BREAKING: We're joining the fight to restore abortion access to people in Guam.
Today we filed a lawsuit challenging two laws that are blocking abortion care on the island.
Today we filed a lawsuit challenging two laws that are blocking abortion care on the island.
The last 400 years of Guam's history have been marked by colonization by Spain, Japan, and the United States.
Guam is currently an unincorporated, organized territory of the United States, and Guamanians are US citizens.
Guam is currently an unincorporated, organized territory of the United States, and Guamanians are US citizens.
Led by Chamorro women, the Indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, Guamanians have long fought to ensure access to safe and legal abortion on the island.
But two outdated, medically unnecessary laws are currently blocking access to abortion in Guam.
But two outdated, medically unnecessary laws are currently blocking access to abortion in Guam.
These laws prevent people in Guam from being able to obtain medication abortion via telemedicine — a safe and common method of delivering reproductive care that has proven critical during the current pandemic.
Because of these laws, people in Guam are being forced to leave the island just to exercise their constitutional rights.
They have to fly 4,000 miles each way to Hawai'i — often a multi-day journey, for which airfare alone is over $1,000 — just to access abortion.
They have to fly 4,000 miles each way to Hawai'i — often a multi-day journey, for which airfare alone is over $1,000 — just to access abortion.
In Guam, where the poverty rate is higher than anywhere in the 50 states and DC, these obstacles can be insurmountable, forcing people to forgo the care they need.
We're suing to ensure that these restrictions don't prevent anyone else in Guam from accessing abortion care.
We're suing to ensure that these restrictions don't prevent anyone else in Guam from accessing abortion care.
Travel restrictions and quarantines in Hawai'i and Guam make accessing care even more difficult.
Every day escalates the risk of COVID and cost of travel, requires more time off work and away from family, and makes it more difficult to keep one's abortion decision private.
Every day escalates the risk of COVID and cost of travel, requires more time off work and away from family, and makes it more difficult to keep one's abortion decision private.
Making people fly thousands of miles to exercise their rights perpetuates second-class citizenship, a legacy of US colonialism too often imposed on those in territories.
And it's an Indigenous and racial justice issue: these restrictions disproportionately harm Chamorro people.
And it's an Indigenous and racial justice issue: these restrictions disproportionately harm Chamorro people.
The lack of abortion access also creates unique burdens for US servicemembers and military dependents who live on the island, and are subjected to federal laws designed to push abortion out of reach.
Guamanians have the same constitutional right to abortion as anyone else in the United States.
Our ability to access it shouldn't depend on which state or territory we live in.
Abortion is health care. Abortion is a right.
Our ability to access it shouldn't depend on which state or territory we live in.
Abortion is health care. Abortion is a right.
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