Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Banning abortion will force any pregnancy on women
Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft opinion on abortion overturning Roe v. Wade is wrong on so many levels, including its legal analysis and its history.
But it also proves the old adage “be careful what you wish for.” With this draft opinion, it appears pro-life advocates have finally achieved what they have desired. And many states are falling in line, ready to ban or severely curtail access to abortion across the country. But what pro-life advocates will find, when the ink has dried, is that they have lost this culture war.
They got here by falling victim to the same danger that befalls those with many extreme views. They created a believable fiction to move the masses and then started to believe it themselves. They say the “unborn child” is a small but independent life from the moment of conception — a full human being with all of the attendant rights. They trot out sonogram images to show this small person, whole and intact, floating around like a little astronaut waiting for its moment to be propelled into the world. We must protect this “unborn life,” they say, and the relatively simple act of banning abortion will do it.
But now, for the first time since 1973, this fiction is going to be obviously and horribly exposed. What pro-life advocates and this Supreme Court have failed to remember is that the fetus is not an independent human from the moment of conception. Its fate is intimately bound up with, symbiotically connected to, the life, the health and the choices of another human being.
The truth is the fetus needs the woman’s body to follow a biologically programmed process of development. Even in wanted pregnancies, much can go wrong with this process both for the pregnant woman and the fetus. And what about unwanted ones that are forced on an unwilling woman?
We may try to use the arm of the state to reach into the uterus, but in the real world, this arm must pass through another human being. The level of violation of human rights that is necessary to actually achieve this feat is mind boggling. Are the American people, most of whom were against overruling Roe in the first place, ready for what comes next?
State control will not work to protect the “unborn life” unless the pregnant woman herself is controlled. Should she be so desperate to not be pregnant that she starves herself, will we tie her down and force feed her? Should she throw herself down the stairs to end the pregnancy, will we hold her chained in a hospital bed until she has completed her reproductive service to the state? When she seeks out illegal methods to end her pregnancy, which history has taught us she will, will we patch her back up, if we can, and then jail her?
And how will we justify it when we hear the rich and powerful still have access to safe reproductive services, including abortion, while we watch our loved ones risk their lives to find the same medical care? How will we feel when we watch the victim of rape being told that she must now give birth to her rapist’s child? What will we do when a pregnant woman, perhaps a mother already herself, is told that she will have to risk her health or life to carry through with a dangerous pregnancy? How will we calculate the loss to all of the young girls and women who will have diminished opportunities to education, careers and financial health?
To be clear, close to half the states in the U.S. will severely curtail or ban abortion when Roe v. Wade is overruled, which, by all appearances, will happen in June. If Republicans win Congress and the presidency, a federal bill banning abortion is not an impossibility, making abortion inaccessible throughout the U.S. The post-Roe world is upon us. And it will be inhospitable to girls and women and the people who love them. Vicki Toscano is an associate professor of philosophy and legal studies in the Department of Humanities and Politics, Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, Nova Southeastern University. The views expressed in this editorial are that of Toscano and do not necessarily represent those of NSU, its president or board of trustees.