On Monday night, in an unprecedented leak from the Supreme Court, the website Politico published a draft document with the heading “Majority Opinion,” in which Justice Samuel Alito wrote ”Roe and Casey must be overturned, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.”
Although Roe has not yet been formally overturned, the moment it is 22 states will have outlawed abortion. An additional four states are expected to join them. In Illinois, the Reproductive Health Act, passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2019, formally recognizes the “fundamental right” of women to access abortion services.
The approaching storm of debate over the Supreme Court’s apparent decision fills me with dread. Abortion is perhaps the most polarizing issue in the United States, and as such it is nearly impossible for many Americans to approach it in an open-minded, pragmatic way. And yet, it was such an approach that led to reform in the first place.
Abortion bans began to appear in the United States around the time of the Civil War, in part as an effort to stamp out midwifery. By 1880, abortion was legally banned — usually with exceptions for the health of the mother — in every state. By the 1960s, public health experts estimated one million abortions were performed every year in the U.S. As the public conception of the procedure began to change, respected organizations such as the American Law Institute and the American Medical Association began to recommend policy allowing for ”therapeutic” abortion.
Meanwhile, the social ferment of the 1960s produced numerous organizations committed to the reform of abortion law in the U.S. Feminist groups such as the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Law emerged from the Women’s Movement, religious groups such as the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, a group of ministers and rabbis in New York City, and underground groups like the Jane Collective in Chicago all contributed to the movement to reform abortion law. By the time of the Roe decision in 1973 five states had repealed their abortion bans: Alaska, California, Hawaii, New York and Washington.
The national legalization of abortion reduced teenage motherhood by 34%. Among black women, it reduced maternal mortality by between 30% and 40%. Studies by economists have shown legalization substantially reduced the number of unwanted children, cases of child abuse and neglect, child poverty, and improved long-term outcomes for a generation of Americans through increased educational attainment and poverty reduction.
About 1.4% of women of childbearing age obtain an abortion each year, which means about 1 in 4 American women receive an abortion by the age of 45. According to a recent survey of abortion patients conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, 49% live below the poverty line and 59% already have children. Medicaid pays for more than half of live births in the U.S. and 15% of American children live in poverty — numbers that will surely rise with the Supreme Court’s impending decision.
Whether you know it or not, it is likely someone you know and love has benefited from access to safe, legal medical abortion. Banning it without exception will not end the practice, but only make accessing appropriate care difficult and dangerous.
- Samuel Barbour is a proud papa, loving life partner and amateur ukelele composer. A local economics professor, he muses on all things topical, within our community and abroad, affecting our daily lives. Questions and comments are fielded at newsroom@mywebtimes.com