In a past posting I wrote about the hypocrisy and self-contradiction of the anti-abortion movement. Now, with Roe v Wade on the line, I feel that I must write on this subject again.
Overturning Roe v Wade will open a serious can of worms. It will return control of women’s bodies to the individual states, which means that some states will be worse for women than others. Numerous states have trigger laws waiting in the wings, which will come into effect as soon as Roe v Wade is upended. Some of the more liberal states could quickly pass laws protecting reproductive rights, but that is not a guarantee.
In states where abortion is severely restricted, women will return to the bad old days of risky back-alley procedures. Those who have the means will travel hundreds, even thousands, of kilometers. Too many women have neither the time nor the resources for such a trip, though; and may resort to knitting needles, pennyroyal, or even “accidental” tumbles down a flight of stairs.
If Roe v Wade is overturned, this could easily start the domino tumbling. Most abortion foes also oppose access to birth control – which stops abortion by preventing unintended pregnancies. In their ignorance, anti-choice activists claim that many methods of birth control cause abortion when in reality they prevent a pregnancy from starting in the first place. Controlling women’s bodies is just a major step towards perverting the United States into a brutal theocracy every bit as tyrannical as the Taliban that currently oppresses Afghanistan.
Outlawing birth control such as Plan B, The Pill and IUDs could lead to severe restrictions, if not out-and-out bans, on condoms, diaphragms and the like. Imagine having to get your “rubbers” at a post-Roe speakeasy. There was a time when birth control was illegal in the United States: Between the enactment of the Comstock Act in 1873, which outlawed not only contraception but also information about it; and Eisenstadt v Baird in March of 1972, which made birth control legal throughout the land. We could all too easily return to Comstock-style regulations.
When Texas closed half of its abortion clinics between 2010 and 2014, maternal mortality more than doubled. Shutting down clinics and yanking funding from Planned Parenthood does not save lives, but imperils them. The obsessive tunnel vision focusing on fetuses ignores those who have already been born.
The successes of the antiabortion crusade show that the only thing necessary for Evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. The price of liberty truly is eternal vigilance. We who believe that every woman should have the option to decide whether and when she will bear children must remember that.
6 Responses to “SOUND OFF! 12/4/21 – Roe, Roe, Roe Your Body”
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Thank you, Freya, for writing about this. It worries me probably more than you would epect a never pregnant and now post-menopausal woman to be worried. But I am old enough to remember what happened to women before Roe, including some of my high school friends. I could go on, but you did such a good job, I really only need to applaud.
Well said Freya. The ultimate patriarchal efforts of our era wanting to end human rights for women.
A well-stated argument to hold on to Roe v Wade, or actually to turn it into federal law including the right to contraception, Freya.
I fall in the same category as Joanne, never pregnant and now post-menopausal, but that is thanks to having lived in a country that was and still is very progressive on birth control, abortion and good sex education from a young age. Because of that, The Netherlands has one of the lowest abortion rates in the world; most abortions are performed on immigrant women who are in the process of catching up.
It’s hard for me to believe that a modern country like the US could turn back the clock for women by overturning Roe v Wade. I can understand, but certainly not condone, it happening in Poland or Hungary as abortion was long the only form of birth control available in a Soviet state. But America? Besides the Talibangelistic ruling of a minority over a majority, that decision would be so divisive in an already very polarised country that the country will have to drop the “U” in “USA”.
If half of the women in America are denied the choice to terminate their pregnancy, the “United” bit has become a farce. If women’s lives are endangered because of it, it becomes a crime.
In 1969 (I’m officially old) I had to fly to Mexico City, by myself, on borrowed money, to pay a doctor I’d never met…so I could end a pregnancy which was impossible to continue. It was a SHAMEFUL thing, back then, and I was trying to get a promotion, so I could take care of myself and my daughter. (I received no child support.) I stood on a street corner and considered words like rape, kidnapping, murder…the fact that nobody knew where I was, etc.
And I was LUCKY, because I knew this man was capable and ethical.
We cannot go back, friends….not ever!
The only positive thing I can say is–Planned Parenthood in California is actively planning ways to provide transportation, food and housing for patients from out-of-State.
Pam,thanks for sharing your very personal experience.(I’m not wearing my “Safe Space” shirt today but an ACLU one.) I surely hope younger women and the pro-choice MAJORITY of the USA will vote accordingly. Good to hear about CA PP preparing,likely most would be traveling a substantial distance from TX for example? Take care,all,in these perilous times.
The Congress needs to pass a legal abortion law. With two thirds of the nation supporting legal abortion, it would easily pass.
We now have a majority religious conservative Supreme Court. Many laws might change. And remember, the Supreme Court chooses its own cases to hear and decide.
Those who want to tell a woman what to do with her body are the same people who protest the government forcing vaccines into their bodies.
Law by religious rule. A theocracy. Democracy out the window.