The Deadly Consequences of Anti-Abortion Policies
- Michael Asch
- Oct 24, 2024
- 30 min read
In 2022, 36-year-old Amanda Zurawski from Austin, Texas found out she was pregnant with her first child. She was excited to finally start a family with her husband Josh. But that August, just 18-weeks into her pregnancy, her water broke and her cervix fully dilated. The doctors told her the devastating news: her fetus was not going to survive.
Because of her state’s abortion ban, the doctors also had to tell her they couldn’t terminate her pregnancy. Legally, the doctors weren’t allowed to intervene until after she developed an infection, went into a septic shock, and almost died three days later. Today, she’s lucky to be alive. But sadly, because of the damage to her reproductive organs, another pregnancy might not be an option for her.
Unfortunately, ever since the extreme conservative U.S. Supreme Court removed federal protections for abortion access, Amanda’s story has become far too common in the United States.The 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision stripped away the reproductive rights of millions of women. This decision has massive negative ramifications for women’s health in the United States. It denies victims of rape or incest essential care. It blocks pregnant women from accessing potentially life saving healthcare. It takes away women’s freedom to make their own choices about their body, about their health, and about their lives. And it creates a culture of fear for women and doctors.
Abortion Laws by State:
State abortion laws vary drastically from each other, especially since the Dobbs decision. There are a lot of different ways states restrict abortion. Some of these restrictions include:
Restrictions on when, where, how, and if women can get an abortion.
No exceptions for rape, incest, and/or emergency care.
Varying degrees of punishment, including fines and/or jail time, for women who receive abortions and/or doctors who perform them.
For example, doctors in Texas can face up to 99 years in prison for performing an illegal abortion.
Some states even allow private citizens to sue doctors, abortion providers, and anyone who assists a patient seeking an abortion.
Required biased or inaccurate counseling.
Mandatory waiting periods.
Parental consent for minors.
Restrictions on government funds from being used to cover the healthcare costs of an abortion, medical facilities, or research.
TRAP laws: laws that unnecessarily single out abortion providers by placing burdensome and unnecessary medical requirements, regulations, and costs on doctors and facilities.
These laws are not medically necessary and do not make women safe. They are designed and enacted to make it harder for facilities to provide reproductive healthcare. These restrictions can force facilities to close and prevent new ones from opening.
As of the beginning of 2024, 14 states have total abortion bans with very few to no exceptions for rape, incest, or if the mother’s life is at risk. More than one in three women of reproductive age live in a state with an abortion ban.
Some states specifically design their laws to seem like they provide meaningful exemptions, but they essentially act as total bans because patients do not have meaningful access to the reproductive health services that they need.
Laws like Florida’s 6-week ban or Texas’ heartbeat bill are essentially total bans because they don’t give women any time to make an informed and educated decision to seek healthcare. These laws are total bans in disguise.They’re purposefully designed for politicians to score political points while stripping women of their rights.
Global Abortion Laws:
Over the last 30 years, more than 60 countries have expanded women’s reproductive rights by loosening restrictions on abortion. This progress expanded access to reproductive health care and expanded the rights of hundreds of millions of women all over the world, helping to make Earth a healthier place to live.
The United States is one of the few exceptions. In that time, only four countries have rolled back abortion rights: El Salvador, Nicaragua, Poland, and the United States.
Ten American states have bans with no exceptions for rape, incest, and/or the life of the mother. These states with extreme bans join the list of the most restrictive places for women’s reproductive rights in the entire world. There are only 21 countries that, like these states, totally prohibit abortion.
Abortion laws state by state are very confusing and constantly changing. Women and doctors may or may not know what they are allowed to do, which can discourage women from seeking treatment, discourage doctors from providing treatment, and force healthcare facilities to close.
Impact:
In Florida, a 15-week pregnant woman spent an hour leaking amniotic fluid, the fluid that surrounds the fetus during pregnancy, in an ER waiting room. She was left with no amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus. That is extremely dangerous, for obvious reasons. But, at the time, Florida banned abortion at 15-weeks (now, it’s just 6-weeks).
Because doctors weren’t legally allowed to give her the abortion procedure, they just listed her condition as “improved” and discharged her from the hospital. Later that day, she had a miscarriage in a public bathroom. She was rushed to another hospital where she spent 6-days on a ventilator.
An abortion ban almost killed her. And sadly, she is not alone. Because of the Dobbs decision, American women were stripped of reproductive rights and access to essential healthcare.
