On December 1, 2021, The Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and legal scholars are warning the public about the possibility of the Justices leaving abortion laws in the hands of individual states. Though it is a human right, in today’s world, abortion is a contentious issue. Citizens vote lawmakers into office to protect and uphold human rights, and recent polling shows overwhelming support for protecting abortion rights; recent polling from The Washington Post shows that “Americans say by a roughly 2-to-1 margin that the Supreme Court should uphold its landmark abortion decision in Roe v. Wade, and by a similar margin the public opposes a Texas law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.” Even when some states like Texas take extreme measures to ban abortion, sadly, some parents have discreetly left their home states to seek healthcare elsewhere. For instance, ‘“One minor, who was raped by a family member, traveled eight hours from Galveston to Oklahoma to get an abortion,”’(NPR).
Moreover, when abortion procedures are prohibited, their rates do not go down, while in turn, death rates climb. In dire circumstances, parents who cannot access safe abortions turn to non-healthcare professionals to terminate their pregnancies, regardless of the safety risks. “Unfortunately, almost half of all abortions — 35 million — take place in unsafe conditions, resulting in an estimated 23,000 preventable pregnancy-related deaths every year” (Ahmed 2020). Twenty-three thousand lives have been lost due to the lack of care from the government. Where abortion clinics are most needed, they are most restricted. Abortion bans only penalize people in need of healthcare. Bans are a violation of basic human rights. Every human should have the freedom to control the circumstances under which they navigate parenthood. Protecting abortion leads to better health outcomes for all people around the globe, and it’s time for politicians to step up to the plate.
Bibliography
Lucas, Ryan, and Carrie Johnson. “Texas’ Abortion Law Is Back in Court.” NPR,
WBEZ Chicago, 1 Oct. 2021, www.npr.org/2021/10/01/1041607684/
texas-abortion-law-federal-judge. Accessed 7 Oct. 2021.
“Constitutional Protection for the Right to Abortion: From Roe to Casey to Whole
Woman’s Health.” Reproductive Rights, Center for Reproductive Rights,
www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/factsheets/
Constitutional-Protection-for-the-Right-to-Abortion-Fact-Sheet2.pdf.
Accessed 7 Oct. 2021.
Ahmed, Zara. Abortion rates don’t drop when the procedure is outlawed. But it
does make it more dangerous. THINK, NBC Universal, 29 July 2020,
www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/
abortion-rates-don-t-drop-when-procedure-outlawed-it-does-ncna1235174.
Accessed 7 Oct. 2021.