Dear Members of the Wellesley Community,
I write today in the wake of the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson, both as Wellesley’s president and as a physician who has devoted much of my career to improving the health and well-being of women. While there are many different points of view in our community about abortion, this ruling marks a seismic shift in our country in women’s reproductive health, constitutional rights, and gender equity that has to be acknowledged.
Without a doubt, its reverberations will be felt in the Wellesley community. Access to abortion does not appear to be under direct threat in the state of Massachusetts, but many of our students are from states where this right will be denied or severely limited. We will work with the College’s Health Services and others to inform our students of the best way to obtain access to the full range of reproductive health care.
In addition to addressing the needs of our own students, as a leading women’s college we must examine the complicated and far-reaching implications of this decision. In 2020, over 930,000 U.S. women exercised the right to end their pregnancies. Now, with this ruling, abortion is likely to be illegal soon in around half of the states. History has shown that some women will be forced to give birth against their will. Some will have illegal and potentially dangerous abortions. Some will die. A disproportionate number of the women directly impacted will be poor; a disproportionate number will be Black and Latinx. Health care providers will be at risk. Women’s access to education will also be impacted.
In the United States, support for women who do give birth is woefully inadequate, and this decision occurs within that context. We have a higher maternal mortality rate than any of our high-income peer nations, and the mortality rate for Black mothers is nearly three times that of white mothers. We also have just experienced a pandemic that set women’s participation in the economy back decades, as it revealed the extreme fragility of many working mothers’ child care arrangements and the lack of a national caregiving infrastructure.
Wellesley is fortunate to have many alumnae and faculty members who have dedicated their lives and careers to understanding the issues at stake in connection with the right to abortion. And coming together to talk about those issues in thoughtful and informed ways, considering all sides, is what we do as a community. Next week, we will host a virtual discussion with leaders in constitutional law and women’s health. More details will follow.
The Department of Women’s and Gender Studies is also planning to host a panel discussion on September 21 during which thought leaders will further explore reproductive justice; the department will share more details closer to the start of the semester.
I am grateful to be part of a community that cares so deeply about the well-being of women everywhere and of our society as a whole—and that wrestles with the most difficult questions so compassionately and thoughtfully.
Sincerely,
Paula A. Johnson
President
