Leaders of Women’s and Gender Studies departments across the state of North Carolina colleges and Universities have collaborated on a statement regarding the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe V. Wade.
Read the statement below that will be sent out to newspapers and presses across the state.
As scholars of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, we are dismayed by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade. A politicized court stripped people of a fundamental right to control their bodies and overturned nearly 50 years of legal precedent. The decision will most harm those who already have the least, further entrenching inequalities. For all people to exercise their fundamental rights and develop their capabilities requires abortion access along with birth control, decent and affordable housing, paid family leave, affordable high-quality childcare, employment opportunities, and health care. Our students will explore the root consequences of the court’s decision, including the history of the anti-abortion movement and the reproductive justice advocacy, led by Black and QTPOC people, which affirms that all people have the right to choose to have children, to not have children, and to parent the children they have in healthy environments.
Signatures
Melissa M. González, Chair of Gender & Sexuality Studies, Davidson College
Karey Harwood, Coordinator of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, North Carolina State University
Sharon P. Holland, Townsend Ludington Distinguished Professor of American Studies, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Katie Horowitz, Associate Professor of Gender & Sexuality Studies, Davidson College
Julia Jordan-Zachery, Chair and Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Wake Forest University
Gayle Kaufman, Nancy and Erwin Maddrey Professor of Sociology and Gender & Sexuality Studies, Davidson College
Lisa Levenstein, Director of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
Jocelyn Olcott, Margaret Taylor Smith Director of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Duke University
Ariana Vigil, Chair of Women’s & Gender Studies, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill