EFF appalled and disgusted by US Supreme Court ruling which revokes constitutional abortion rights for women

25 June 2022

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is appalled, disgusted and condemns the recent United States (US) Supreme Court ruling, which overturned the Constitutional right Of women to have an abortion.

It is shameful, anti-women and religious-essentialist decision, which will result in women being denied the right to do as they deem fit with their bodies. It is a decision which undermines the health rights of women and severely limits options for women who are impregnated in contexts of abuse, rape and domestic violence.

The decision to reverse the constitutional right to abortion, effectively gives the States which constitute the USA, the ability to ban the procedure altogether, a brutal assault on reproductive rights Of women.

The United States Of America, which has for decades paraded themselves as the custodians of human rights, and disguised their imperialist agenda of global dominance under an agenda of promoting human rights, are exposed as the hypocrites they are.

The so-called leaders of the "free world" have taken an archaic, patriarchal and misogynist decision to impose on women what they can do with their bodies, and at the centre of this is backward conservatism.

It is ironic that the USA, which has invaded the Middle-East with claims Of defending women from exclusion from education, labour and human rights such as freedom of movement, healthcare rights and marital rights, has today decided to undermine the bodily autonomy of women.

Today, it is the USA which has placed women at the mercy of right-wing conservatism, and have cemented their place as violators of human rights even at a domestic level.

The EFF will ensure that conservatism and religious fundamentalism which undermines the health rights Of women does not find expression in South Africa. We will fight tirelessly to ensure that this is the case in the whole continent.

The backward decision by the US judicial system is yet another harsh reminder that the United States should not be and cannot be a standard for human rights for any nation.

It is a decision that adds on their numerous war-crimes across the world, and now they have waged a war against women rights.

We call on all the progressive world to resist the influence of the USA, and its anti-women stance on abortion.

Women must have the right to decide whether they are in a social, economic or healthy position to keep a pregnancy, as they bear the brunt and consequences of pregnancy during and after the process.

Issued by Sinawo Thambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 25 June 2022