In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Beneficent
We are holding space for one another during this difficult time. The recent Supreme Court 6-3 decision to overturn Roe and Casey and uphold Mississippi’s 15 week ban on abortion deals a devastating blow to the most impacted communities in our country, namely Black, indigenous, and people of color-including Muslims who are able to get pregnant. Previous supposed liberties laid out by Roe v. Wade only truly empowered those who are most privileged. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe will continue to create serious ramifications in states where majorities of legislatures are hostile to abortion rights and access, and karamah (dignity) and bodily autonomy (personal boundaries and choice) in general— including in regards to queer and trans people.
We will always assert that Muslims have the freedom to exercise bodily autonomy and make decisions over our own bodies. Reproductive justice is inherently Islamic and reflected in divinely-granted
- khilafah (individual moral agency as part of our submission to God),
- hurma (sacred boundaries of each body upheld through each person’ bodily autonomy) and
- ridha (choice and consent).
These tenets are at the core of how our faith tradition guides our communities through compassion and mercy.
In this moment when so many of us are feeling afraid, angry, disheartened, and overwhelmed, we at HEART, Queer Crescent, Muslim Women’s Organization, For the Binat, American Muslim Bar Association, Muslims for Just Futures, Shia Racial Justice Coalition, SisterSong, and National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, uplift the following:
We are in solidarity with the most impacted people and will continue to help our communities access safe abortion care.
For anyone who is in need of or considering an abortion and is unsure whether you are able to safely and/or legally access reproductive care in your local area, please know that we value you, we care for you, and we believe firmly in your personal responsibility and God-given freedom to make decisions over your own safety, health, and life.
We encourage you to visit https://bit.ly/SVandRJinfo as a starting point as you navigate this process with trusted loved ones, medical professionals, and/or religious or spiritual guides.
- If you have questions about self-managed abortion and the law, If/When/How’s Repro Legal Helpline is a free, confidential source for legal advice and information. Visit ReproLegalHelpline.org or call (844) 868-2812.
- See Practical Support Organizations’ information here.
Abortion criminalization is yet another extension of the various ways Muslim bodies are criminalized.
Throughout US and global history, the same Muslim and BIPOC bodies have been persecuted—with our bodily autonomy persistently threatened and violated. Some of the communities that have experienced the brunt of this violation of our basic human rights and dignity are Black people, indigenous people, Latinx people, disabled people, queer people, and people with low socioeconomic status as a result of economic and political disenfranchisement.
This is reflected through oppressive and inhumane surveillance, policing, criminalization, incarceration, and other inherently misogynistic, racist, queerphobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic systems. These oppressions perpetuate the shameful legacies of rape, colonization, slavery, genocide, forced sterilization, and other forms of medical violence.
Given this racial and economic-as well as gender-based injustice, we, as Muslims and moral agents of God, must act to defend and uplift the rights of those among us who are most oppressed. We are entrusted by our Creator with doing so with our hands, our tongues, and our hearts, following the example of our Prophet (peace be upon him) and our ancestors.
While no Muslim organization can speak for all Muslims, it is clear that a majority of Muslims in the US support access to abortion care in all or most cases. ***
Indeed, Muslims value and advocate for reproductive justice, including and beyond sexual and reproductive health care, such as abortion, which, like other personal health issues, is a complex decision that looks different from person to person.
People who are not directly impacted but want to help: please take action however you can. Go to https://bit.ly/SVandRJinfo to see the various abortion funds and other local, regional, and national organizations that you could support through monetary donations, volunteering your time and skills, and meeting other needs.
Things all Muslims can do, together with friends and allies:
- Amplify and share our organizations’ resources widely and-if you feel safe to do so- publicly, such as on your social media. Reach out to us with additional questions or if you’re interested in hosting a discussion or workshop on this topic.
- Advocate at the individual and community levels alongside people who are most impacted. For example,
- If you feel safe to do so, make yourself available to be reached out to to support someone you know who requires an abortion or other reproductive health care. Some ways you might be asked to help include donating, driving or accompanying, and assisting with safety planning.
- If you live in a state where abortion is still legal, identify and support community-led measures to serve people in need from other states. Wherever you live in the US or world, raise your and your allies’ voices to power-holders like elected and other government representatives, news media, and businesses and companies.
- Vote, and-including if you do not have the right to vote, yourself – share information about different candidates and measures in your city, county, state, and Congress with others. (HEART’s voter guide and candidate score sheet will go live this fall ahead of the midterm elections).
- Join the Sex Talk reader community—which will offer virtual and in-person spaces to connect and apply our reflections on the book to the change we want to see around sexual and reproductive health justice from the individual to systems levels.
We continue to demand justice for all our communities—namely those most impacted— and remain steadfast in our insistence that we are all created equal and with the same basic dignity and rights.
We demand an end to the assault on our bodily autonomy, and continue to call for reproductive justice. This includes:
- Defunding law enforcement and national security apparatuses that disproportionately criminalize BIPOC, queer, and/or Muslim people; and investing in communities of care, where those who are most impacted lead transformative, not punitive solutions.
- Safe, affordable, comprehensive, and culturally sensitive health and human services, including access to health education, contraception, housing, employment, and other needs.
- Compassionate communities where the dignity and rights of all people are upheld and all are free from interpersonal to systemic harm based on gender, race, class, religion, or ability—including religious freedom from white supremacist, queerphobic Christian hegemony—
This dunya (world) is fraught with injustices. Even as those injustices increasingly inflict deep harms on our communities, testing our patience, we know that God is Al Adl (the Most Just) and we all will see the promised pureness and beauty of that Justice in the akhirah (Hereafter). Until then, most impacted people have always taken care of our communities and pursued our vision of reproductive justice—and will always continue to do so.
We must hold fast to the remembrance of our Waliyy (Protector), from whom we have come and to Whom is our return. There is no strength nor power without God, and God is always and forever Greater.
In solidarity,
HEART, Queer Crescent, Muslim Women’s Organization, For the Binat, American Muslim Bar Association, Muslims for Just Futures, Shia Racial Justice Coalition, SisterSong, and National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
Additional Supporters: Amplify Georgia Collaborative, Repro Legal Defense Fund, Muslim Women For, Queer Shia Collective, Reproductive Justice Resilience Project
* “The Majority of American Muslims Believe Abortion Should be Legal in All or Most Cases,” Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, https://www.ispu.org/2022-abortion-data/
*“Views about abortion among Muslims,” Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/muslim/views-about-abortion/
*“The State of Abortion and Contraception Attitudes in All 50 States,” Public Religion Research Institute, https://www.prri.org/research/legal-in-most-cases-the-impact-of-the-abortion-debate-in-2019-america/
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