For Immediate Release: June 24, 2022
Rapid City, SD – In response to recent news that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade today, ending the federal right to abortion, NDN Collective released the following statements:
“This system is not made by Indigenous people, or for us. It has lost all moral and ethical authority as it wages its power on legal fiction built by white men long dead and gone,” said Janene Yazzie, Southwest Regional Director at NDN Collective. “Today’s decision is yet another piece of evidence that this system is irredeemable.
“Now more than ever, we need to grieve and rage, but more than anything, we need to take care of each other. All the Supreme Court has proven is what we already know– we cannot rely on them to protect us. We will never stop fighting for the right to body sovereignty.”
“The truth about this action taken by the Supreme Court is that the Black, Indigenous, people of color, Queer and Disabled communities are under immense distress with the overturn of Roe v. Wade,” said Steph Viera, they/them, Social Media Manager at NDN Collective.
“This is yet another attack by the settler state to risk the safety of our most vulnerable and eliminate the possibilities of full, healthy, and affirmed lives. Trans, Non Binary, Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities will need massive support from our allies to ensure that our community’s need for abortion care will not be denied, and that the foreshadowing of Thomas’ future suggestions for attacks on our community are loudly and vehemently opposed.”
“The US Supreme Court’s draft leak was intentional and was meant to prepare us for the decision that we see now,” said Lycia Maddocks, Political Director at NDN Collective. “We know that Trump’s strategy to stack the bench was to move a regressive political agenda and reverse the progress we’ve made towards justice over the years. What we’re seeing is supremacy and colonial control playing out the way that it has since the formation of this government.”
“Now, state governments emboldened by this decision will continue their attempts to control the rights we have over our bodies. It is critical to organize at the local and state level to recruit, train, and elect leaders who represent us and will fight tooth and nail to regain or protect our right to consent and bodily autonomy.”
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NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building, and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.
