Skip to main content

Pelosi Statement on Amicus Brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

September 20, 2021

Contact: Speaker's Press Office,

202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after joining a bicameral amicus brief in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, challenging Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban:

"With this action in the courts, Congressional Democrats are standing with the American people and the law in defense of this truth: every woman, everywhere, has the constitutional right to basic reproductive health care.

"Mississippi's draconian abortion ban – one in a heartbreaking and nationwide assault against women's freedoms – is unconstitutional. As the brief makes clear, the constitutional right to an abortion has been resoundingly affirmed: in Roe v. Wade nearly fifty years ago and, again, twenty years later, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. As the Court ruled in Casey, re-examining this ‘watershed decision would subvert the Court's legitimacy beyond any serious question' and throw into question its commitment to the rule of law itself.

"Further, revisiting or undermining Roe presents a clear threat to equality and justice in America, as the Mississippi ban particularly targets women of color and women from low-income communities, and – as the brief states, would ‘perpetuate the structural racial and socioeconomic inequities that persist in our society.'

"When the Supreme Court takes up Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization this year, Congressional Democrats urge it to respect the law, precedent and the rights of women by upholding Roe v. Wade and fully striking down the Mississippi ban. At the same time, we will continue to move forward in defense of women's health freedoms, including, this week, passing Congresswoman Judy Chu's Women's Health Protection Act to enshrine into law reproductive health care for all women across America."

# # #