GLMA Issues Statement on US Supreme Court Abortion Rights Decision

On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision upheld a Mississippi law placing severe restrictions on abortion and overruled long-held precedents Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey that guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion care. GLMA President Nick Grant PhD, ABPP, and Executive Director Hector Vargas, JD, issued the following statement:

“The Supreme Court’s ruling today ignores the overwhelming medical consensus that abortion care is essential healthcare and that restrictions on abortion seriously endanger the health and well-being of pregnant individuals across this country. As an organization of LGBTQ+ healthcare providers, GLMA fully understands the devastating consequences to an individual’s health when policymakers substitute their judgment for that of medical and health experts and their patients. This trend must end.

“In the short term, we must turn our attention to ensuring women, pregnant people, people of color, transgender youth, and all LGBTQ+ people receive the essential, medically necessary healthcare they need and deserve without interference from elected officials and judges. Every individual’s right to control their own body must be recognized and protected.

“Never in the history of the US Supreme Court has a ruling taken away a previously recognized constitutional right. This is a stunning decision and a sad day in our history. Today, GLMA joins the dissenting justices in ‘sorrow’ for the loss of a fundamental constitutional protection and looks to the work ahead to safeguard abortion, reproductive health and LGBTQ+ health equity with firm resolve and determination.”

GLMA joined with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and nearly 2 dozen health professional associations in an amicus brief supporting abortion care in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and joined an open letter organized by the National Center for Lesbian Rights in support of abortion rights.