More than one in three, or about two-fifths of women of reproductive age live under an abortion ban. That’s over 25-million women living without reproductive freedom. They aren’t allowed to make their own choices about their own bodies, healthcare, and lives. And they now live under constant threat of forced pregnancy or being denied life saving medical care. Across the country, women that receive a scary diagnosis like an ectopic pregnancy, sepsis, or any other complication to their pregnancy no longer have access to the medical procedure that could save their life.
Abortion bans in one state always impact other states. Three recent bans in Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina continued to absolutely decimate abortion access in the South. Entire swaths of the country are now completely cut off from reproductive rights. These bans force women to flee their homes for access to healthcare and overwhelms providers with an influx of patients traveling from out of state.
In states with abortion bans, women are forced to travel across state lines for healthcare access. And in a lot of cases, women are forced to travel across the county. In 2023, over 171,000 women traveled across state lines to get an abortion. So as states pass stricter abortion bans, they force more women to travel for reproductive access. And as more states ban abortion, women have to travel even further for access. Most people can’t afford the travel and lodge costs, can’t afford to take the time off of work, or can’t afford to spend time away from their families and loved ones. And this massive influx of out of state patients completely overwhelms medical facilities, forcing patients to wait on ridiculously long waitlists.
Closures of women's healthcare facilities across the country create massive healthcare deserts. Within 30 days of the Dobbs decision, 43 clinics in 11 states had stopped providing abortion care. By 100 days after the decision, this had increased to 66 clinics in 15 states. There are no abortion-providing facilities operated in the 14 states enforcing total abortion bans.
These facilities don’t just provide abortions, they provide vital and essential women’s healthcare services like cancer screenings, access to contraceptives, etc. So, it’s no surprise that states with the toughest abortion bans also have the weakest maternal support and worst health outcomes for moms and kids. For example, these states have higher rates of child poverty, higher rates of uninsured women and families, more people per capita living in healthcare deserts, and more babies born with low birth weight.
Banning abortion and denying pregnant women access to vital healthcare also increases maternal and infant mortality. The United States already has one of the worst rates of maternal mortality out of all of the high-income nations. The United States doesn’t even have universal healthcare. And, compared to other states, states with abortion bans also generally have worse rates of maternal and infant mortality.
And these bans disproportionately impact women of color and lower-income women. On average, these groups are more likely to seek an abortion at some point in their lives, more likely to suffer health care gaps (like access to contraception), more likely to live in a reproductive healthcare desert, and less likely to be able to afford the healthcare and travel costs due to long standing racial and economic disparities.
Millions of American women live in states with bans that don’t have exceptions for rape or incest. That means millions of women now live under the fear that if they are raped they will be denied healthcare. They would be forced to physically carry that trauma around with them for 9-months and risk their health and their lives giving birth to their rapist’s baby. That’s evil.
Since the decision, the United States has seen an increase in pregnancies caused by rape. As of the beginning of 2024, about 65,000 pregnancies were caused by rape in 14 states where abortion is banned. That’s tens of thousands of rape victims who are forced to carry their pregnancies to full term because the government denies them access to reproductive healthcare.
Earlier this year, an Indianapolis doctor went public with the story of a 10-year-old girl from Ohio. This little girl is a rape victim. She became pregnant and needed to get an abortion. But, because she was 6.5 weeks-pregnant, just half a week passed Ohio’s 6-week abortion ban, her family had to travel all the way to Indiana to get her basic healthcare.
In states with abortion bans, doctors act overly cautious to completely avoid the appearance of providing an abortion. Doctors live in fear of being thrown in jail for the rest of their lives for providing healthcare to pregnant women. Abortion bans force doctors to violate the hippocratic oath by delaying or denying treatment for women until their lives are irrefutably at risk, which can cause irreparable harm or kill women.
Texas resident Kyleigh Thurman went to the hospital bleeding and in pain. She didn’t know it, but she was having an ectopic pregnancy. But, because of Texas’ abortion ban, emergency room doctors told her to “let nature take its course” and discharged her from the hospital. When she went back to the hospital three days later, her fallopian tube had ruptured, destroying part of her reproductive system and almost killing her.
According to the Associated Press, “more than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought help from emergency rooms were turned away or negligently treated since 2022.”
“Two women – one in Florida and one in Texas – were left to miscarry in public restrooms. In Arkansas, a woman went into septic shock and her fetus died after an emergency room sent her home. At least four other women with ectopic pregnancies had trouble getting any treatment, including one California woman who needed a blood transfusion after she sat for nine hours in an emergency waiting room.”
In Louisiana, one report highlighted the horrors that pregnant women endure being denied life-saving care and undergoing unnecessary surgeries:
One patient with an ectopic pregnancy, where the embryo forms outside of the uterus, was denied care so long that her fallopian tubes ruptured, nearly killing her.
