One Year After Supreme Court Overturned Roe v. Wade, Human Rights Campaign Remains Committed to Fight for Reproductive Freedom

by Kathryn Smith •

Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, marks the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned a half-century of precedent by reversing Roe v. Wade to end abortion rights supported by a majority of Americans. This affects everyone who wants to have autonomy over their body and medical decisions as the ability to receive abortion care became significantly more difficult — often outright impossible — for millions of people across the country, including LGBTQ+ people.

The Dobbs decision is still heartbreaking and has of course been a setback — but the fight for abortion rights is not over. Advocates for reproductive freedom around the country have worked tirelessly over the last year - and long before - to ensure that as many people as possible continue to have access to the abortion care that they need. The Human Rights Campaign will lift up their voices and stories at every turn. Abortion is health care, and health care is a human right - but for too long, Roe was a right in name only for too many people, especially people of color and those living in rural areas and the South. Now is the time to fight for full bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom without exception.

Kelley Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign

Despite the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, public opinion towards safe, legal abortion remains widely popular. In just the past year, voters in states like Kentucky and Kansas have rejected attempts to strip abortion access, and states such as Michigan. Vermont, and California have enshrined the right to reproductive care in their state constitutions.

LGBTQ+ people are disproportionately affected by abortion bans. Even prior to the Dobbs decision, lesbian, bisexual, and queer cisgender women reported higher rates of unwanted or mistimed pregnancies relative to heterosexual women, often due to the discrimination that they face in healthcare settings. In turn, lesbian, bisexual, and queer cisgender women are more likely to seek abortion care than their heterosexual counterparts: 15% of exclusively heterosexual women sought an abortion, compared to 22.8% of lesbians and 27.2% of bisexual women.

The Dobbs case was brought about by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an organization classified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. ADF has long been a driving force behind numerous pieces of legislation targeting life-saving, best practice, medically necessary health care for transgender youth, some of which are now law. The organization has also been supportive of laws across the globe that seek to severely limit or criminalize the free speech and existence of LGBTQ+ people.

To learn more about the effects that the Dobbs decision has on the LGBTQ+ community, you can visit HRC’s fact sheet here.

Contact Us

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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SCOTUS