Little Lobbyists' Statement on the U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women Health Organization overturns prior settled law in Roe and Casey, and guts the Fourteenth Amendment’s civil right to make personal decisions without government interference. By basing the decision on the absolutist “originalist reasoning” that a right must be “deeply rooted in [our] history and tradition,” this ruling poses a grave threat to the bodily autonomy, self-determination, and well-being of every individual not explicitly protected by the Constitution as it was written over 200 years ago – including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with complex medical needs and disabilities – that goes far beyond access to legal abortion.
On the sensitive subject of abortion, people with disabilities, their families, and caregivers' personal views and beliefs are as diverse as the rest of the nation’s and share the overwhelming majority’s conviction that the health of the pregnant person and victims of sexual assault, rape, and incest must be prioritized and protected. However, this SCOTUS decision, which remands all aspects of reproductive law to state legislatures – instead of individuals, their families, and medical providers – leaves pregnant people without any rights or protections and puts people with complex medical needs and disabilities at a significantly increased risk.
Some people with disabilities and medical conditions face serious health risks from pregnancy. Additionally, the rate of rape and sexual assault against people with disabilities is more than twice that of people without disabilities, and women with intellectual disabilities are at 12 times the risk of non-disabled people. Many states have already passed laws without exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the pregnant person, and more states are expected to follow.
The Supreme Court’s decision also dramatically limits the Fourteenth Amendment’s civil right to make personal decisions without government interference and upends previous rulings on personal rights including marriage, intimacy, sterilization, medical care, housing, speech, and more. People with disabilities have historically been denied the right to make these fundamental decisions about their own lives, and many are still contested. They’ve also been subjected to life-altering medical procedures without consent, including forced sterilization.
These violations of disabled people’s basic human and civil rights are not relegated to history. In the U.S. today, disabled children are subjected to painful electric shock treatments the UN has condemned as torture. In 2007, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ruled against three women with intellectual disabilities who were forced to have medical procedures without their consent, including eye surgery and abortion.
Additionally, many in the disability community share a concern that the reason disability is frequently cited as the cause to terminate a pregnancy is the pervasive stigma against people with disabilities and the fear that raising a child with disabilities is unsustainable because our country consistently fails to provide the necessary support. This SCOTUS decision, which overturns the basis of many rulings on disability rights, only deepens this stigma and fear.
Little Lobbyists’ mission – to improve access to health care, education, and inclusion for all children with complex medical needs and disabilities – has many goals. We seek to end stigma and remedy the systemic inequities experienced by disabled people. We also strive to ensure that our children will have every opportunity to live their lives with self-determination, and with respect for their autonomy of body and mind which is inclusive of their medical needs, and all physical and cognitive disabilities.
This regressive decision by the far-right majority of the Supreme Court poses an existential threat to our children’s future, and we will never stop fighting for our kids. We share solidarity with all people with disabilities fighting for their human and civil rights, and we invite everyone to join us.