Another patient in the report detailed going to the hospital in their first trimester bleeding and in pain. She had to wait hours for doctors to decide whether or not they were allowed to give her an abortion.
Cancer patients, patients with heart problems, and patients with kidney failure have all been forced to wait until their lives were irrefutably at risk before doctors can perform the procedure.
There are cases of women whose water breaks before the fetus is viable that are unnecessarily forced into surgery to get a Cesarean section because they can’t get the abortion procedure.
Doctor’s swear to do no harm to their patients. But these laws give them no other choice.
35-year-old Carmen Broesder had a miscarriage and was turned away from 3 different emergency rooms because of Idaho’s abortion laws and was left in her car bleeding out in a hospital parking lot. She forced herself to eat in tears from the pain so she could feed her daughter. She blacked out in her hallway due to blood loss. And she developed a heart condition called AFib. She went 19-days before she could finally get help.
Amber Thurman went to her local hospital in Georgia with an infection - a rare complication from her abortion medication. But just that summer, Georgia made performing the procedure she needed a felony with few exceptions. She waited in pain in her hospital bed for over 20-hours as her infection spread, her blood pressure dropped, and her organs began to fail. Doctors finally operated on her, but it was too late. She passed away at the age of 28.
Amber Thurman should be alive today. Georgia’s so-called “pro-life” policies killed her.
Some people who oppose Roe v. Wade, like Donald Trump, say that these decisions should be left up to the states. But no government should have the power to strip away women’s rights and access to basic healthcare.
The impact of the removal of federal reproductive rights has been clear: fear. Americans live in fear of being forced to give birth to their rapist's child. Americans live in fear of being denied life-saving medical treatment. And doctors and volunteers live in fear of legal and extralegal repercussions for helping women access vital healthcare.
Abortion in Pennsylvania
Currently, abortion is legal in Pennsylvania with restrictions. Abortion is legal up until 24 weeks of pregnancy, a couple of weeks before the third trimester starts, unless the health of the pregnant person is put at risk by the pregnancy.
But there are other restrictions on abortion in Pennsylvania. The Center for Reproductive Rights lists Pennsylvania as “hostile” towards abortion rights, stating, “abortion will likely remain accessible in Pennsylvania, but without legal protection. The current governor is supportive of abortion rights, but numerous medically unnecessary restrictions make it difficult to access abortion care in the state.”
In Pennsylvania, doctors who perform abortions have to give patients state provided counseling 24-hours before the procedure takes place. This counseling can be specifically designed to discourage women from getting an abortion. And the wait period means pregnant women can’t get the procedure the same day they go to the clinic. The state forces them to go home and reconsider their decision overnight. This is easily one of the most important decisions a person will ever make and the state should have no role in making that choice for a woman. And for some, the longer they wait, the more they put their own health at risk.
Minors who want to get an abortion also need parental permission or a judicial bypass. This means that a child rape victim could be denied care because their parents are anti-abortion.
And state funds, for things like healthcare, can only be used on abortions in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest.
Ever since the Dobbs decision, demand for abortion has increased in Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth has seen an influx of out-of-state patients, especially from Midwest states with abortion bans, serving as a safe haven for women’s reproductive rights.
50 years ago, Pennsylvania had over 100 abortion clinics. Today, there are only 17. Most of them are clustered in the greater Philadelphia area. There are only two west of Harrisburg, both in Pittsburgh.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2022, “one of Pittsburgh’s two clinics reported a 60% increase of out-of-state patients. And clinics in Harrisburg, York, and Allentown have reported twice as many out-of-state patients since the Dobbs decision.”
Women in West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and other states often have no other choice but to take the time and money to travel all the way to Pennsylvania for healthcare. Women even travel to Pennsylvania for healthcare all the way from Texas. This influx is overwhelming the two clinics in Pittsburgh, forcing a lot of women to travel to Eastern PA, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, or Maryland for healthcare.
So, while there are restrictions, Pennsylvania remains a vital access point for reproductive healthcare in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. But there are no legal protections, so all it would take to ban abortion in the Commonwealth is a Republican governor and Republican control of the state legislature.
How Did We Get Here?:
Roe v Wade
One major culmination of the Feminist Movement in the 1960s and 1970s was the 1972 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision, which said abortion is a constitutional right and created the first federal protections for abortion rights in U.S. history. It did so on the argument that the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause protects the right to privacy, which includes a woman’s right to reproductive healthcare.
“In the first trimester of pregnancy, the state may not regulate the abortion decision; only the pregnant woman and her attending physician can make that decision. In the second trimester, the state may impose regulations on abortion that are reasonably related to maternal health. In the third trimester, once the fetus reaches the point of ‘viability,’ a state may regulate abortions or prohibit them entirely, so long as the laws contain exceptions for cases when abortion is necessary to save the life or health of the mother.”
