A Supreme Court draft opinion leaked on May 2nd, 2022 indicated at least five Justices have voted to repeal the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and its subsequent 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision. The official vote will not be finalized until the end of June or early July, but it is crucial to recognize that overturning Roe would remove its 49-year-old protection of the right to receive an abortion. If this document is reflective of the Court’s coming decision and Roe is indeed overturned, maternal mortality rates will increase. Additionally, this may threaten the decisions made for other landmark cases and ultimately jeopardize access to birth control and other medical services. 

National APAMSA unequivocally denounces this egregious obstruction to safe and effective healthcare. Whether an individual has access to abortion and birth control should not depend upon where they happen to live. We believe that such services must be made universally available and defended as an unambiguous right at the federal level.

APAMSA recognizes, especially in regards to abortion, that we do not speak for the views of all of our members, let alone the views of all AANHPI medical students, healthcare professionals, or community members. However, as a healthcare organization committed to core values of patients’ autonomy and their rights to healthcare access and quality, especially within the AANHPI communities, we are obligated to speak out in defense of those values. 

Joining other healthcare organizations, we urge the Supreme Court Justices to reconsider their votes to prevent the immeasurable harm such a momentous decision would cause.