Abortion in the United States: Supreme Court Justices Should View in Favor of Roe v. Wade Decision
Saiful Islam
Abstract
Abortion was made legal in 1973 for Americans, however, some Americans continue to strive for the restriction of abortion. Supreme Court Justices are currently reviewing the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case to determine whether or not abortion should remain legal. In this case, the court ruled that the Constitution protects the women’s right to choose and that abortion is legal throughout the United States. The criminalization of abortion could be a possible consequence from this revision, leaving women’s rights at stake. The aim of this research essay is to show how abortion is not the problem but rather the circumstances leading to abortion are the problem. If abortion is completely banned, then some natural rights will be taken away from women. In order to achieve a mutual decision, the demographics of abortion patients (factors of women are having abortions), and the prevention of unwanted pregnancy need to be accounted for.
Debate on abortion legality
Pro-life beliefs:
- Anti-abortion
- All humans have a right to life
- Abortion is evil and the equivalent of murder
- Roe v. Wade should be overturned
The debate to legalized abortion which is determined by lawmakers of the country sets forth whether abortion can be done under all, some, or no circumstances. If abortion is made legal in all situations, then pro-life supporters would be displeased. Pro-life, also referred to as anti-choice, supporters argue that all humans (born or unborn) have a right to life (anti-abortion). They are less concerned about the women who have unintended pregnancies. They believe abortion is wrong and that it is the equivalent of murder. Also, most anti-choice people believe that the decision made in the Roe v. Wade case should be overturned.
Pro-choice beliefs:
- Pro-abortion
- Women have the right to decide
- Women have the right to terminate their pregnancy
- Legal abortions result in less dangerous abortions
- Roe v. Wade should not be overturned
On the other hand, if abortion is made completely illegal, then pro-choice supporters would be dissatisfied. Pro-choice supporters argue that women have the right to decide when and whether to have children. They view that women should have the right to terminate their pregnancy if they have one (pro-abortion). They argue that the availability of legal abortions restrains women from partaking in dangerous, illegal abortions. Also, most pro-choice people agree with the decision made in Roe v. Wade.
Factors leading to unwanted pregnancy
An article by the Washington Post provides the following information about women who get abortions:
- 40 percent of American women who have abortions fall below the federal poverty level
- 60 percent of American women who have abortions have given birth at least once
- 36 percent of American women who have abortions are white
- 29.6 percent of American women who have abortions are African American
(“TV shows distort”)
Overall, women who undergo abortions are inclined to be poor and previous birth-givers. Correspondingly, socioeconomic concerns and limited childbearing are “the most frequently cited reasons for having an abortion” (Chae, et al). Having a baby could potentially interfere with a woman’s education, work, or care for current children. In other cases, the baby could not be supported within financial means.
If a woman knows it is not a suitable time for her to have a child, she could use contraception (birth control methods such as condoms and pills) to prevent an unintended pregnancy. If an unintended pregnancy is first interrupted by using contraception, then the worry of having an abortion is also gone. An early 2018 Guttmacher Institute news release states that “In 2014, about half (51%) of abortion patients in the United States reported that they had used a contraceptive method in the month they became pregnant” (“Abortion Patients Report Using Contraception”). Correspondingly, roughly half of the abortion patients did not use contraception in the month they became pregnant. Contraceptive methods don’t work perfectly all the time as apparent for 51% of these abortion patients, however, it works almost all the time. Using a contraceptive method could have benefitted the other 49% of abortion patients.
Since 40% of American women seek abortions because of “financial unpreparedness,” condoms and other birth control methods should be provided at low-costs (Chae, et al). Financial unpreparedness can be the reason for why some of these women did not use contraception during the month of their pregnancy. Contraceptives could have been pricey for some of these women to buy so they proceeded to have sexual intercourse without them.
The factors leading to unwanted pregnancies reveal that Americans need a more affordable access to contraception.
Arguments made by pro-life advocates are invalid
A presentation took place in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts. The discussion that took place focused on women’s access to reproductive health services. Merissa Kovach, a field organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said that
There is a religious refusal bill that would allow health care professionals to refuse to give services based on moral or religious beliefs… [the bill] is promoted as a means of protecting the consciences of health care workers who have religious and moral objections to providing certain health care services. (UWIRE)
This bill was passed due to frustrated healthcare workers who were against abortion. They refused to provide abortion services because of their own moral or religious beliefs. Based on this, many other pro-life proponents do not endorse abortion due to their own religious beliefs. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism all share some sort of immorality towards abortion, which happen to be the religions that many Americans follow. Hence, “three in four Americans would use criminal laws to restrict access to abortion” possibly because of their own religious beliefs (Oberman).
However, there are already some laws in America that go against the religious beliefs of many Americans. For instance, marriage between same-sex couples has recently become legal. However, homosexuality acts are sinful in Judaism, Islam, and some parts of Christianity, which happen to be a few of the biggest religions in America. Also, the consumption of alcohol became legal through the establishment of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution. Nevertheless, Buddhism, Islam, and some parts of Christianity forbid the drinking of alcohol. Hence, another law that goes against religious norms won’t change anything about the already irreligious America.
