Safe abortion care should be accessible to everyone everywhere
The United States Supreme Court issued a ruling today to overturn the landmark decision on Roe v. Wade and decades of legal precedent recognizing access to safe abortion care as a constitutional right. Analysts predict that this ruling will result in 26 states moving swiftly to ban abortion.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization that provides safe abortion care as a critical part of our comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services. We do not run medical operations in the US, but we see the devastating consequences in countries around the world where people do not have access to safe and legal abortion.
MSF-USA President Africa Stewart, an OB-GYN based in Atlanta, issued this statement in response to the Supreme Court decision:
Safe abortion care is essential health care
When women, girls, and pregnant people do not have access to safe abortion care, they often find other ways to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. I have treated people who have undergone risky procedures because they felt they had no other choice. I have witnessed firsthand the unbearable pain and suffering that no one should be forced to endure.