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by Laurel Powell •
Studies have shown that LGBTQ+ people, like most Americans, depend on abortion access, reproductive health, and family planning protections that are under threat.
WASHINGTON - Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, launched a new fact sheet on LGBTQ+ people & Roe v. Wade. This new resource highlights the importance of the protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade to members of the LGBTQ+ community. The data shows that LGBTQ+ women who have been pregnant are more likely to have had unwanted or mistimed pregnancies than heterosexual women and are more likely to need abortion services as well. Furthermore, their pregnancies are more likely to be the result of violence.
Some of the fact sheet’s most important toplines include:
LGBTQ+ people have abortions. Some specific LGBTQ+ groups are more likely than cisgender, heterosexual women to need abortion services.
Due to structural and logistical barriers, even under Roe, abortion is not always available for LGBTQ+ people. This leads them to be at risk for mistimed and unwanted pregnancies, or to consider self-managed abortion.
The end of Roe would be devastating for the safety of LGBTQ+ people, who are already at increased risk for sexual and physical intimate partner violence, and who may be at increased risk of a pregnancy resulting from a non-consensual encounter.
LGBTQ+ people, like their cisgender and straight peers, need access to the reproductive health care that allows them to achieve their fertility and family planning desires. LGBTQ+ adults are increasingly more likely to be parents, or to want to become parents. However, LGBTQ+ adults are increasingly reliant on assisted reproductive technology, rather than intercourse–creating an unmet need for many LGBTQ+ people who may lack the economic resources to achieve their fertility goals. These methods, like IVF, are threatened if Roe is overturned.
HRC acknowledges that the data above is only a start to understanding the impacts overturning Roe would have on the LGBTQ+ community. Significant shortcomings in data collection exist on the impact reproductive restrictions has on the transgender and non-binary community, as well as that community’s collective use of assisted reproductive technology.
For more information, the full fact sheet is available from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s website.
The Human Rights Campaign reports on news, events and resources of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation that are of interest to the general public and further our common mission to support the LGBTQ+ community.
To make a general inquiry, please visit our contact page. Members of the media can reach our press office at: (202) 572-8968 or email press@hrc.org.
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