I’m sure everyone has heard of the draft by the Supreme Court to overturn abortion rights. For so many of us, this was what we were afraid would happen. After seeing the rush to get new justices on the court who seemed pretty certain they would do this, it seemed inevitable. I had hoped that we would be wrong, but it seems like everyone who thought we were overreacting was wrong and we were right to worry.
Whether or not you agree with having an abortion yourself, nobody should be able to tell someone if they are allowed to have a medical procedure. Nobody can force you to donate blood or a kidney, so why would it be allowed to force someone to use their uterus against their will? Some people claim that because there is adoption, there is no need for an abortion. But that is forcing someone to carry a pregnancy against their will and suffer the physical and mental risks that come with that. And even if you do go through with a pregnancy and have someone adopt the baby (which isn’t a guarantee because you can see how many babies are in foster care that need homes), who is going to also cover the financial risks for the person who had to give birth? They can’t go back to work the next day, so will the government cover paid time off for everyone who is forced to do this? How about all the medical bills? Giving birth can be thousands of dollars. If you are doing this and it’s not your choice, you shouldn’t be forced into paying for the medical care you didn’t want.
So many states have trigger laws that will outlaw all abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. So if a child is assaulted and becomes pregnant, they will be forced to go through the pregnancy. Some states don’t even allow for terminations if the mother’s life is at risk, so they are sentencing people to death which would end the pregnancy anyway. But I guess they would rather end the mother’s life so they can say they never ended the pregnancy.
And there are so many other issues that come up with this connected to pregnancy if these rights are overturned. We’ve already seen a mother who had a miscarriage be arrested because they thought she had an abortion. I would suspect that would happen more and more as some states give financial rewards for helping them punish women who terminate their pregnancies. Even if those women are found innocent and let free, who pays for their legal help? If they are in jail for a few days and lose their kids because of it, who will help them get things resolved? And then there is the issue of embryos and IVF. When you go through IVF, you create embryos and not all of them are used. Some have genetic issues that would not end up as a viable pregnancy. Others might just be extras after you have your kids. People are given options of what to do with extra embryos, but if termination is illegal will they be forced to use all their embryos even if they are not going to make it? Will they be made to go through the entire IVF procedure knowing they cannot have a pregnancy just so they use up the rest? I know there are embryo donations for extras that are deemed normal that others could use, but would you have to donate the ones you know cannot succeed? And then there is still the financial aspect of it. If you are forced to use all that are made, who pays for the medications and surgeries to use them up when you don’t want to have a baby? Or will people stop doing IVF because of these fears and risks?
And outside of the concerns about the right to an abortion, the draft shows a scary future that the Supreme Court might be creating. They mention that this needs to be overturned and that other things were decided based on the same “invalid” reasoning. These include the right for same-sex couples to marry, the right to have access to birth control, and the right to interracial marriage. This is a slippery slope and I can’t imagine what would happen if they come after those rights next. But why would they mention them in the draft if this wasn’t a preview of their plan?
But now is not the time to be scared. This is the time to fight. And there are many ways to fight. First, if you want to donate to help those who need access to safe and needed medical care, there is a good list on this page. There are talks about protests coming and I would watch social media to see more about that. Make sure you speak up however you can. This draft might have been released so they could see our reaction, and we don’t want to be quiet and have people think we are ok with this. We need to be loud and make sure that safe abortions are accessible. Overturning this will not make abortions go away. It will only make safe abortions go away for millions of people. Those who have the means and money will always find ways to have safe abortions. They might travel to another state to do it or find another way to make sure they get the care they want. But those who don’t have that option will be the victims of this. They will find unsafe ways to end their unwanted pregnancies and we do not want to see that happening. We need to keep each other safe, and keeping safe abortions legal is one way to do it.
I really hope that this draft ends at just being a draft and those on the Supreme Court somehow change their minds, but we can’t just wait and see. We have to make sure we are fighting because if we don’t before we know it more rights will be gone. And now is the time we have to fight for this right and I will not be quiet as long as I have my voice.
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