WASHINGTON — Three members of Congress on Thursday introduced a resolution aimed at drawing attention to the experiences and challenges people with disabilities face when it comes to reproductive rights.
Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts announced the resolution at a press conference with activists just steps from the U.S. Capitol, saying that under a Supreme Court ruling that still stands, people with disabilities can be sterilized without their consent.
“Buck v. Bell is a decision handed down by the United States Supreme Court on May 2, 1927, that affirmed the constitutionality of Virginia’s law allowing involuntary sterilization,” Pressley said.
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Pressley said people outside of disability rights groups are often unaware of the ruling or the fact that it has never been challenged.
“They are in disbelief that this happened and that this ruling authorizes the forced sterilization of people with disabilities and has never been overturned,” Pressley said.
Unique barrier
The four-page resolution designates the first of May as Disability Reproductive Equality Day.
The resolution states that “people with disabilities face unique barriers to accessing reproductive health care, including harmful stereotypes, communication barriers, and a lack of accessible health facilities.”
It adds that Congress is “committed to advancing the rights to reproductive and sexual health, autonomy and freedom for people with disabilities.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, have introduced a related resolution in the chamber.
“For too long, Americans with disabilities have faced extra hurdles and real discrimination when it comes to accessing the health care they need, including abortion care,” Murray wrote in a statement announcing the bill.
“Since the Dobbs decision, access to reproductive health care has been in crisis, making it even more difficult for people with disabilities to receive quality care from providers who understand their medical needs,” Murray wrote. “It is important to recognize the barriers millions of women face in accessing reproductive health care, and this resolution is an important step forward for all of us to recommit ourselves to the fight for reproductive justice for all.”
Co-sponsors in the House of Representatives include Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, and Adam Smith of Washington, all Democrats.
Access to comprehensive care
Rebecca Cokley, a disability advocate and former executive director of the National Council on Disability, told a news conference the story of an anesthesiologist who, after giving birth to her middle child, told her obstetrician-gynecologist to “ligate her tubes,” adding that “people like her will never have to have another child.”
Coakley said that if her obstetrician-gynaecologist had “insisted on it, it would have been completely legal.”
“When we talk about reproductive justice, it’s about the idea that all women, all people have the right to have children, the right not to have children,” Cokley said, “the right to raise any children we have in a safe and healthy environment.”
Jess Davidson, communications director for the American Association of People with Disabilities, spoke about how access to reproductive health care in general, including abortion, is important for people with disabilities.
She said residents of the community “are 11 times more likely to die from pregnancy.”
“I know all too well the fear that comes with living with that risk,” Davidson said. “As a young woman, I felt in my heart that I was born to be a mother.”
After being diagnosed with a condition in her mid-20s that significantly increases the chances of miscarriage and maternal death, Davidson said she had discussions with her doctor about whether she should become pregnant.
“I was shocked when I first found out about this, but my doctor assured me that if I needed an abortion to save my life and was willing to work closely with a high-risk obstetrician to get an abortion, they would give it a try and see what would happen,” Davidson said. “After all, every pregnancy is different.”
All of this was before the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned a constitutional right to abortion that had been recognized for nearly 50 years through two previous decisions.
“The thought of trying a high-risk pregnancy right now scares me to the point of not being able to breathe,” she says, “and I live in Colorado and Washington, D.C., two places where my right to life-saving care is still protected.”
Davidson said many women with disabilities who want to have children currently live in states that ban or severely restrict abortion, even if continuing the pregnancy would threaten life or health.
State-Law Involuntary Sterilization
Maayan Anafi, senior counsel for health equity and justice at the National Women’s Law Center, said 31 states, including Colorado, have laws allowing for the forced sterilization of people with disabilities.
“These laws give judges the power to ignore the wishes of people with disabilities and make decisions on their behalf, ostensibly in their own interest,” Anafi said.
“In doing so, they reproduce many of the same harmful narratives that fueled forced sterilization: that disabled people cannot or should not make decisions about their bodies or raising their children,” Anafi added, “and that taking away those choices is then justified in order to protect disabled people from themselves.”