Reproductive Rights Advocates Pledge to Fight Trump’s Anti-Choice Agenda: ‘We Will Be Bold’
Destiny Lopez, co-director of All* Above All, told Rewire it will be critical to expose the Trump administration's agenda to “shame and bully and punish poor women” as the organization mobilizes supporters to pressure members of Congress to stand against anti-choice measures.
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Reproductive rights advocates are not waiting for President-elect Trump to take office before they push back against the stringent anti-choice policies he promised to implement throughout the 2016 presidential campaign.
Destiny Lopez, co-director of All* Above All, told Rewire it will be critical to expose the Trump administration’s agenda to “shame and bully and punish poor women” as the organization mobilizes supporters to pressure members of Congress to stand against anti-choice measures.
“What we know will be the agenda that [Trump] and [Vice President-elect] Pence will have for women’s health and rights really led us to want to be public, out front, and bold about what our intentions are over the course of this administration,” Lopez said.
Restricting access to reproductive health care is among Republicans’ top priorities for the 115th Congress. GOP lawmakers plan to strip Title X protections for reproductive health-care providers and to make permanent the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funds to pay for abortion care except in the cases of life endangerment, rape, or incest. States, however, are able to decide whether state funds can be used to cover abortion care for Medicaid recipients, and more than half of states prohibit funding of abortion care beyond the Hyde exceptions.
All* Above All is a campaign that unites more than 100 state and national organizations seeking to lift bans designed to deny access to abortion care coverage. The campaign calls for the restoration of public insurance coverage for abortion care.
“We Will Be BOLD. We Won’t Be PUNISHED,” a six-figure advertising campaign launched this week by All* Above All, includes a nationwide advertising component. The media buy includes print newspaper wrappers, digital takeovers, social media ads, and mobile billboards.
It’s important that women of color and young women be the focus of these types of efforts because they are disproportionately affected by anti-choice restrictions, Lopez told Rewire.
“While they’ve always been at the forefront of the campaign, I think now more than ever it’s so important that Latinas, Black women, [Asian and Pacific Islander] women, and Native women are at the forefront given all the misogyny and racism that was exposed by Trump during the election cycle,“ Lopez said. “So we really want to have those voices leading on this issue going into this next administration.”
Kierra Johnson, executive director of Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE), said in a statement that the campaign is part of a continuing national grassroots organizing effort.
“Americans know that the Hyde Amendment literally takes away a poor woman’s decision making about abortion,” Johnson said. “By disrespecting poor women, these politicians are disrespecting all women—and we will not stand for that. We are starting when Congress comes back to D.C., we will continue during the inauguration, and we won’t let Trump or Pence shred our reproductive rights.”