Lesson Seven
When people talk about Reproductive Rights today, there is just one word that comes to mind: Abortion . I don't think that Jessica and Nick's divorce got as much airtime as the a-word is getting these days. Let's figure out what all the hullabaloo is about.
Abortion has only been legal here for 33 years. It became legal after that monumental Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling and allowed women in every state access to safe, legal abortions and guaranteed their constitutional right to privacy. Unfortunately, ever since it was legalized, there has been a steady attempt to roll back the access to abortion that the Roe decision established. It started early on with the Hyde Amendment , which denied access to abortion for low-income women on Medicaid. That was followed by a number of cases which allowed states to establish additional legislation to limit access to abortion, and as a result we've seen many states adopt policies that require a mandatory waiting period or parental consent for a minor . Even now, the Supreme Court is still in on the action, and recently decided to hear a case involving the federal ban on late term abortion . So the Judiciary is really central to what's going on with abortion—all these battles are fought through the Judicial Branch of government. Not surprisingly, many have wondered if Justice Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court will change the outcome of future cases that wind up at the Supreme Court. What does Justice Alito's confirmation mean for the future of abortion in this country and for the future of women's reproductive rights in the US ?
Well, we may soon know the answer to that question. South Dakota has passed a state-wide ban on abortions, and Ohio , Indiana , Georgia , Tennessee and Kentucky have introduced similar measures. Will these cases threaten the precedent established by the Roe v. Wade decision? Will abortion become illegal? First of all, let's look at what's really happening here. These state-by-state initiatives are trying to outlaw abortion in particular areas—areas that are politically conservative and largely rural and relatively poor. There are a number of states that would never consider illegalizing abortion, so within the US there could potentially be states where abortion is legal and states where it is not. Abortion will never be entirely illegal in the US . So what does this mean for us as students interested in understanding women in society? As usual, the answer isn't simple.
Women who have resources (access to money, transportation) will always have access to abortion. They will be able to drive to a legal state or fly to a foreign country if they want a safe abortion. It is the women who are poor, particularly those who are young and/or those living in rural areas who will be disproportionately affected by illegal abortion. Rural women who do not have access to public transportation, poor women who do not have the resources to cross state lines and young women who do not have access to either capital or transportation will be the ones unduly impacted by the criminalization of abortion. Because if we look back through history or even around the world today and ask “What will women do if/when they don't have access to legal abortion?” The answer is: they will have an abortion. Even. If. It. Is. Illegal.
In February, 2006, when the South Dakota ban started getting press, several women started putting info on the web about how to do abortions at home . There will always be networks of women (and men) who recognize that women are going to make this decision. No amount of legislation is going to stop that and these people are willing to do what they can to support that.
That's not to say that there is no place at the table for legislation. There are a number of ways that we can use government legislation to lower the abortion rate, which would make both sides of the debate happy. No one is saying that getting an abortion is easy or fun or some feminist rite of passage—it is a hard decision for any woman to make, and it would be great if women had access to cheap contraception and great sex education and never, ever needed to get an abortion. Which leads to the question: Why are women having unsafe sex in the first place? Why don't women and men have access to cheap, easy contraception? Asking these questions broaden the discussion, and connect the issue of abortion to a variety of other topics that are also getting a lot of airtime lately.
Take, for instance, the “ conscience clause ” which allows pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills or Plan B contraception (aka the morning after pill). What's a girl to do? How is a woman supposed to engage in safe sex if her prescription for birth control or Plan B may not be filled? And that assumes that she knows about such contraceptive methods—given the state of sex education today, she may very well not! The research repeatedly shows that abstinence-only education doesn't delay the onset of sexual activity, but it does lead kids to engage in riskier sexual behavior like anal and oral sex without condoms because they just aren't getting full information. Yikes. So the abortion issue is really about sex. And in a society where it is increasingly difficult for young women to have safe sex with access to full contraception and knowledge , it is even scarier when abortion begins to be criminalized.
It's frightening that in 2006, STDs and pregnancy are seen as the punishment for women's sexuality. Why is there still such a desire to control women's bodies and such a fear of allowing women access to basic reproductive healthcare and basic reproductive freedom in our society ? Access to abortion is about women having control over their own bodies and having the respect to make decisions that affect their lives . Access to abortion is one part of an ongoing struggle for women's equality, which is a part of the larger movement of fairness, prosperity and justice for both women and men.