Basically, the Supreme Court protected access to abortion up until the third trimester, the point of fetal viability (when the fetus is much more likely to survive on its own outside the womb). They also ruled there needed to be exceptions in the third trimester to save the mother’s life.
Many of the Supreme Court’s most famous decisions were made based on this same legal argument of the right to privacy under due process, including legal protections for: same-sex marriage, anti-miscegenation and interracial marriage, sodomy, birth control and contraceptives.
As soon as this decision was made, members of the anti-abortion movement got to work spending the next half century trying to get it overturned by gerrymandering and stacking state legislatures and courts all across the country.
The Hyde Amendment
In response to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment in 1976. The Hyde Amendment bans the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. This means that, for example, lower-income individuals and people with disabilities on Medicaid can’t use their health insurance to cover the cost of an abortion, making the procedure unaffordable and inaccessible. Same thing for veterans and members of the military. Same thing for the millions of federal employees. And same thing for the more than 150,000 federal prison inmates.
Pennsylvania has it’s own version of the Hyde Amendment, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the mother’s life.
In January 2023, at 18-months pregnant, Ohio nurse Beth Long’s ultrasound showed something horrible: most of her fetus’ organs were outside its body. The condition, called limb body wall complex, is rare but fatal. They were told their girl, named Star, would not survive. Doctors recommended terminating the pregnancy as soon as possible because the longer they wait, the higher the risk of complications from the pregnancy.
But Ohio also has their own version of the Hyde Amendment with exceptions for specific cases, including emergencies. And because Long is a nurse at a state-owned hospital, even though she had an increased risk for deadly complications, they were told her life was not in imminent danger and were denied health care coverage. Since they didn’t have coverage and could not afford the procedure out of pocket, they had to spend the next few weeks frantically searching for a hospital out of state that could offer them a discounted rate.
Her husband, Kyle, sent a letter to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who wrote back: “I am so sorry to hear about what you + your wife are going through. This must be so very difficult. Thank you for sharing your story,”
“This fucker wrote back to Kyle MONTHS later, didn’t bother to learn my name or Star’s name. We are just ‘wife and baby,’ ” Beth wrote online. “I wish him nothing but suffering. May he never know peace.”
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Many of Pennsylvania’s current restrictions on abortion were enacted in 1992, including informed consent, a 24-hour-waiting period, and parental consent. These laws were taken up by the Supreme Court in the case Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. In this case, the Court reaffirmed the precedent of Roe v. Wade. But, it created an “undue burden” standard for determining the constitutionality of abortion laws, meaning states can ban abortion as long as it doesn’t create a significant obstacle on the person seeking the procedure. Under this new weak standard, the only state restriction in these new Pennsylvania laws to fail the test was the requirement that a married woman must notify her husband of her intention to abort the fetus.
Anti-Abortion Rhetoric
Unfortunately, abortion is a taboo topic with lots of misconceptions. Many people don’t realize that the abortion procedure is basic health care. Many people don't realize the procedure can be necessary to save someone’s life. Many people don’t realize that clinics like Planned Parenthood aren’t just abortion clinics, they are vital women’s healthcare clinics that provide cancer screenings and contraceptives. And many people don’t realize that Roe v. Wade just protected access up until the point of fetal viability.
Too often, anti-abortion rhetoric will use sexist tropes as an attempt to force women to adhere to societal gender roles around motherhood. The anti-abortion movement is intertwined with the anti-feminist and anti-women’s rights movements. These are movements to control women and force them into the stereotype of an American house wife.
For example, people will wrongly correlate women’s rights and abortion with declining birth and fertility rates by blaming these issues on “childless cat ladies”, like Senator and Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance. These are people that claim to be for family values, but they’re more focused on controlling women than supporting families.
A lot of people also cite their religious beliefs to defend their anti-abortion stance. Of course, people have the right to religious freedom. But, no one is allowed to force their religious beliefs on anyone else. That’s the definition of freedom of religion.
Let me be clear: this choice can be the hardest and most difficult decision a person will ever have to make. Some people live with that guilt for the rest of their lives. I completely respect and understand why people are anti-abortion. But if you’re anti-abortion, then just don’t get an abortion. The government doesn’t have the right to prevent women from accessing healthcare. The government doesn’t have the right to make that decision for anyone. You don't have the right to make that decision for anyone except yourself. And our society needs to stop criticizing and ridiculing women for making their own healthcare decisions. So, like Governor and Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz says, "mind your own damn business."
