Today's historic Supreme Court case on bodily autonomy should be garnering the same attention as Roe v. Wade.

United States v. Skrmetti is not distinct from these fights over reproductive rights — it’s their next phase. Before 2020, there was not a single law that banned access to gender-affirming care for trans people. Since then, nearly 36 states have attempted to restrict trans rights. This is not a coincidence. Recognizing the conservative turn of the courts, the Alliance Defending Freedom has drafted and promoted bills that restrict access to gender-affirming care. These model bills have been introduced in various state legislatures, contributing to a coordinated and successful strategy to limit transgender healthcare. These laws “are the result of an openly political effort to wage war on a marginalized group and our most fundamental freedoms,” writes Chase Strangio, Co-Director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project.

  • tardigrada@beehaw.org
    8·
    21 days ago

    The Fight for Trans Rights and Abortion Are Inextricably Linked.

    Maybe Missouri is another good example for that. One month after Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion, Republican lawmakers in the deeply red state are already working to overturn it – (archived link) — or at least undermine it.

    But it’s not only that, it’s also the way they try to bend the voters’ will:

    One measure would ask voters to amend the state constitution to define life as beginning at conception, declaring that embryos are people with rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

    The result would be to classify abortion as an unlawful killing.

    Another proposal, aimed at repealing the abortion rights amendment, would ask voters to ban gender transition procedures for minors, tying the two issues together, despite the fact that the amendment did not address gender surgery and gender-affirming care for transgender children is already illegal in Missouri.

    Other proposed amendments include stricter abortion limits, such as restricting access to cases of rape, incest, medical emergencies and fetal anomalies. These measures would impose additional requirements, such as mandating that rape survivors file police reports to obtain an abortion.

    GOP lawmakers have also introduced a measure to raise the threshold for amending the state constitution through voter initiatives, which could make it harder to pass similar measures in the future.