Op-Ed: Abortion Bans Are Killing Us – Our Community Must Stand Up Against These Attacks on Our Bodies – Essence

Last month, ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, reported on the tragic deaths of two Black women as a result of Georgia's six-week abortion ban. While the circumstances of their deaths are slightly different, two truths remain: Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller's deaths were entirely preventable and both women should still be with us today.

When Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed the six-week abortion ban into law in 2019, I knew that Black women would suffer the most and that the ban would ultimately kill us. The law – one of the most restrictive in the country – bans abortions around the sixth week of pregnancy and threatens doctors with criminal penalties if they provide medically appropriate care to a person during a miscarriage. It forces Georgians to travel abroad for basic care at high cost or to continue the pregnancy against their will, with medical risks and life-altering consequences. My organization, SisterSong, a Georgia-based national reproductive justice organization, fought tirelessly to prevent this ban from taking effect and served as lead plaintiff against HB 481. Yet the courts ultimately ruled against our freedom.

Make no mistake: While the ban is hurting Georgians today, it is also part of a well-coordinated, nationwide white supremacist agenda to limit our ability to manage our health care and protect our bodily autonomy. The overthrow of Roe v. Wade gave anti-abortion lawmakers the green light to interfere in deeply personal health decisions and dismantle all aspects of pregnancy-related health care. Since then, we have witnessed a crusade to control our bodies, with nearly half of states banning or severely restricting access to abortion. When elected leaders choose to control freedom and thereby disregard our safety, our lives, and our future, they create an environment in which life-saving abortion care is not only difficult to access, but criminalized.

For generations, Black people have been forced to navigate a health care system steeped in structural racism, and these recent attacks on abortion care have only further exacerbated our maternal health crisis. Black women have a maternal mortality rate three times higher than white women, and black mothers and babies are more likely to die during childbirth than any other population in America. Black women are also more likely to live in “contraception deserts,” use Medicaid, which does not cover abortions, and live in states with abortion bans. We deserve the right to decide if and when we become parents, on a schedule that fits our lives. These bans rob us of the autonomy to make decisions that are best for ourselves and our families.

Whether Black women are afraid to seek medical care or providers are afraid to treat patients because of criminalization, everyone suffers. Amber and Candi deserved better. Georgians deserve better. Our people deserve better.

For thirty years, reproductive justice activists have pushed for a world in which everyone has the right to have children safely or not, and to raise the children we do have in sustainable, safe communities. We have been on the front lines, resisting anti-abortion laws and centering the leadership and lived experiences of our people. Now more than ever, we need the Black community to stand with us in this moment.

On September 28, International Safe Abortion Day, reproductive justice leaders, including SisterSong and our national Trust Black Women campaign, gathered at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta to demand accountability for the preventable deaths of Amber and Candi demand. We asked those in power to trust Black women in 2019 when we began fighting HB 481, but now we demand it.

I have dedicated my life to organizing for liberation. I took to the streets to protest the state-sanctioned violence that has robbed my brothers and sisters of their future. I have led queer liberation work and pushed back against the prison-industrial complex. I witnessed the more than 40,000 Black women who came to support Vice President Harris' presidential candidacy. I say this because I can say without a doubt that I have experienced the power of collective action. The fight for our freedom is nothing new for us. Now we must stand up for Amber and Candi and the thousands of Black lives that are at stake every day when these abortion bans are in place. In Georgia, that means calling for passage of the Reproductive Freedom Act, which would expand access to abortion care for all Georgians and repeal HB 481. At the national level, this means educating ourselves on the issues and showing up to vote for the candidates will allow us to control our own reproductive future. Our lives are literally at stake.

Since learning of these heartbreaking deaths, what has stayed with me is Amber's mother, Shanette's, plea to Vice President Harris: “Don't let my daughter die in vain.” We cannot allow the lives of these beautiful Black women to be ruined by tragic loss is reduced. Their names deserve justice, their stories demand action, and their stolen futures must not be forgotten. Your legacy must be a sign of change, not inaction.

Monica Raye Simpson is the CEO of SisterSong, the South-based company Women of the Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Monica is a proud Black queer feminist and cultural strategist who advocates for LGBTQ+ liberation, civil and human rights, and sexual and reproductive justice by any means necessary. She was also named a New Civil Rights Leader by Essence Magazine and one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People of 2023.