Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2018)
Conversation Page 4 Street Roots • July 6-12, 2018 Pro-life demonstrators clashe with pro-choice demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 2015. Roe v. Wade is at risk: what that means for Oregon A conversation with N A R A L Pro-Choice Oregon's Grayson Dempsey BY EM ILY GREEN S E N IO R STAFF REPO RTER fter a recent string of right-wing rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court was followed by swing-voter Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement announcement, the stability of Roe v. Wade and the future of women’s reproductive freedom in America has been called into question. Laws restricting women’s access to reproductive health care hâve been passed | in numerous stâtês, and a challenge to one of those laws could potentially work its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court and trigger a reversal of the historic 1973 decision that continues to protect a woman’s right to choose. But what wduld it mean for Oregonians, who live in a pro-choice state, if Roe v. Wade were overturned? We decided to ask Grayson Dempsey. At 38, Dempsey has been advocating for women’s reproductive rights her entire career. After minoring in women’s studies at ■ University of Florida in her native state, she moved to Portland to work as an educator for Planned Parenthood Columbia/ Willamette. In 2004, she founded Backline, a hotline women could call for reproductive advice. She’s also consulted for Ipas - a global organization focused on preventing deaths and disabilities from unsafe abortions - and served in various positions at Abortion Conservation Project, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington and Abortion Access Project, among other organizations focused on ( Women’s health issues. Since 2016, Dempsey has served as the executive director at NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, a reproductive rights organization with 10,000 members statewide. “I have never been having conversations about the reality of Roe being overturned in the way that we are having them right now,” she said. We spoke with Dempsey about that potential reality, as well as other emerging See DEMPSEY, page 5
