Condemning Genocide
Gaza Statement by Tristate Abortion Action
Tristate Abortion Action joins with millions of justice-minded people worldwide in condemning the Israeli genocide in Gaza. We demand an immediate and lasting ceasefire, an end to all U.S. military aid to Israel and the divestment of funds from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and universities everywhere from companies that profit from the Israeli war and security machine. We also call on universities to cut all academic ties with Israel through boycotts and ending study abroad programs.
Tristate Abortion Action stands in solidarity with Palestinians. We also stand with the thousands participating in encampments and marches worldwide who have brought critical attention to the genocide in Palestine. We especially stand in solidarity with our local coalition, Pitt Apartheid Divest, and echo their demands.
As feminists and reproductive justice activists, Tristate Abortion Action must highlight another horrific aspect of the war on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank: it is a war against women, children, and reproductive justice. The victims of Israeli bombs disproportionately include women and children, who suffer in uniquely cruel ways.
How many pregnant women, struggling to bear children, can no longer access hospitals now destroyed, losing prenatal or delivery care? How many are forced to give birth or miscarry, herded like cattle by Israeli warnings and approaching tanks, seeking the next “safe” place? How many pregnant women, themselves starving, are giving birth in tents to starving infants? How many of these infants, in desperate need of incubators and skilled medical care, die in their parents’ arms?
Palestinian women and children make up 70 percent of those killed by Israel. In Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, approximately 572,000 are women and girls of reproductive age, all of whom require access to vital reproductive health services. “Among them, approximately 50,000 pregnant women are caught in this conflict, with thousands facing imminent childbirth under dire circumstances” (Palestinian Feminist Collective). This does not even begin to capture the thousands of aging women left out of this statistic who are also denied access to the care they deserve and need. As of May 24, more than 80,000 people are facing physical injuries, with only 15 out of 35 hospitals partially functioning.
The evidence we witness is undeniable. The Israeli government seeks to destroy the lives of current and future generations of Palestinians and erase their history. This is genocide.
Following the tradition of reproductive justice as articulated by Black feminists, we believe that reproductive justice must include:
- the right to choose if and when to bear a child and the right to safe birth control
- the right to bear children in medically safe facilities and pre-natal and post-natal care for the child and mother
- the right to raise children in quality housing and ecologically safe communities
- the right of children to quality education and cultural opportunities
- the right of parents to jobs that enable them to support families
- the right of all families to follow a religion separate from state interference
- the right of all genders to live in dignity free of discrimination
- the right to live in peace free from racism, colonialism, and imperialist wars.
We recognize that rights must be partnered with access, as, in the words of Sister Song, “There is no choice where there is no access” (Sister Song, “Herstory of Reproductive Rights.”)
The ongoing genocide actively prevents Palestinians from accessing these rights and undermines their fundamental right to life. Our demands for reproductive justice in Palestine represent the true “right to life.” The suffering and deaths of Palestinian women and fetuses during pregnancy and childbirth highlight the urgent need for bodily autonomy and reproductive justice. Our fight for bodily autonomy and reproductive justice is inseparable from the fight to end this genocide and war.
At last, millions of people worldwide are listening to the Palestinian people. We at Tristate Abortion Action have heard them. We will continue to join the mobilizations for an end to the genocide, an immediate end to U.S. military aid to Israel, an immediate, lasting cease-fire, and urgent massive humanitarian aid to Gazans. Together, we will fight for current and historic justice for the Palestinian people and work towards a future where all individuals have the right to live in peace, dignity, and full reproductive and bodily autonomy.
—Tristate Abortion Action, May 31, 2024