Today, the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade.
I don’t think I need to explain the devastation I feel at this. Not only for the thousands of women out there who are now forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, but also to the thousands of families that will now be forced to carry the burden of an unwanted child, the thousands of unborn children who are going to be born to families that didn’t want them. The people who work in the abortion industry and their families. Women and sex education groups around the world that have been working towards helping promote gender equality and changing the stigma surrounding things like abortion have just been slapped in the face by the most powerful court in one of the most powerful nations in the world.
I mourn for the way this country has continued to regress, from the Supreme Court decision last week to make carrying guns easier in New York after so many instances of gun violence in the past six months alone, to the decision today to make the right to choose for women no longer up to those same women.
Abortion was never about politics, though it did become political. Abortion is about the right of a woman to do what she determines is best for her, whether that is to terminate an unwanted pregnancy or to have a child. Either way, abortion access was always a question of choice for a group of people who have historically had too many of their choices taken away from them.
The dissenting opinion of the Supreme Court says it best: “The majority would allow States to ban abortion from conception onward because it does not think forced childbirth at all implicates a woman’s rights to equality and freedom […] Today’s Court, that is, does not think there is anything of constitutional significance attached to a woman’s control of her body and the path of her life. A State can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs.”
The idea that a Supreme Court decision that was reaffirmed in 1992 and decided in 1973, would be overturned in 2022 is a truly sobering thought.
I am from Michigan. In Michigan, the prevailing abortion law is a law that predates 1973, when the Roe V. Wade decision was decided on. In Wisconsin, in West Virginia, in Alabama, in Arizona, the abortion laws there predate 1973, because they were rendered null after the Supreme Court decision. But now? Now, women there will be subject to the whims of a law that is at the very least half a century old. The world has come a long way since 1973, but for comparison, in 1973, being gay was removed from a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association (Drescher). This means that women will be subject to abortion laws from the times of black and white films, from a society that considered women to be secondary objects to their husbands or fathers or other male presences. That is not all. Nearly half of states will effectively ban all or most abortions now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe vs. Wade (Mangan).
And what happens, because of this? More and more abortion clinics near these states where abortion is no longer an option for women are taking in patients beyond their capacity. Kansas is near some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri, and there, more than 8 million women will soon be without access to abortion. Need I remind the world about the Texas Heartbeat Act? Already abortion clinics in Kansas are turning away more people because they simply cannot handle the overload. What this means for these women is that they either must go to another state if they are financially able, or have the child that they didn’t want in the first place.
The implications of the majority opinion of this decision could go far beyond abortion, though. In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that: “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.”
For starters, in plain English, what Alito is saying is essentially this: if the Constitution makes no reference to a point of contention and an amendment doesn’t protect it implicitly, then unless it’s rooted in the nation’s culture/history, this right’s gotta go.
What does that mean?
To begin with, here is the part of the Fourteenth Amendment that many a court case has relied on:
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868)).
In colloquial terms, this means that life, liberty, and property (which is essentially the property of ownership of self), cannot be denied an American citizen.
What does this have the most direct impact on, perhaps? What does this understanding of Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment bring immediately to mind?
Marriage equality. Interracial marriages have not always been guaranteed, and for the greater portion of this nation’s short history, it was not legal. It is not, as the Supreme Court seems to have deemed it, “rooted in the nation’s culture.” Neither is the 2015 ruling that gay marriage is legal in America. It is such a recent ruling that not only has it not had the reinforcements that Roe V. Wade had (being decided in 1973), but it has not had the chance to make its impact on history the way Roe V. Wade had. For marriage equality, this understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment could mean dark days to come.
Gender equality. For women and non-male genders alike, inequality has plagued minorities in the form of less legal rights, subjugation in public and law, and even today continues to be present opportunities given. But for the better part of the United States of America’s brief, roughly 300 year history, women have been seen as inferior to men. In fact, one could say that true American culture is based in misogyny. The overturning of Roe V. Wade illustrates this point. Abortion is a problem that only directly impacts women, yet today national protection of a minority that has been in the background for so long has been striped from us.
Other rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment include the right to private sexual conduct and contraception. All of these things are threatened if the Supreme Court choses to interpret the Fourteenth Amendment the way it is currently.
Today is a dark day. It marks the day the Supreme Court utilized its powers to take away a Constitutional right of the American people.
But with all that said, there is still work to be done. Abortion is not illegal in every state as of right now, and many states will continue to fend for their women’s right to abortion. It is OK to feel devastated. It is OK to mourn. But the fight for abortion rights, while it may have been set-back by this incredibly regressive Supreme Court decision, is still ongoing, and it hasn’t been lost yet.
Planned Parenthood (Planned Parenthood | Official Site) and other organizations are still out there fighting for women’s right to their own bodies, and supporting them on their social media accounts and spreading the word on your own is one way for us to show solitary with women who are in need of abortions and who might one day need abortions.
If you’re a teenager and want to help contribute to the fight for abortion rights, join Youth Abortion Support Collective – Advocates for Youth for more information on how you can help. If you are able to, donate to Abortion Funds (Abortion is Essential. Donate to Abortion Funds! — Donate via AB Charities (actblue.com)) to help women around the country get access to abortion if their state outlaws it. Listen to abortion storytellers at the Instagram account @wetestify.
Continue to participate in peaceful protests to show that this is not something that we will take sitting down. We Won't Go Back | Events Map (wewontgoback.com) has a list of all the protests nation-wide for abortion rights. The People Are Supreme - Washington DC + Nationwide (marchforourlives.com) is where you can register for a march in Washington DC. March safely but know that every voice helps keep this fight alive.
For people who need abortions: go to Apiary for Practical Support (apiaryps.org) for support (transportation, child support). Where Can I Get an Abortion? | U.S. Abortion Clinic Locator (abortionfinder.org); I need an abortion; and Home - National Abortion Federation (prochoice.org) are all resources to help you find the abortion providers that may no longer be legal in your state. For emotional support before or after your abortion, Connect & Breathe - After Abortion Nonjudgmental Talkline (connectandbreathe.org) and Home - Exhale (exhaleprovoice.org), as well as Reprocare Healthline are there for you. M+A HOTLINE is there for you in case you have a miscarriage or have medical questions at home during your abortion.
For those of you who want a more comprehensive list, find more resources here: I need an abortion – Advocates for Youth
The fight for abortion rights will not stop. The fight for equal rights will not stop. Mourn. Be disappointed. Be angry. But tomorrow, the fight goes on, and every voice lended means change.
Works Cited
“14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868).” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, 8 Feb. 2022, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment#:~:text=No%20State%20shall%20make%20or,Section%202.
Drescher, Jack. “Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality.” Behavioral Sciences, vol. 5, no. 4, 2015, pp. 565–575., https://doi.org/10.3390/bs5040565.
Kimball, Spencer. “Four Abortion Clinics in Kansas Brace for a Deluge of Patients from States Banning the Procedure.” CNBC, CNBC, 24 June 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/24/roe-vs-wade-four-abortion-clinics-in-kansas-brace-for-a-deluge-of-patients-from-states-banning-the-procedure.html.
Mangan, Dan. “Here Are the States Set to Ban or Severely Limit Abortion Access Now That Roe v. Wade Is Overturned.” CNBC, CNBC, 24 June 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/24/states-set-to-ban-abortion-after-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade.html.
Mangan, Dan. “Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade, Ending 50 Years of Federal Abortion Rights.” CNBC, CNBC, 24 June 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/24/roe-v-wade-overturned-by-supreme-court-ending-federal-abortion-rights.html.
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