The role of bail funds in a post-Roe world

Media Contact: Noble Frank, noble@mnfreedomfund.org, (952) 353-6930

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MINNEAPOLIS — In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the following is a statement from Mirella Ceja-Orozco and Elizer Darris, Co-Executive Directors of the Minnesota Freedom Fund: 

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“Today, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a 50-year-old legal precedent establishing a fundamental right to abortion. This tragic decision should serve as a wake-up call for anyone who has not yet connected the struggle for abortion rights with the criminalization and abandonment of Black, brown, Indigenous, immigrant, and poor communities. 

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States have been criminalizing pregnancy outcomes and denying access to abortion care well before the fall of Roe v. Wade, even in places like Minnesota where abortion remains legal. Because of today’s decision, existing barriers are much higher and the risks to pregnant people – especially those who are already subject to disproportionate criminalization – are much greater. 

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The Minnesota Freedom Fund is ready to meet the moment. If a person is charged with a crime due to a pregnancy outcome, we are ready to pay their bail. We won’t allow anyone to be jailed pre-trial because they lost or ended a pregnancy. We will also keep fighting to end immigrant detention in Minnesota and to challenge the jailing and oppression – including reproductive oppression – of immigrants nationwide. Pregnant immigrants will never see justice under a regime that disappears them, separates them from their families, and systematically robs them of their humanity.  

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In the words of Fannie Lou Hamer: “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” We will protect abortion access in a post-Roe world only by fighting for meaningful, safe, practical access to care for those most subject to criminalization. We are prepared to play our part.”