” said Congresswoman Clarke. 

“Let me be clear: this decision will not end abortion. Not in New York, where the right to choose is eternally entwined in the very fabric of our state, nor in the countless communities living under the oppressive thumb of trigger laws that have readied to outlaw abortion for decades. What this ruling will do is strip Americans of their access to safe abortions. It will kill women. And though I am furious, and disgusted, and heartbroken, now is not the time to mourn or wallow. Now is our moment for action – before it is too late.”

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Yvette D. Clarke has been in Congress since 2007. She represents New York’s Ninth Congressional District, which includes Central and South Brooklyn. Clarke is a Senior Member of both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and House Committee on Homeland Security, where she serves as Chair of the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation Subcommittee.