Statement on the 2020 Presidential Election Results
November 7, 2020—For Immediate Release
We Testify congratulates President-elect Joseph R. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their historic election. As people who’ve had abortions, we are breathing a sigh of relief to know that the incoming administration believes that our right to abortion care is fundamental to our freedom. We are hopeful that the incoming administration will immediately deliver on their promises to ensure that everyone has the ability to decide if, when, and how to grow their families by repealing the Hyde Amendment, ensuring the right to abortion is permanent, ending colonialist policies like the Helms Amendment and Global Gag Rule, ending our nation’s horrific xenophobic immigration criminalization policies, addressing the Black maternal mortality crisis, and paying reparations to the immigrants who were forcibly sterilized and experienced miscarriages at the hands of ICE agents.
The election was painful, as we saw just how many people wanted to maintain the current violent deadly anti-abortion white supremacist administration. The long wait for the results—unsure of our nation’s future—reminded us of the 24-72 hour government-mandated waits before our abortions, unsure of our own futures. We saw how our nation’s political system nearly failed people who have abortions and our votes. Our votes should all be counted equally. We should not have to worry whether our right to healthcare hangs in the balance because of slavery’s antiquated legacy, the electoral college. We hope the Biden Administration and Congress will help rebuild a more just participatory electoral system where each person’s vote is counted equally.
While we celebrate this victory, the reality is that we are not out of the woods. It will take decades to undo the devastating harm, incompetence, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, ableism, and queerphobia of the Trump Administration. The last decade of malice attacks on abortion, combined with President Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell’s hundreds of lifetime anti-abortion judicial appointments to the federal courts, will continue to decimate our access to care across the country. We must organize to restore confidence for all who need abortions and to decriminalize abortion so that no one fears arrest or prosecution for simply taking care of themselves.
We Testify looks forward to seeing the Biden-Harris Administration’s plan to ensure young people, incarcerated people, undocumented immigrants, Medicaid recipients, and people of color across the nation are able to access abortion safely, free from harassment, lies, and coercion, and throughout pregnancy in whatever method is best for them.
We will hold the Biden-Harris Administration accountable to ensure that all of us are able to access abortion care at any time and for any reason. We will continue our push to ensure the Biden-Harris Administration not only protects the right to an abortion, but also demonstrates unapologetic leadership and support for all of us who have abortions. Our work is never over until everyone who wants abortions is able to get them, fully funded, at any time, and for any reason.
