If the court acts
Overturning Roe would have profound implications for women’s health
Most Americans know someone, like someone or love someone who’s had an abortion. Millions of women have made the decision to terminate a pregnancy, exercising autonomy over their bodies and making that difficult and personal reproductive health care choice, as is their right.
That right, it was made clear this week, is under threat by a Supreme Court poised to undo the landmark cases which undergird access to abortion.
The draft opinion, as it is written, would radically change the nation’s landscape, threatening women’s health and safety and calling into question countless rights — about marriage, contraception and individual privacy — that are the bedrock of modern American society.
Authored by Justice Samuel Alito, an appointee of President George W. Bush, the leaked draft was confirmed as authentic by court officials on Tuesday. It apparently has the support of a majority of the court.
In it, Alito asserts that the landmark
1973 Roe v Wade decision was “egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences …” and concludes that Roe and the court’s 1992 opinion in Casey v Planned Parenthood “must be overruled.”
The Roe decision recognizes a right to privacy under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Legal experts fear that
this opinion would call into question other key cases, including access to contraception (Griswold v Connecticut, 1965); integrated marriage (Loving v Virginia, 1967); consensual sex acts (Lawrence v Texas, 2003); and the fundamental right to marry (Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015).
Imagine a United States without these rights guaranteed under the Constitution. A nation in which states tell women what health procedures and reproductive choices they can and cannot make. Reversion to a time when integrated couples were prohibited from marrying, or samesex couples were banished to society’s margins.
Land of the free, in name only.
It’s important to note that this majority opinion could change, that the draft language could be rewritten and that nothing is final until the court issues its ruling, likely in June. But understand what will happen if this is the court’s decision.
Only 16 states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books that would protect the right to abortion. Some 23 states have passed laws that would sharply restrict or prohibit abortion in the absence of Roe. Thirteen states have so-called “trigger laws” that would take effect if and when Roe is overturned.
Women in those states with the means to do so would be forced to cross state lines to seek an abortion. Those without such means — the poor, the very young, rape and incest victims — will find a way to terminate their pregnancies, either by themselves or with help — from friends, yes, but also from the malevolent and the opportunistic.
The result? Women will die. We cannot say how many, but we know that some of these deaths will be cruel, some will be excruciating, and all of them could be prevented. The most vulnerable will needlessly suffer and die at disproportionately higher rates than the well-to-do, at a time when the nation’s maternal death rate is already climbing.
It is infuriating that Americans are being forced to fight for these basic human rights. But the world has changed since 1973. When our mothers and grandmothers dealt with these issues, they did so under a cloak of shame and secrecy. Now most Americans agree women should have the right to choose. We cannot let a radical minority endanger the lives of women and thwart the will of the majority of citizens.
It is vital that state and federal lawmakers act and act quickly. A right to reproductive health choices should have long ago been codified in law. Severe restrictions on abortion will threaten the health and safety of women in Virginia and across the nation.
If the court concludes that only lawmakers can protect access to reproductive health care, a failure to act immediately would be unconscionable.