We at Arch Community Fund are outraged that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, denying the constitutional right to an abortion to millions of Americans. With the issue left to each state to decide, many states have already severely curtailed or eliminated the women’s right to choose and autonomy over their lives and bodies.
We also recognize that this decision is not limited in its impact to reproductive rights and freedoms, but instead, in its ruling and subsequent remarks by Clarence Thomas, the Court signaled its willingness to overturn other LGBTQIA+ rights recognized by the Supreme Court in established precedent. We stand together with our allies in fierce defense of these rights.
Now is not a time for incremental action. Federal, state, and local governments must take bold action to protect reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, and choice.
As a west coast-based foundation, we are fortunate to be located in a region where California, Oregon, and Washington states have banded together to build a western firewall to protect abortion rights and provide sanctuary for women, especially young, low-income BIPOC women, trans, and nonbinary folks whose rights are under attack by the overturning of Roe.
We are proud to fund radical reproductive justice organizing and join our philanthropic colleagues who have pledged their support of robust civic engagement, grassroots power-building, and efforts to educate the public of the enormity and impact of this assault on human rights by the Supreme Court.
In response to this gross violation of human rights, we are increasing our grant budget this year to make discretionary grants in support of the reproductive justice movement. We will help ensure that women, trans and non-binary people will continue to have access to abortion and the reproductive healthcare resources that they need in a post Roe reality.
Arch funds transformative organizing to take on white supremacy and hate and build toward a better future. As a lawless Supreme Court abuses their power to force tens of millions of women, trans and non-binary people into involuntarily continuing pregnancies, we condemn this regressive and archaic approach. We choose to combat this darkness with a reinvigorated march towards the light of collective freedom.