By overturning Roe v. Wade, court places a death wish on women of color
In the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case protecting the right to an abortion, a death wish has been made on women, especially women of color.
Friday’s decision by the Supreme Court won’t stop abortion. Anyone with compassion for women’s reproductive rights knows that. But it will mean that women who are faced with the decision to end a pregnancy, for whatever reason, may risk the possibility of a botched procedure — or even death.
It’s the turning back of time, like it was before women had rights, with bootleg operating rooms in back alleys, dorm rooms and living rooms. But it’s even worse because we know what that was like then. We know better.
In Texas, one of the most restrictive states, women might decide to travel to other states, such as New Mexico, Colorado or New York, to terminate pregnancies. Those are women with means, but what about those without?
People of color make up 60 percent of the state but account for nearly 73 percent of abortion procedures. Experts say it’s due to lack of access to health care, including birth control. Women of color in Texas also are less likely to have health insurance. Black women are three times as likely to die of pregnancy complications. What about us?
“This ruling only demonstrates the importance of our programs in the state,” said Elizabeth Gregory, director of University of Houston’s Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality. “Antiabortion is pro-poverty. Lack of access promotes a lowerskilled workforce, not just among those denied abortions, who are pushed off education and career paths, but among all Americans. People of color will suffer disproportionately, but everyone loses.”
Under the Texas trigger law, our daughters will be forced to bear the child of any man who attacks her, whether on a college campus, a city street or in their own home by a relative. Women in domestic violence situations already have a burden to carry and are often subjected to reproductive coercion, so they have no escape. Parents who feel their families are large enough but find themselves pregnant will be forced to sink deeper into poverty to care for them.
Let’s not forget the issues of pay disparity and access to affordable child care, which add even more weight to the discussion, since poor women are faced more disproportionately with having to make hard decisions about how they put food on their tables and who cares for their children while they work for minimal wages. An unwanted pregnancy is one more hardship.
The abortion debate is fueled with emotion and self righteousness of people who claim to care for the unborn child. I’m not writing this to convince or sway opinion. Save your attacks.
Those who tout pro-family beliefs should take a hard look at our foster care system, in which children languish in a network not set up to see them succeed. There are social workers who are doing all they can to give these children a fair shot but need the support of real, substantive changes and funding on the state level so that the agency itself isn’t faced with negligence.
If the concern is for the welfare of our children, why not ensure all children have access to fair and equitable education and health care? That they all can go to college and be who they want to be.
How about providing women easy access to free, longterm birth control? But helping women make sound decisions about their bodies is not the goal here.
The light in all of this is that women — and the men who support them — still have the ability to use their vote.
“I feel that this ruling is pushback against the positive changes toward greater equity that have occurred over the past 50 years — on many fronts,” Gregory said. “While it will harm people starting now, it will also rile people up. The court’s authority will, as Justice Roberts fears, be undermined in the nation — and the 87 percent of Americans who disagree with this ruling will roar.”
Overturning Roe v. Wade is about control of a woman’s body and restricting her ability to make decisions about it. It’s arguably its own form of assault.