Hypocrisy of Pro-Life Violence
The United States of America has a dark history of violence against women, doctors, and healthcare clinics in the name of the “pro-life” movement.
Every single day, anti-abortion protestors harass women as they enter and leave women’s health care clinics. Some protestors even try to trick and deceive women on their way into facilities.
Abortion clinics have been burned, shot and bombed by anti-abortion extremists.
In 1996, a pipe bomb exploded at the Centennial Olympic Park during the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, injuring over one hundred people and killing a mother. Police wrongly arrested Richard Jewell while the real domestic terrorist was still at large. In 1997, the same terrorist bombed an abortion clinic in suburban Atlanta, rigging a second explosion that injured seven people, including first responders. Later that day, he bombed a crowded gay and lesbian club in Atlanta, injuring five others. And in 1998, he bombed another abortion clinic in Birmingham. Only then, after four domestic terror attacks, were authorities able to identify him as Eric Robert Rudolph. And they finally caught him in 2003, seven years after the Atlanta Summer Olympics. He said he committed these acts of terrorism as a campaign against the U.S. government, "the ideals of global socialism" and "abortion on demand".
In 2015 an anti-abortion terrorist shot and killed three people, injuring several others, at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.
Doctors have been murdered for providing healthcare to women who need it.
After surviving a previous attempt on his life, Dr. George Tiller was murdered inside his church in 2009. Dr. Tiller was one of the few doctors in the United States who provided abortions late in pregnancy to women with medical emergencies. The reason there are so few of these doctors providing this essential care is because of this fear of violence.
Women have been murdered for accessing healthcare.
In 2023 in Texas, 26-year-old Gabriella Gonzalez traveled to Colorado for an abortion. When she came back to Texas, her boyfriend murdered her.
Clinics that are just trying to provide healthcare to women are constantly dealing with the very real threat of violence. Clinics have received thousands of death threats and bomb threats. There have been hundreds of bioterror threats. There have been hundreds of arsons and attempted arsons and thousands of incidents of trespassing and vandalism.
There have been at least 150 incidents of assault or battery at clinics, 42 bombings, and 11 people murdered, including 4 doctors.
According to the National Abortion Federation, violence against abortion clinics was up triple digits since the Dobbs decision.
How can anyone who threatens or kills people call themselves “pro-life”? And how can any policy that hurts and kills people be called “pro-life”? Violence is not pro-life. Death and destruction is not pro-life. Increased maternal and infant mortality rates are not pro-life. This shows the extreme hypocrisy of the anti-abortion movement. But again, it’s not really about being “pro-life”. It’s about controlling women.
If these people were really ”pro-life”, they would support universal healthcare, housing, education, and making sure everyone has access to clean air, water, and healthy food. But instead, they’re too busy harassing women, denying them life-saving health care, burning medical facilities to the ground, and murdering doctors.
Mitch McConnell
Senator Mitch McConnell is probably the single individual who is most responsible for overturning Roe and stripping away women’s reproductive rights in America. During his time as Senate Majority Leader, he defied the will of the American people and stacked the Supreme Court with extreme conservatives hellbent on stripping away women’s rights.
In 2016, after Justice Antonin Scalia passed away, President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. But, almost an entire year before the 2016 Presidential Election, Mitch McConnell refused to even hold a hearing for Garland. He said it should wait until after the election, betting on the Republican nominee to win. This seat was the longest vacancy in Supreme Court history, leaving the Court essentially deadlocked with 4 liberals and 4 conservatives.
His bet paid off, and after Donald Trump was elected president he swiftly approved Justice Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court. He also confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh, even after credible rape allegations against him, after Justice Stephen Bryer retired. And then, in 2020, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away just 2-months before the Presidential Election. On her deathbed, she said she wanted McConnell to uphold the precedent he created out of thin air just four years earlier. She asked Mitch and Donald to wait until after the election to approve a new justice. But, they rushed to get Amy Coney Barrett approved in just 2-months before Biden won the election. They said “fuck you” to an American hero’s dying wish so they could make a power grab and take away women’s rights.
Mitch McConnell took advantage of some of the biggest flaws in our political system to steal seats on the Supreme Court and create a 6-3 conservative supermajority. He also refused to approve over 100 open federal judicial seats during the Obama Administration so he could fill them with conservative judges nominated by Donald. They completely hijacked the judicial branch of the government to strip women’s rights for their own political gain.
