Since the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade in 1973 abortion has been considered a “reproductive right,” essential to “women’s reproductive health” and “reproductive freedom.” It is taught as such in comprehensive sex education in schools. It holds that the constitutional right to privacy gives a woman the right to decide what she does with her own body, and that this includes the right to abort a child she does not want to carry.
Should a woman have this right? What has been the reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that this right does not in fact exist?
Yes! The right to abortion is essential to a woman’s well being
The overwhelming reaction, at least according to the media, has been one of horror. Without easy access to abortion services, women’s lives will be in danger. Bans or restrictions imposed by state legislatures will make it impossible for some women to obtain an abortion. Women will die.
US President Biden
President Biden’s response was that Roe v. Wade had “established the fundamental right to privacy and liberty in matters of family and personal autonomy.”
The media
Nearly every major media outlet, including Nature and the New England Journal of Medicine, endorsed Biden’s analysis. One outlet spoke of the ruling as “terrifying.” The Washington Post response was titled “Legal Abortion saves lives.”
Harvard University
Panelists in a duscussion at Harvard Law School expressed passionately, again and again, their concern for the “pregnant persons” who will most certainly have difficulty obtaining an abortion. Many would not know where to seek an abortion if there were no local facilities. Many would not be able to afford to travel to obtain services, even if they could find them. If they did have an abortion out of state, they would not have access to medical help locally if something went wrong. “Persons will die.”
Medical Associations
Most medical associations and bioethicists were horrified by the sudden reversal of nearly 50 years of a “constitutional right” to abortion.
Young American Women
For high school seniors their choice of college may be made on the basis of whether or not abortion is legal in the state where the college is located.
One woman said, “I don’t want to live in a state that doesn’t allow the basic things of life.”
Internationally
Canada
Prime Minister Trudeau called the decision “horrific.” “My heart goes out to the millions of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion.”
New Zealand:
All major political parties (with the exception of National) slammed” the decision. Prime Minister Ardern described Dobbs as “deeply upsetting” and said that robbing women from making their own decisions “feels like a loss for women everywhere.”
But wait a minute. Does anyone have the “right” to end the life of another human being, even — or maybe especially — of a baby in the womb?
Ask your teens how they feel about these responses to the overthrow of Roe v. Wade and how they would answer this question.
To be continued
