The Obamas Have A Message For You Regarding Roe v. Wade

It’s OK to boo. But you should also vote.

That’s a highly abridged version of the message shared by former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday, in response to news that the Supreme Court looks poised to overturn Roe v. Wade .

If the court indeed overturns the landmark case, the Obamas write, it “will relegate the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues.”

“The consequences of this decision would be a blow not just to women,” they note, “but to all of us who believe that in a free society, there are limits to how much the government can encroach on our personal lives.”

Instead of actually reducing abortions , the Obamas’ statement points out, overturning Roe would force people with the means to do so to travel out of state for the procedure.

“Meanwhile,” they write, “those without enough money or access to transportation or ability to take off from school or work would face the same circumstances most women faced before Roe, desperately seeking out illegal abortions that inevitably pose grave risks to their health, their future ability to bear children, and sometimes their lives.”

To those who are angry and frustrated, the Obamas closed with a call to action: Join a protest alongside the activists who’ve been sounding the alarm on this for years; volunteer on a campaign; and, perhaps most critically, vote in this upcoming election and every one after.

“In the end,” they write, “if we want judges who will protect all, and not just some, of our rights, then we’ve got to elect officials committed to doing the same.”