A common misconception about restricting abortion laws
Government officials and anti-choice proponents believe that the best way to halt further abortions is by imposing strict abortion laws. Through these restrictions, they aim to decrease abortion rates and save the lives of the unborn. However, this cannot be achieved by enforcing strict laws. In fact, it can possibly lead to even more deaths than before; not only the unborn but also the mother of the unborn. “As of 2014, the [Guttmacher Institute] report found, at least 22,800 women die each year from complications from an abortion that are not considered safe” (Levy). Strict abortion laws will not stop women from getting abortions, but force women to use other harmful methods. In other countries where abortion is illegal, women who want to have an abortion turn to self-abortion or other unsafe methods which lead to the termination of the fetus and their own life. Americans can likewise adopt these unsafe methods again and the outcome of this would be unfavorable. Some women in America already partaking in unsafe abortions. In a survey, “(73%) indicated that they were searching for information [on self-abortion] because they were pregnant and did not or may not want to be” (Jerman, et al). Some of these respondents were trying to have self-abortions regardless if abortion was legal or not in their state, and the number of self-abortions will go up tremendously if abortion is made illegal.
When abortion was originally a criminal act in the early 1900s, a massive number of women resisted the law and had secret abortions. They had abortions for the same reasons women have abortions today: “too poor, too young… or too vulnerable to have a baby.” Medical and law enforcement experts in the 1950s and ‘60s, “estimated that between 1 and 2 million girls and women every year had secret abortions” (Solinger). These secret abortions were often unsafe and some women suffered greatly. If abortion is recriminalized, then what happened before Roe v. Wade could happen again.
Further, Levy shows in the article “Abortion Rates: Where and Why They’re Falling” that countries successfully decrease their abortion rates by expanding contraception availability. The article uses examples of countries that made contraception more accessible to their people and countries with restricting abortion laws to demonstrate how limiting abortion laws do not help but the expansion of contraception, in turn, does: “…stricter abortion laws do not lead to fewer abortions, preventing unwanted pregnancies has a significant effect on reducing the number of terminations” (Levy).
Abortion and contraception should be more accessible
Although abortion is legal in the United States, it is often probable that “…some individuals may seek to terminate pregnancies outside of a clinical setting if clinical abortion services are unavailable, inaccessible, or unacceptable to them” (Jerman). Self-abortion and other abortion methods done outside of clinical abortion services tend to be deadly for the pregnant women using these abortion methods, losing the unborn child in the process as well. While inhibiting abortion laws do not lead to their intended outcome, the best option would be to keep abortion legalized. In order to please pro-life supporters, contraception should be made more accessible to ensure that fewer abortions transpire. Through the use of contraception, there will be fewer unintended pregnancies for an abortion to occur in the first place.
Conclusions
In any case, pro-life activism should not be about the lives of the unborn but rather about the lives of women. The restrictions broached by pro-life activists are unlogical both lawfully and in the public health sense. This activism should be done to offer women better support, not to bring them down. Thus, Supreme Court Justices should work together with government officials to bring women better support. Together they can make abortion and contraception more available, affordable, and accessible to women than ever before. The first step towards a future with greater support for women and fewer abortions is the Supreme Court’s support for the decision made in Roe v. Wade.
Works Cited
“About Half of U.S. Abortion Patients Report Using Contraception in the Month They Became Pregnant.” Guttmacher Institute, 11 Jan. 2018, www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2018/
Chae, et al. “Reasons Why Women Have Induced Abortions: a Synthesis of Findings from 14 Countries.” Contraception, vol. 96, no. 4, 2017, pp. 233–241.
Levy, Gabrielle. “Abortion Rates: Where and Why They’re Falling.” USNews.com, 21 Mar. 2018. Infotrac Newsstand,
http://link.galegroup.com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A531888258/STND?u=cuny_ccny&sid=STND&xid=
746da768. Accessed 4 Nov. 2018.
Oberman, Michelle. “Cristina’s world: lessons from El Salvador’s ban on abortion.” Stanford Law & Policy Review, Winter 2013, p.
271+. LegalTrac, http://link.galegroup.com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A336671728/LT?
u=cuny_ccny&sid=LT&xid= 9a810050. Accessed 19 Nov. 2018.
“Pro-choice supporters share thoughts on abortion legislation.” UWIRE Text, 10 Dec. 2015, p. 1. Infotrac Newsstand,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A437066418/STND?u=cuny_ccny&sid=STND&xid=a1ac7e33. Accessed 4 Nov. 2018.
Solinger, Rickie. “This Is What Life Was like for Women in America before Roe v. Wade.” Vox, Vox, 7 Sept. 2018,
www.vox.com/first-person/2018/7/3/17530862/brett-kavanaugh-abortion-roe-v-wade.
“TV shows distort which women get abortions — and why they get them.” Washingtonpost.com, 15 Dec. 2015. Academic OneFile,
https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A437594602/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=d6246022. Accessed 17 Nov.
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