April 5, 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

press@RiseUp4AbortionRights
RiseUp4AbortionRights.org
973 544 8228

UPDATE: “I disrupted Amy Coney Barrett at the Ronald Reagan Library last night with the truth that she is ‘an enslaver of women.’” says Luna Hernandez, a volunteer with RiseUp4AbortionRights, LA. “After I was dragged out, she snidely dismissed me: ‘As a mother of seven, I am used to distractions and sometimes even outbursts.’ This kind of demeaning and infantilizing of women is in line with her whole Christian fascist program—subordinating the legal status of women to no more than incubators.

“Women are not children. When I said that forced motherhood is female enslavement, I was not having a ‘childish outburst.’ I was sounding the alarm on the abortion rights emergency we face with a fascist packed Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade in less than two months. This will be a Handmaid’s Tale nightmare for women. And only the people can stop this, by getting into the streets, by rising up for abortion rights!”

Background:

Protesters with RiseUp4AbortionRights.org disrupted Amy Coney Barrett’s speech April 4 at the Ronald Reagan library in Simi Valley. “Amy Coney Barrett: You’re an enslaver of women. Forced Motherhood is female enslavement!” rang out clearly in a hushed audience. While outside a defiant group of women dressed as Handmaids held green banners that read: #RiseUp4AbortionRights and “Amy Coney Barrett Is an Enslaver of Women.”

Sunsara Taylor, a national leader and co-initiator of RiseUp4AbortionRights.org said, “Amy Coney Barrett is an enslaver of women. We refuse to let her and the rest of the Supreme Court lock in a Handmaid’s Tale nightmare of forced motherhood and legalized subordination of women. Only the people can stop this! We must take to the streets—rise up for abortion rights!”

RiseUp4AbortionRights.org is a national organization with the mission of building mass sustained protests like the ones seen in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico that decriminalized abortion. They are calling for a green wave in the U.S. with protests taking place in cities across the country. They are organizing a mass day of wearing and spreading #Green4Abortion on Friday, April 8 and nationwide protests on Saturday, April 9 from New York to Los Angeles.

Skyler Soloman, the lead organizer of the LA Chapter of RiseUp4AbortionRights.org said, “In the December hearing of Jackson v. Dobbs, the case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, Amy Coney Barrett callously suggested women be forced to have children against their will and given up for adoption. This is barbaric. Women are not incubators and have a right to say who uses their bodies. No one should sit back while the Supreme Court is turned into a political vehicle for a patriarchal program that overturns decades of precedent, gunning for the rights of women and LGBTQ people.”

The RiseUp4AbortionRights.org statement has been signed by hundreds of people, including Alice Walker, Cornel West, Rosanna Arquette, Frances Fisher, Susan Brownmiller, Gloria Steinem, Sandra Cisneros, Lalah Hathaway, V: We Refuse to Let the U.S. Supreme Court Deny Women’s Humanity and Decimate Their Rights! Abortion on Demand and Without Apology!

It says: “The violent subjugation of half of society must not be accommodated, excused, downplayed, or surrendered to. IT MUST BE STOPPED!... Our only way forward and our best way forward is to resist. To step outside the confines of ‘official’ politics and fill the streets with our fury.”

Interviews available:
Sunsara Taylor is an initiator of RiseUp4AbortionRights, and a co-host of The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!— Show.

Skyler Soloman is the lead organizer for and co-initiator of the Los Angeles Chapter of Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights.