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