Because of this, conservatives know they can just take their cases through these federal courts to get the decisions they want, and they know they can get these cases all the way up to the conservative Supreme Court. So they wasted no time taking action. States quickly began passing unconstitutional abortion bans they knew would be taken up in these courts, just waiting for the first case to make it all the way up to the Supreme Court. That case was Dobbs.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
In 2022, Jackson Women’s Health Organization - Mississippi’s only abortion clinic at the time, sued against Mississippi’s new 15-week abortion ban for violating the Constitution and the precedent that abortion can’t be regulated before fetal viability (24-weeks). In the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court upheld the Mississippi state law, holding that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution doesn’t protect the right to an abortion.
This decision overturned both Roe and Casey, destroyed half a century of legal precedent, and removed all federal protections for reproductive healthcare access in the United States. Many states had “trigger” laws already on the books that immediately banned abortion after the Dobbs decision. And other states followed suit by quickly passing their own abortion bans. At the stroke of a pen, reproductive rights were stripped away from millions of women, and the rights of tens of millions of other women were put at risk.
In his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas even argued that the Supreme Court “should reconsider” other cases decided on the Roe precedent. Again, this would include legal protections for same-sex marriage, sodomy, contraceptives, and interracial marriage. So, based on Clarence Thomas’ logic, he would support overturning Loving v. Virginia and removing federal protections and allowing states to make his marriage to his wife Ginni illegal because he’s Black and she’s white.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomeyer wrote a joint dissent. They spoke of the balance struck by Roe and Casey, stating, "today, the Court discards that balance. It says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of... [O]ne result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens."
Abortion Supreme Court Cases Following Dobbs
This year, the Supreme Court made their first rulings on an abortion case in the post-Roe era:
The first decision was a case about FDA approval of the “abortion pill” Mifepristone. People can get an abortion by going to a clinic or by taking the abortion pill. Milfepristone is one of the two pills that are used together to terminate a pregnancy. The abortion pill is a safe and effective way to end an early-term pregnancy. And, it’s used in most abortions in the U.S. - over 60% of cases.
A conservative anti-abortion group asked the Court to overturn the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone. Unfortunately, like so many other cases, this group twas newly created in a notoriously conservative federal judicial district just so they could get the ruling they wanted and ensure the case would make its way to the Supreme Court. These people had absolutely no legal standing, they're just anti-abortion.
They argued the FDA overlooked safety concerns because of the stress these procedures can cause doctors. But they didn’t provide any real life examples of any true safety concerns. And it’s not like doctors are being forced to do these procedures.
So thankfully, earlier this year the Supreme Court unanimously struck down this case. These decisions, like approval for a medication, shouldn’t be made by some justices on a court - they should be made by the medical and scientific experts.
But unfortunately, damage was already done. Last year, Melissa Novak, a social worker in Georgia, found out that the fetus she was carrying had died. Her doctor only prescribed her one of the two abortion pills, only prescribing Misoprostol and not Mifepristone, citing this case as pending litigation that could ban the pill. Because she could only take one of the two medications she needed, had an “incomplete septic abortion”, was hospitalized for days, and needed emergency surgery.
These actions have very serious consequences. And while the Supreme Court refused to overturn the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone, access is still at risk. In May, Louisiana added Mifepristone and Misoprostol to the state’s list of controlled dangerous substances. Donald Trump said if he was reelected, he would be open to directing his FDA to remove its approval for the drug. And conservatives are pledging to take up a new case against the FDA’s approval after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Chevron put every executive agency’s power to regulate into question.
This Supreme Court also dismissed a case against Idaho’s near total abortion ban. This case would have determined whether or not pregnant women have the right to access emergency reproductive healthcare to protect their health.
Federal law currently states hospitals that receive federal funding under Medicare are required to provide “stabilizing care” to patients with emergency medical conditions. Abortion bans like Idaho’s are so narrow, complicated, and confusing that they prevent doctors from being able to uphold this standard of care.
In their dismissal, Idaho’s near-total abortion ban is temporarily blocked while this case goes back to the lower courts. But, they refused to protect a woman’s right to emergency reproductive healthcare and left this question up in the air.
Republican Attempts to Ban Abortion in Pennsylvania:
In 2022, the Republican led Pennsylvania State Legislature passed a single package of five potential amendments to the state’s constitution, including an abortion ban.
To amend Pennsylvania’s state constitution: the measure has to pass both legislative chambers in two consecutive two-year sessions. If it passes both chambers both times, the measure goes on the ballot for Pennsylvania voters to decide on.
But, Republicans tried to rush the passage of these amendments, purposely curbing the democratic processes. By voting for it at the very end of the ‘22 session, they were hoping to vote for it again at the very beginning of the ‘23 session to get the amendments on the 2023 off-season primary ballot, which has by far the lowest voter turnout for any election.
