Abortion in the USA

by  Annie Jenkins

A vast amount of people, mainly women, will be extremely grieved, enraged and utterly frustrated with the current situation of the US right now about this very current topic which is abortion. As many of you may have probably seen this plastered all over the news and social media about the fact that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and ruled that there is no constitutional right to abortion in the United States for millions of women. I decided to educate myself more on this ongoing topic and so I began to research what actually is happening in the States. When I was reading articles and stories on this current situation it actually made me feel physically sick and disgusted but also utterly sad for all the women in America and I just can't comprehend how such a thing like this can happen in our world today. 

However, you may be wondering what Roe v. Wade is, which seems to be the headline everywhere currently. Well, Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision of the U.S Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the constitution of the United States generally protects a woman’s liberty to have an abortion. Since this decision, which happened in 1973, it struck down many federal and state abortion laws but it also began the on-going abortion debate in the U.S. This controversial debate focus around the moral, legal and religious status of induced abortion. The two sides involved with this debate are known as “pro-choice” and “pro-life” movements. 

Since Roe v. Wade, which was nearly introduced about 50 years ago, it has now been overturned and the Court has ruled in favour of the Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks. This means individual states are now able to decide whether or not they want to ban the procedure again. It has been said that over half of the states are expected to ban abortion immediately or as soon as possible and introduce new restrictions. So far thirteen states have already passed so-called trigger laws that will automatically outlaw abortion following the Supreme Courts ruling. 

One economist has already estimated that these bans could result in 60,000 births a year amongst women who are not able to access abortions. This will affect 41% of women of reproductive age which will affect the young, poor, black and brown women and women who already have children the most. Furthermore, some women will have to travel over 500 miles to the nearest abortion clinic. However, this may not even be an option for many women to travel to a different state for an abortion. As well as that, experts have warned that some states may pass laws to restrict women from travelling out of state to seek an abortion.  

Even though there is an estimated 85% of Americans who support legal abortion under certain circumstances the conservative-majority court overturned Roe v. Wade. Usually, the court overturns cases to enable more rights whereas here they have done the complete opposite. The result of this reversal will have detrimental effects on thousands of women and ultimately alter their lives because women will be denied reproductive healthcare and will be forced to give birth. 

For many it appears as if America is going backwards in history. It makes one think what will be next now this has happened. There has been a warning from the dissent that there could be a wider collapse of rights and the decision of this case could lead to the challenging of other cases such as the right to use contrecpetion and the rights to marry a same sex partner.