OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Following the overturning of Roe V. Wade, many are worried about the implications a ban in Nebraska could have. Abortion rights advocates say, while everyone should have access to the medical procedure, for whatever reason they decide, they say some groups will be affected more than others.
Black women, they say, will be disproportionately affected if a ban were to happen in the state. They say Black women already experience systemic issues like affordable housing and the wage gap, which advocates say would be made worse should there be further restrictions on abortion.
"We see issues of extreme lack of care when we have pregnancies when we decide, so imagine what that’d look like when they were forced pregnancies," Ashlei Spivey, Director of I Be Black Girl, said. "We have a high infant mortality rate, look at our child welfare system, look at mass incarceration and how that shows up. We don’t care about the person wholly and that needs to be addressed, so having an abortion ban or restricted access to abortion care will exacerbate that."
According to the CDC, nationally Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.
Black women also experience sexual and domestic violence at a higher rate. Abortion rights advocates say restrictions on abortion care would further trap Black women.
"If an abused person can not even go down the street to the grocery store, tell me how they’ll go across the state to get the care they need. It’s clear to us by ending abortion will most certainly set us back in the worst way," Candi Jones, Board Chair of Survivors Rising said.
Advocates add, though, that abortion care shouldn't just be available to survivors, but to anyone who wants it. They say a patient should be making their own decision about their health and not politicians. That's why they're fighting against any type of abortion ban, just like they have in the past.
"In the last session we won we won that battle to ensure abortion care is still safe and legal and that’s what we’re preparing to do in the months forward," Spivey said.
