The Best Way to Protect Abortion Rights Right Now Is to End a Racist, Classist Federal Budget Amendment

Article originally appeared in Mother Jones on March 31st, 2021

Advocates were outraged. “The fact that they get asked about it on day one, and not only do they not repeat or say the word abortion, but they perpetuate this false equivalency that the Catholic faith is somehow counter to abortion,” says Renee Bracey Sherman, founder and executive director of We Testify, an abortion storytelling nonprofit. “Biden goes to church—cool! So do the Catholics who have abortions.”

When Biden signed the executive orders that rolled back the gag rule the following week, he did not utter the word “abortion” in his remarks. According to Sherman, he hasn’t said the word once in his tenure as president, and it’s difficult to interpret that as anything other than a deliberate sidestep, at best.