They tried to sneak around us, the voters, to ban abortion in Pennsylvania. But it didn’t work, because Pennsylvanians gave Democrats a one-seat majority in the state house in November, 2022, creating the only divided legislature in the country.
Protecting abortion rights in the aftermath of Dobbs:
Unfortunately, we now live in a world where states can decide the fate of women’s reproductive rights. If Republicans regain control of Pennsylvania, they will ban abortion and remove a vital safe haven for reproductive healthcare for millions of people in the region.
Abortion was on the line in PA in 2022, and we stood our ground by voting for Gov. Shapiro (ensuring a veto on any potential ban from the state legislature), Sen. Fetterman (giving Democrats a one seat majority in the U.S. Senate), and Democratic Representatives across the state (giving Democrats a one seat majority in the State House).
This shows us how every election matters, not just the presidential race. Congress, state legislatures, and judges all across the country can have a major impact on abortion rights. The fight in Pennsylvania is up and down the ballot. Democrats only have a one-seat majority in the U.S. Senate, and Democratic Senator Bob Casey is up for reelection this November against Republican Dave McCormick, who would support a national ban with very few to no exceptions. Republicans currently hold the State Senate by 3 seats, and the State House is literally as close as it can possibly get.
We also have an important election for State Attorney General, a role that’s responsible for enforcing state law. In a recent debate, the candidates were asked: if PA banned abortion, would they prosecute a woman who had an abortion or a doctor who performed the procedure? Republican Dave Sunday answered, “I will absolutely enforce and defend the abortion laws in Pennsylvania. Period.” Democrat Eugene Depasquale said, “I want to be very clear. I will never prosecute a woman or a doctor that performs an abortion.”
And protecting reproductive rights goes so much further than protecting abortion access. Access to fertility treatments and contraceptives are at risk like never before in modern history. Earlier this year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are children, causing multiple clinics to pause IVF services until the state legislature passed a bill to protect IVF. In response, Democrats in Congress took up a bill to protect IVF nationally, but it didn’t pass the filibuster in the Senate because almost every single Republican voted against it.
Access to contraception is also on the line. The Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut protects access to contraceptives. But, this was decided based on the same rationale as Roe - that the 14th Amendment protects the right to privacy. So, this case and many others are now at risk of also being overturned. And Republicans have been blocking legislation that protects access to contraceptives in Congress and in state legislators across the country.
But there is hope. Even in conservative states, voters have shown up in support of abortion and women’s rights. Last year Ohio voters approved a state constitutional amendment protecting the right to reproductive decision making. In Kentucky, voters struck down a state constitutional amendment that would’ve specified their constitution doesn’t protect abortion. And in North Dakota, the state Supreme Court struck down the state’s ban because it was unconstitutionally vague.
This November, ten different states will vote on ballot measures to protect abortion access - Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota.
And by the way, these abortion bans are extremely unpopular. 63% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Do you know how hard it is to get 63% of Americans to agree on something? We can’t even get 63% of Americans to agree that Arabic numerals should be taught in school!
These anti-abortion policies are supported by a fringe and extreme minority. But, the anti-abortion movement knows how to play the game. Ever since Roe v. Wade, this intently dedicated, loud, and vocal minority pumped tons of money and resources into stacking state legislatures and courts across the country to overturn Roe v. Wade and ban abortion.
That’s why someone like Donald Trump (who was publicly pro-choice until he ran for president and has never won a popular vote) was able to appoint one third of the justices in the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and strip away the rights of millions of women.
Donald Trump
This November, Donald is facing Vice President Kamala Harris for the U.S. Presidency. Currently, Republicans hold an 8 seat majority in the House and they look poised to take back the Senate. That means the only thing preventing Republicans from banning abortion nationwide could be Kamala Harris.
So, before we totally obliterate women’s rights by reelecting a sexual predator instead of the first female president in American history (despite being half of the population) again, let’s take a dive into his record on women’s rights:
Donald is a serial adulterer, cheater, sexual harasser, sexual assaulter, and rapist with allegations of sexual misconduct from at least 26 women. He is a monster and a predator. Please, read their stories by clicking on the links provided.
Most recently, Alva Johnson, a former campaign staffer, resigned after he grabbed her and kissed her without consent at a campaign rally in 2016.
Many of these stories became public as a part of the #MeToo movement, where for the first time - woman finally felt like they can tell their stories as victims and people will believe them. These are all powerful stories from extremely brave women.
But, these public stories don’t include all of the women who are too afraid to speak out. Donald was the most powerful person in the world. And he targets his victims to try and discredit them, leading to harassment and threats by his supporters. When he does this, he supports systemic gender injustices and a culture of fear for victims of sexual abuse.
Donald Trump is a rapist.
