Criminalizing Abortion and Overturning Roe v. Wade is Not The Answer

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Abortion is health care. Any lack of access to safe, dignified health care is discriminatory and violates Americans’ human rights, and a woman’s access to abortion is no exception.

On May 2, Politico released a leaked draft majority opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overruled Roe v. Wade. Alexis McGill Johnson, the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is prepared to fight for those who would be affected by this decision, according to a press release shown.

“This leaked opinion is horrifying and unprecedented, and it confirms our worst fears: that the Supreme Court is prepared to end the constitutional right to abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade,” said Johnson. “While we have seen the writing on the wall for decades, it is no less devastating and comes just as anti-abortion rights groups unveil their ultimate plan to ban abortion nationwide. Understand that Planned Parenthood and our partners have been preparing for every possible outcome in this case and are built for the fight.”

Women across the country were thrown for a loop on the idea of eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. Although the decision is not official until the court publishes it, 23 states have laws in place that could be used to restrict legal access to abortion, and one of those states is Wisconsin, according to Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin.

Abortion is a common decision that millions of people worldwide make, regardless of whether or not the abortion itself is legal. While the CDC documented in 2019 that 629,898 legal abortions had taken place in America, the Worldwide Health Organization estimates that 25 million unsafe abortions occur each year, most of them in developing countries.

WHO defines unsafe abortion as “a procedure for terminating an unintended pregnancy carried out either by persons lacking necessary skills or in an environment that does not conform to minimal medical standards.”

Unsafe abortions can have fatal consequences, as they are one of the leading causes of maternal deaths and lead to a plethora of preventable disabilities. According to WHO, 4.7-13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortion, and the physical risks associated with unsafe abortion include hemorrhaging, infection, uterine perforation, and damage to the genital tract and internal organs as a consequence of inserting dangerous objects into the vagina or anus.

Laws that seek to limit the number of abortions across the USA may not lower the rate of abortions but make them less safe. According to a report done by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization “committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide,” in countries with minimal restrictions, only 1% of abortions were unsafe from 2010 to 2014. In contrast, restrictive countries saw that number rise to 31%.

In the same report, during the same period, abortions occurred almost as frequently in restrictive countries as in minimally restrictive ones: 37 versus 34 abortions each year for every 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. These numbers heavily indicate that, even though restrictions could be implemented, that doesn’t mean abortions won’t happen, and fatalities will arise due to this.

Cisgender women (women assigned as female at birth) aren’t the only ones affected by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but intersex people, transgender men and boys, and any other person with gender identities who can become pregnant. In an interview with The Hill, Sharon McGowan, legal director of Lambda Legal, said that if Roe v. Wade were to get overturned, it would be “nothing short of devastating” for the community.

“The right to access abortion, the right to make important decisions about one’s life and health care including abortion are fundamental to the ability of LGBTQ people and everyone to be able to live their lives…” McGowan said.  

Transgender people, in particular, are already cautious about receiving preventative and reproductive health care, as about 50% of transgender men have avoided or delayed care due to fear of discrimination, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. If Roe v. Wade gets overturned, trans men could lose safe spaces to get the treatment they need, such as establishments like Planned Parenthood.

Another group of people that will be affected in negative ways due to this potential overturning are black women and girls, a group of people that have always had challenges accessing health care, according to Janette Robinson Flint, the executive director of Black Women Wellness. In an interview she did with Word in Black, she described how the health care system in America has been against them from the start.

“There’s a system where racism is embedded — it is baked into the system. It is baked into the healthcare system from education, in terms of how they train doctors; from media, in terms of the stereotypes of Black folks; from economics, in terms of do we make the same money,” said Flint. “Because racism is so baked in, when they — they being, in this case, the Supreme Court of the United States — decides nobody has this right to abortion anymore, that they can overturn Roe v. Wade, what does that say about the folks who have been least able to access the system? What doors will that close for us? And particularly, when we look at places like Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana — states where they have lots of Black people but very little healthcare, this means even less healthcare.”

This year’s midterm elections on Nov. 8 are crucial in avoiding this outcome on a state-by-state basis. As much as it seems like they don’t matter, the city council people, the judges, and everything to vote for this year matters more than ever.

It’s important to reiterate that, as far as rights to health care are concerned, a lack of access to any form of health care violates people’s rights, and peoples’ rights will be violated if this overturning goes through. This isn’t a matter of agreeing or disagreeing with abortion, against or for it; this is a matter of rights and lives being at stake. If you have not registered to vote and want to do something about this, register.