By Amelia Petty
With Roe v. Wade featuring prominently in the media right now, you may be asking yourself, “What is Roe v. Wade?” In short, Roe v. Wade was a case that came before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 in which the Court ruled that banning abortion in any state was unconstitutional. On May 3, an anonymous source leaked a draft of the Supreme Court’s plans to overturn Roe v. Wade. If these plans materialize, the decision could have major repercussions on women’s health across the nation, with poor women and women of color being disproportionately affected.
Prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion was illegal in most states, with exceptions in place for cases of rape, incest, fetal anomaly or danger posed to the mother’s life. In the Roe decision, Justice Harry Andrew Blackmun found the constitutional right of privacy “broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” At the time, many saw the case as revolutionary, overturning most state laws prohibiting abortion. By declaring abortion a protected right, abortion services became safer and more accessible to women across the country. Since Roe, there have been multiple attempts by states to limit the right to abortion, for example restricting abortions beyond 6 weeks of pregnancy, a time when many women do not yet know they are pregnant. The effort to overturn Roe has been ongoing for the past 49 years, with many politicians focused on installing anti-abortion justices in the Supreme Court. During that time, the principle of stare decisis has given Roe the weight of “settled law” and “precedent” by all Supreme Court justices and nominees, even those nominated by Republican Presidents. However, the May 3 leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a pending Supreme Court case on the constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi state law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, suggests that the weight previously placed on the Roe decision may soon disappear. If overturned, Roe would be one of the most established decisions to ever be reversed by the Supreme Court. For many, this is the first time they have had to contemplate a future in which women do not have the right to make their own choices regarding reproductive health.
In preparation for the possibility of Roe being overturned, eighteen states have set “trigger laws” that would automatically ban abortion if the decision were reversed. In response, several states and cities, such as New York and Chicago, have enacted laws to secure the right for women to obtain abortions in their states if illegal in outside areas.
It is no surprise that the leaked opinion unleashed a torrent of protests around the country. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote in the draft, “an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the common law until 1973.” The justice claims that overturning Roe would simply return the authority to regulate abortion to state legislatures.
Historians often debate the idea that abortions were always illegal. For example, there is evidence to suggest that when the Constitution was written, abortions were permitted until at least the fourth month of pregnancy. For enslaved women, however, abortions were prohibited, underscoring a historical connection between abortion access and race.
If Roe is overturned, while white women with resources would maintain easy access to abortions, lower income women and women of color would not, given that they already lack access to proper health care and are in the most vulnerable economic situations. For poorer women living in states that would ban abortion, few would be able to travel to other states for access to the procedure. Even if they were able to travel, many would have to take time off of work to do so, preventing them from earning the wages needed to survive.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the Senate Banking Committee of Congress that banning abortions increases a woman’s odds of living in poverty or needing public assistance. The most vulnerable women are single mothers who struggle to find childcare. Yellen also stated that overturning Roe would be damaging to the economy by limiting a woman’s ability to balance career and family.
Another notable consequence of outlawing abortions is the expected increase in unsafe abortions. There was a time before Roe when women frequently utilized dangerous methods to induce abortion, for example drinking bleach or using coat hangers. If Roe were overturned, impoverished people unable to travel to seek safe abortions outside of their states would be forced to resort to the same high-risk alternatives.
Works Cited
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Hernandez, Joe. “Here’s What Could Happen If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned.” NPR, 3 May 2022, www.npr.org/2022/05/03/1096094942/roe-wade-overturned-what-happens-next.
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Schuessler, Jennifer. “The Fight over Abortion History.” The New York Times, 4 May 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/arts/roe-v-wade-abortion-history.html.
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“State Abortion Policies Have Become More Extreme — without Roe v. Wade, the Divide Could Widen.” Washington Post, 11 June 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/11/abortion-rights-roe-v-wade/.
“State Abortion Policies Have Become More Extreme — without Roe v. Wade, the Divide Could Widen.” Washington Post, 11 June 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/11/abortion-rights-roe-v-wade/.
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