The following statement is an excerpt from Texas Organizing Project (TOP) Co-Executive Director Brianna Brown’s remarks at today’s Planned Parenthood “Bans Off Our Bodies” rally in Austin, Texas.
“At TOP, we are unapologetic about the core of our fights fundamentally being about the pursuit of racial justice. The fight for healthcare broadly and abortion access specifically IS a fight for racial justice.
“We know that history matters and that it is alive and well in systems that sometimes stranglehold our lives. We know that the legacy of white supremacy isn’t just held in the individual but in institutions as well. It’s not a coincidence that Texas has the highest rates of uninsured in the country and that 72% of those Texans are Black and Latino. It’s not a coincidence that the map of former slave-holding states mirrors the map of states that decided not to expand Medicaid.
“More than two-thirds of people who get abortions in Texas are Texans of color — Black and Latina. It’s not a coincidence that the radical right-wing is hell-bent on banning us from making decisions for ourselves, literally not allowing us as individuals to determine our own futures.
“Our first job y’all is to hold tight to a vision that a different future is possible and that we have the freedom to determine that future. That together we can in fact win.”
“This. Is. Our. Home.”
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Texas Organizing Project organizes Black and Latino communities in Dallas, Harris, Bexar, and Fort Bend counties with the goal of transforming Texas into a state where working people of color have the power and representation they deserve. For more information, visit organizetexas.org.
This statement was sent out May 14, 2022.