The year is 1973. The United States Supreme Court decided to make the landmark decision of recognizing the right to liberty in the Constitution, protecting personal privacy, and the right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy. Roe v. Wade recognized that the decision of whether to continue or end a pregnancy belongs to the individual, not the government. Now, 50 years later the American government has decided to overturn this long-standing right to bodily anatomy that women across the nation have worked so hard to obtain. Women in America no longer fully possess human rights to health and bodily integrity. This court ruling will exacerbate already unconscionable health and economic inequities; “For the first time since it was established …show more content…
It is an essential component of women’s health care. Safe abortions do not equal legal, and illegal abortions do not mean unsafe. Induced abortions are an essential component of women’s health care. Like all medical matters, abortion decisions should be made by patients in consultation with their healthcare providers and without interference from outside parties. Like all patients, women obtaining abortion are entitled to privacy, dignity, respect, and support (“Facts Are Important…”). Abortions are common health interventions. “Approximately one in five people capable of getting pregnant will have an abortion by age 30, and one in four by age 45. Despite the undeniable need, federal restrictions leave abortion care out of reach for many of the 13.5 million women of reproductive age (15 to 49 years old) enrolled in Medicaid in states that don’t use their funding to cover abortions” (DiAntonio 1). Multiple studies indicate that the inability to afford abortion care places put pregnant individuals further into poverty and harms their health as well as the well-being of their current and future children. Anti-abortion activism continues to constrain the availability of this life-saving medicine. When the government has failed to provide essential safe abortion care or has created barriers through very restrictive laws, non-governmental groups have mobilized to fill the gaps (Jelinska and Yanow 87). …show more content…
Some believe abortion is murder, and that women shouldn't have the choice whether their embryo lives to term or not because it deserves fundamental human rights. Some believe abortion is wrong because their religion says so, and some see it as an ethical issue. “There are those who believe, with very strong conviction, that life begins at fertilization or implantation and anything done thereafter to interrupt a pregnancy is murder. Similarly, some believe, with equal fervor, that women have the ultimate right to decide whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, at least through the first or second trimester of pregnancy” (Bernstein 117). While abortion has become a political issue, lawmakers should have no say in what people decide to do with their bodies. “There is no middle ground between these two strongly held viewpoints, except perhaps to better prevent unwanted pregnancies. Thus, where abortion is legal, there will be continued strong advocacy among those opposed to abortion (as in the US) to make it illegal and where it is illegal, pro-choice activists will continue to lobby vigorously to change the law” (Bernstein 116). Abortion is healthcare and that is a fact. Medical abortion is even seen as subversive because it challenges traditional assumptions about service delivery requirements. The experiences from settings where self-induced abortions are a lifeline for women provoke reflection about the