May 25, 2022

The Reproductive Health Access Project is heartbroken and enraged by the recent mass shootings in Texas, New York, and California. On May 24, 19 children and 2 adults, largely Latinx and other people of color, at an elementary school were killed in the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook. On May 15, one person was killed and several others injured during a shooting at a church in Laguna Woods, CA, an attack against Tawainese-Americans. On May 14, a self-professed white supremacist murdered 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, citing a racist ideology rooted in eugenics. In talking about these recent acts of violence, we must understand the ties between how white supremacy exerts control over marginalized bodies to our current battle for abortion access and bodily autonomy. 

Those responsible for decimating abortion access are the same people perpetuating gun violence by refusing to pass meaningful gun control legislation. They are the same people who make it easier for people to purchase and carry guns. They are the same people voting against funding for emergency infant formula. They are the same people refusing to pass anti-Black hate crime legislation and devaluing Black communities. They are the same people targeting queer communities, undocumented communities, and people who are low-income. We cannot separate those who perpetuate gun violence from those who perpetuate reproductive injustices.

As defined by SisterSong, reproductive justice is the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. Gun violence is a public health issue that impedes our human right to parent and raise our children with dignity, in safe and supportive communities, free from the threats of violence and harm. 

We urge our community to use their voices and power to speak out against these injustices, to talk about the intersections of gun violence, public health, and reproductive injustice, and to press your legislators to pass gun control laws immediately.

Here’s what you can do right now:

Donate to Everytown for Gun Safety, and/or text “ACT” to 644-33 to get involved with Everytown.

Donate to organizations supporting the Buffalo community

Donate to abortion funds

Contact your legislators, urging them to pass gun control laws today.