He was found liable for battery and sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll in the clothing room of a department store. He was ordered to pay her over $80 million for defamation.
Donald also raped his first wife Ivana Trump. She describes the incident in her book, detailing how he violently and painfully ripped out her hair and ripped off her clothes. She confirmed this in a deposition. Donald’s lawyers defended him by saying it’s impossible to rape a spouse.
He is the first president in United States history to be a convicted felon. He was found guilty on 34 counts for campaign finance violations. This case was around his illegal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels just a few weeks before the election, so she wouldn’t go public with affair the they had together while Ivanka was at home taking care of baby Baron.
He once bragged, “you know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful - I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy, you can do anything.”
While he owned and operated the Miss Universe Pageants, he entered the Miss Teen changing room where girls as young as 15-years-old were changing. He also joked about sexually assaulting and sleeping with contestants.
He was good friends with convicted sex offender and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. A former model alleged that when Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Donald, he immediately groped her without consent. She said it felt like a “twisted game” between the two men. After the incident, he sent her a postcard in his signature handwriting that said, “your home away from home. Love, Donald”.
He said he was “amazed Harvey Weinstein got schlonged.”
He was pro-choice until he ran for president, then he switched his stance and stripped away women’s rights for political gain. Even his wife Ivanka Trump is publicly pro-choice.
His election as president sparked the 2017 Women's March. This march, the day after his inauguration, was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history at the time and was accompanied by sister marches worldwide.
He stacked the federal judiciary and the U.S. Supreme Court with extreme conservatives who overturned Roe v. Wade and continue to strip away women’s reproductive rights. He even brags about it, saying, “everybody wanted Roe v. Wade terminated and brought back to the states”.
He appointed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and defended him after credible rape accusations, even mocking one of his accusers - Christine Blasey Ford.
As a Florida resident, he is going to vote to keep their 6-week abortion ban in the state’s referendum this November.
As president, he would enforce an anti-vice law from 1873 to block the mailing of abortion pills.
He would direct the FDA to reverse its approval of mifepristone and ban the abortion pill nationwide.
He would install a “pro-life task force” to replace Biden’s reproductive rights task force.
He would ban women from traveling across state lines to receive an abortion.
He said he would be okay with states tracking pregnancies so they know whether or not they get an abortion.
He is a pathological liar who constantly lies to the American people for political gain. For example, he lies about Democrats supporting 9-month and post-birth abortion. But this is just a scare tactic to trick people into supporting him by making them think his political rivals are killing babies.
He called himself the “father of IVF” even though Sen. Katie Britt had to teach him what IVF is.
If given the chance, he would sign a national abortion ban into law.
Before a recent town hall with Donald on Fox News, Amber Thurman’s parents held a press call. When the Fox moderator brought it up to him, he responded, “oh, that’s nice. We’ll get better ratings, I promise.” That is demented. He is sick. We can’t go back to a president that cares more about his own ratings than the health and safety of the American people.
This man should be in jail, not the oval office. Give him an orange jumpsuit, not the nuclear codes.
The result of the Dobbs decision is obvious. We now live in a country with some of the least reproductive rights for women in the world, where women don’t have access to healthcare, where patients and doctors live in fear of judicial and extrajudicial repercussions for receiving or providing vital healthcare, and where children rape victims are forced to risk their lives carrying a pregnancy to full term and giving birth.
Supporting women’s rights and access to healthcare IS pro-life. Abortion access saves lives. But sadly, the Dobbs decision took us back to a dark era where the only form of healthcare some women can access is a coat hanger.
Republicans were successful in overturning Roe because they spent decades organizing around this issue. They spent decades voting, gerrymandering, and stacking state legislatures and courts with anti-abortion conservatives to get here.
We need to promote women’s health, not strip away their rights. We need to support women and doctors. We need to expand access to vital healthcare so Americans can live long and healthy lives irregardless of their gender.
To achieve this goal, we need federal abortion protections. We need to codify Roe v. Wade. And we need to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and constitutional protections for privacy and reproductive rights.
I know this seems impossible. The odds are stacked against us. But time and time again throughout American history we’ve seen how organization and collective action can create positive change one step at a time. Every election matters. Whether it’s federal, state, or local - executive, legislative, or judicial - we’ve seen how they all play a part.
“Every time I share my story, my heart breaks” Amanda Zurawski started her speech at the Democratic National Convention in August. “We need to vote like lives depend on it. Because they do.”
We live in a very scary moment in American history. Democracy and women’s rights are on the line like never before. We have to keep fighting this broken system to secure our rights and freedoms; for liberty and justice for all. Because, like Vice President Kamala Harris says, “when we fight, we win!”
Comments