EMILYs List Statement on the Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

For Immediate Release
January 22, 2022

EMILYs List Statement on the Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today marks the 49th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court, which defended the right to a safe and legal abortion in the United States. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:
 
“Today, as we commemorate the 49th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision marking the constitutional right to an abortion, that right is under greater threat than ever before. A concerted Republican effort across the country has undermined both the right to an abortion and our access to reproductive freedom, with more than 600 abortion restrictions introduced last year alone. At the same time they are attacking our voting rights, which allow us to hold Republicans accountable for their anti-choice actions. The lack of access is particularly detrimental to communities of color, people with disabilities, people in rural areas, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and people having trouble making ends meet. As we face these challenges, we are grateful for all of the Democratic pro-choice women working to ensure that where you live or how much money you have doesn’t control your ability to make your own decisions about if and when to start a family. We remain committed to this fight and to electing more of those women.”

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect Democratic pro-choice women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country's first woman as vice president, 159 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.