• Press Release

COVID-19 Pandemic Doesn’t Give States The Right to Limit Abortion Access

March 25, 2020

DALLAS, March 22, 2020 . Medical workers work at a drive-through COVID-19 testing site in Dallas, Texas, the United States, March 21, 2020. The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 20,000 as of 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Saturday ,1730 GMT, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering ,CSSE, at Johns Hopkins University. (Photo by Dan Tian/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/ via Getty Images)
As Texas announces plans to aggressively roll back abortion rights to halt the spread of COVID-19, Amnesty International USA released the following statement in response: 

“It’s shameful that Texas would use COVID-19 as a cover to restrict reproductive rights. The only person who gets to decide if an abortion is ‘essential’ is the pregnant person, not the state of Texas. Abortion should never, under any circumstances, be criminalized,” said Tarah Demant, the Director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Identity Program at Amnesty International USA. 

“Furthermore, designating abortion clinics as non-essential will not limit the need for abortions. Restricting abortion does not reduce abortions; it makes them unsafe, which, in turn, leaves people more vulnerable. Unfortunately, we have seen this dangerous practice start to become a trend, with states like Ohio and Mississippi implementing similar restrictions. No government should be using this pandemic as a cover for an anti-human rights agenda.” 

Learn more about human rights and COVID-19 here

Media contact: Mariya Parodi, [email protected]