SCOTUS Can't Turn Back Time On Abortion Rights, But It Can Do Something Worse [View all]
Edited to add: The salient point here is that while overturning Roe directly would create a lot of political blowback, they don't need to directly overturn it to have the same effect.
Laura Hercher -BuzzFeed Contributor
For the first time since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, five justices hostile to reproductive rights sit on the US Supreme Court. And while many have focused on whether or not this new majority will overturn Roe v. Wade, that question is a distraction. We are not headed backward into the land before Roe — we are headed forward into uncharted territory.
Over the past 25 years, even as Roe v. Wade was upheld, abortion opponents demonstrated that state laws restricting access can be just as effective as an outright ban — so long as the Supreme Court permits infringements on the right to choose. The court’s new right-wing majority can accelerate this process without overturning Roe v. Wade — and potentially avoiding the backlash from a country where the majority of citizens are pro–abortion rights.
A patchwork of state laws would make it seem like access to abortion is tied to geography, but that would be an illusion. People with money, in every state, will always be able to get whatever care they require. This was true before Roe, and it is much more straightforward in today’s world, where air travel is routine and services can be arranged on the internet.
The people quite literally left behind will be an assortment of vulnerable individuals: women lacking money to pay for services out of pocket, working women unable to negotiate an unexplained leave from home or work, women who fear their partners, the very young, the developmentally delayed.
It also means that means that some people will be able to avoid the birth of a child with a genetic disease or disability, and some people will not. Such diseases will become something that happens primarily to certain people in certain places.
More at link:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/laurahercher/supreme-court-roe-v-wade-abortion-access
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