Embedded Files
Introduction and History of Abortion in the US:
Abortion has historically been illegal since the 1880s up until the decision of Roe. VS Wade. During this time of limited abortion access, thousands of illegal abortions were performed throughout the country. In the early 1940s, certain states chose to cooperate with the medical establishment, causing the rapid enforcement of abortion laws and legislation. This movement only increased the amount of “back alley” abortions that were performed, with the abortion-seeking women having no other choice. With a drastic increase of US states completely banning abortions and enforcing harsh laws and legislature around the procedure, some even going as far as to make the act of seeking an abortion a federal crime. This left women no choice but to begin a fight for their remaining rights. Leslie J. Rhegan's book, “When Abortion was a Crime”, describes how this fight began in the 1990s first catching the attention and support of some medical practitioners and later gaining a much larger following. This movement would soon gain the support of millions of feminists nationwide in the late 1960s, making this movement one of the most powerful women's rights movements in our country's history. However, this fight goes past the rejection of these laws and the restrictions around abortion. The movement was fueled by the idea that a woman's right to choose becomes a constitutional right when threatened. Looking back once again on our country's history, historically, abortions can be linked to many events in our country's past. For example, looking at the great depression, a period that had a drastic influence on the economic need for abortions. Even at a time when many would argue abortions were needed, still women had no safe access to them. It is also important to look at the effects that limited abortion access has on women (Rhegan, 1997).
Abortion has historically been illegal since the 1880s up until the decision of Roe. VS Wade. During this time of limited abortion access, thousands of illegal abortions were performed throughout the country. In the early 1940s, certain states chose to cooperate with the medical establishment, causing the rapid enforcement of abortion laws and legislation. This movement only increased the amount of “back alley” abortions that were performed, with the abortion-seeking women having no other choice. With a drastic increase of US states completely banning abortions and enforcing harsh laws and legislature around the procedure, some even going as far as to make the act of seeking an abortion a federal crime. This left women no choice but to begin a fight for their remaining rights. Leslie J. Rhegan's book, “When Abortion was a Crime”, describes how this fight began in the 1990s first catching the attention and support of some medical practitioners and later gaining a much larger following. This movement would soon gain the support of millions of feminists nationwide in the late 1960s, making this movement one of the most powerful women's rights movements in our country's history. However, this fight goes past the rejection of these laws and the restrictions around abortion. The movement was fueled by the idea that a woman's right to choose becomes a constitutional right when threatened. Looking back once again on our country's history, historically, abortions can be linked to many events in our country's past. For example, looking at the great depression, a period that had a drastic influence on the economic need for abortions. Even at a time when many would argue abortions were needed, still women had no safe access to them. It is also important to look at the effects that limited abortion access has on women (Rhegan, 1997).
Abortion Bans: The Fight for a Women's Right to Chose:
Early last year the Supreme court ruled to Overturn Roe Vs. Wade, ending a women's right to abortions, rights that have been upheld and protected for decades,
“Twenty-one states ban abortion or restrict the procedure earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe v. Wade, which governed reproductive rights for nearly half a century until the Supreme Court overturned the decision last year” (The New York Times,2022).
When asked about their decisions to dissent justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan wrote, “young women today will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers” (NPR, 2023).
What these Laws mean for women:
The above 21 states have successfully banned abortion, or strictly restricted the procedure
Many states have ruled there is no constitutional right to an abortion, severely impacting women's rights in almost half of the countries states
With 27 states having at least one abortion law on the books, it is now illegal and impossible for a women to get a safe and private abortion in multiple states
These states are demonstrating a willful attack on women, young mothers, and minority women, as well as the little right that remain for women across the country
These laws pose a substantial threat to the health and well being of thousands of women
Only 1 in 3 women even know they are pregnant at six weeks of pregnancy, meaning getting an abortion is nearly impossible in the listed states
With the Supreme Court's recent overturning of Roe Vs. Wade, a woman living in an abortion-banned state, is now forced to either travel across the country to the nearest legal abortion state or is left with no other option than to risk her health to obtain an illegal abortion or carry out the pregnancy. With many states having such broad bans, their laws do not even account for extreme cases. Cases such as rape, incest, and medically needed abortions. These harsh restrictions will and have already led to a drastic increase in women seeking unsafe illegal abortions and carrying out pregnancies that can lead to fatal pregnancy-related complications. This overturning also means that our country is heading in the direction of a pre-Roe environment. This means states with decade-old abortion laws could seek to reinstate them, stripping away not only a woman's right to choose but also criminalizing women who seek to resolve unwanted pregnancies. Michigan, a state with many decades-old anti-abortion laws, could proceed to revert to laws dating back to 1931, making abortions a felony.
What these laws mean for minority women:
Many minority women who are already struggling in the economy, do not have the option to spend the strenuous amounts of money and resources it takes to travel across the country in efforts to obtain a legal abortion. Minority women living in these states who are forced to carry out these pregnancies are not given any resources. No states have guaranteed paid family and medical leave with many states only providing women with 12 weeks of maternity leave, however, many women can't afford to take this time off work. In addition, as of August 2022, 19 of these states that have recently banned abortions have not expanded Medicaid coverage for postpartum women, limiting minority women's access to postpartum healthcare, and care that is crucial to a newborn child as well as the mother. This is detrimental to women of color because they are much more likely to experience pregnancy-related complications before and after birth.
Conclusion:
These laws do not only drastically affect a woman's right to choose, but they prove to significantly undermine women's rights in general. These restrictions and bans are not only affecting women and young girls across the country but they are affecting families, physicians, and children and history proves this to us. Women living in abortion-restricted states have to either spend money they do not have to try to get a legal abortion in a different state, or they have no choice but to carry out their pregnancy. Women's rights in this country continue to be stripped and demolished. As a country we must do better to protect minority women, young mothers as well as all those who identify as strong women.
Sources:
A year without Roe. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (n.d.).
Haddad LB, Nour NM. Unsafe abortion: unnecessary maternal mortality. Rev Obstet Gynecol. 2009 Spring;2(2):122-6. PMID: 19609407; PMCID: PMC2709326.
Totenberg, N., & McCammon, S. (2022, June 24). Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending right to abortion upheld for decades. NPR.
The New York Times. (2022, May 24). Tracking abortion bans across the country.
Reagan, L. (1997). When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Salas-Betsch, I. (2022, August 25). State abortion bans will harm women and Families’ economic security across the U.S. Center for American Progress.
(N.d.-a). Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/05/abortion-in-american-history/376851/.
(N.d.). Retrieved from https://daily.jstor.org/the-history-of-outlawing-abortion-in-america/.
(N.d.-a). Retrieved from https://reproductiverights.org/top-7-things-you-can-do-for-us-abortion-rights/.
Page updated
Report abuse