EDITOR: Women in America had reason to celebrate Jan. 22. That
date marked the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court
’s 1973 decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, establishing
abortion as a constitutionally protected right.
EDITOR:
Women in America had reason to celebrate Jan. 22. That date marked the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, establishing abortion as a constitutionally protected right.
By acknowledging that it’s a woman’s right to decide if and when to have children, Roe v. Wade not only empowered American women, it also meant that women no longer had to subject themselves to dangerous back-alley abortions at the hands of unskilled practitioners. Not surprisingly, the legalization of abortion led to significantly lower maternal mortality rates in this country.
Unfortunately, the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade also provides an opportunity for Americans to lament. Because, while still legal, abortion services are just not available to many women when they need them. As usual when it comes to health care in America, poor women, rural women, women of color and adolescents are having the hardest time getting the care they need and have a right to.
Hundreds of legal challenges during the past three decades have limited women’s access to safe and affordable abortion services. Some states have introduced a mandatory waiting period between a woman’s first visit to an abortion clinic and the time when she is allowed to have an abortion. Such policies pose serious problems especially for rural women who have to travel great distances to get to an abortion provider. At a time when a staggering 87 percent of all U.S. counties have no abortion provider, traveling far is not unusual.
Another barrier to women seeking reproductive health services is the fact that an ever-increasing number of hospital systems are being taken over by religious organizations which allow religious doctrine to rule what services are available to patients. Not surprisingly, those hospitals do not allow abortions. They also do not provide sterilization, a range of contraceptive services or infertility treatment. Considering that 11 of the nation’s 20 largest hospital systems are religiously sponsored, this is a huge problem.
Young Americans are in many ways the hardest hit by current abortion policies. Parental consent requirements for pregnant youth – however well intentioned they may seem – force many teenage Americans with abusive parents to go through a complex process that includes appearing in court in order to obtain permission to have an abortion without notifying their parents.
The vast majority of young women consult their parents about abortions, but it is those women who do not have the family support or emotional resources that are forced to go to court. Navigating the court system is a challenge for most Americans. Needless to say it is much harder for young people living with abusive or unsupportive parents.
To make matters worse, by promoting abstinence-only education in the schools, policy makers deny American youth access to a full range of information about sexuality and reproduction. There are plenty of problems with that policy, but the main one is that it doesn’t work. As a result, we live in a country where a stunning half of all pregnancies are unintended, and where teen pregnancy rates are much higher than in the rest of the western world. Opponents of abortion please note: the effect is not fewer abortions, but more.
In addition, the current administration is using abortion politics as a “litmus test” for appointments to government bodies. Federal agencies, such as the FDA, which oversee women’s health care, contraceptives and other drugs, are becoming pawns in the ideological game.
This situation seems unlikely to improve any time soon. Backed by an openly anti-choice administration, Congress is preparing to consider a raft of anti-abortion bills that promise to make the situation worse.
Typical of these initiatives is a bill to ban so-called “partial-birth” abortion. Coined by the pro-life movement, the term “partial-birth” abortion has no agreed medical or legal meaning. It is a political term, designed by the opponents of abortion to evoke outrage. If a ban on “partial-birth” abortion became law, it would further limit the constitutionally protected rights of women, and it would do so on the flimsiest of foundations.
It is high time for Americans on all sides of the abortion debate to start demanding public policies that are based in reality. As long as we allow Congress to expend energy and resources on anti-abortion bills based on the ideological preoccupations of those in power, we will never be able to address the public health crisis facing this country.
Denice Zeck,
Executive Director
American Forum
