A Post-Dobbs World: The Faith Community’s Response to the Assault on Bodily Autonomy

By Dr. Sharon Groves and Michael Vazquez

It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains. – Assata Shakur

Much ink has been spilled over the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe—the dismay, the fury, and the deep grief felt by people everywhere as we begin to assess the horrifying effects of this decision on people’s lives now and for generations to come.

The day the ruling came down, Auburn collaborated with Planned Parenthood’s faith initiative, a coalition of faith-based organizations working on reproductive justice and abortion access and the broader national faith organizing table of over 150 faith-organizations and faith-initiatives at secular civil society organizations that Auburn co-convenes with the Center for American Progress. Organizations shared resources, information, and strategy on how to continue to mobilize in light of the devastating decision.

Both secular and faith-based organizations have mobilized quickly to provide direct services, spiritual resources and mobilizations for protest and direct action. There are already having devastating effects on people seeking an abortion or in need of reproductive services, and these effects are compounded by the broader breakdown of civil and human rights in the United States and the erosion of democracy.

We are witnessing a war on bodily autonomy. The assault on the rights of transgender people in state legislatures across the country is directly tied to the brutal legislative and judicial attack on women and others needing abortion access. It grieves us that the list of attacks on bodily autonomy and civil liberties would fill endless pages. Thus we are compelled to remind one another that our liberation is tied up together—as Assata writes, it is our duty to fight for each other’s freedom, and it is our duty to win.

Many people of faith are bringing new perspectives and resources to this particular moment, post the Dobbs decision. We wanted to share a list of national organizations and resources coming out of the faith movement as well as broader movement work with which the faith community is aligned. This evolving list by no means represents all work happening after the Dobbs decision or on the erosion of bodily autonomy, especially on state and local levels. We hope that it will nevertheless orient you to work happening in faith communities now and give you avenues for engagement. We will update it with new resources as we receive them.

As we reflected on the community call, in these times more than ever, we need each other to summon courage and commitment and to find better ways to work together in coalition and across sectors to protect one another.

Faith and Spirit-Rooted Resources

National Mobilization and Direct Action

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Support, Receive & Participate in Direct Service or Action

Aid Access: Abortion Pill Access
Catholics for Choice | New Mexico Abortion Fund Partnerships (50% of this donation will go to Catholics for Choice, the rest shared among direct service organizations)
Keep Our Clinics
National Network of Abortion Funds

Dr. Sharon Groves is Vice President for Partner Engagement at Auburn Seminary and co-convener of the National Faith Table. Michael Vazquez is Public Theologian and co-convener of the National Faith Table.