Women in America are watching the walls close in on our rights not too long after our mothers and grandmothers fought to shatter glass ceilings. On Monday night news broke that the Supreme Court is poised to strike down based on an early draft of a majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that was leaked and later published by Politico. If overturned, the decision will have resounding effects on the health and autonomy of pregnant people in the United States for generations.
The Roe decision in 1973 guaranteed women federal protections regarding reproductive rights, while the Planned Parenthood decision in 1992 overturned Roe’s trimester framework to accommodate fetal viability analysis, which authorized states to implement restrictions on abortion during the first trimester. If Roe is overturned, then tighter restrictions on abortion access are likely to be implemented in states that do not already have existing abortion restrictions, like Texas. Justices in the majority assert Roe should not have passed in the first place.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” writes Alito in the leaked draft. “Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”
Alito argues that overturning Roe would align 2022 America with ideals from the past, which is precisely what most women fear. “The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions,” he writes.
If Roe is overturned, the states will determine their own abortion laws, and more than a dozen states already have trigger laws in place that would ban abortions completely if and when that happens.
Across the globe, only 24 countries have prohibited abortions altogether, which includes El Salvador, Iraq, and Sierra Leone despite the documented risks to women and transgender men seeking to terminate pregnancies. A 2019 study conducted by Rutgers University reports that as many as 30% of transgender men in the U.S. have faced unintended pregnancy, but limited data exists to track every pregnant patient.
Limiting access to abortion does not end abortion but rather forces pregnant people to seek dangerous options. At Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, Louisiana, staff have been preparing for the worst when it comes to restricting people’s rights to access safe abortions.
“We’ve been very aware of the possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned in the near future,” says Lillian Newton, patient advocate at Hope Medical Group for Women. “However, having the confirmation that it is happening now stunned us all.”
The World Health Organization reports that unsafe abortions are the leading—albeit preventable—cause of maternal deaths and morbidities. Moreover, about 23,000 women die from unsafe abortions every year, while thousands more suffer negative health complications that can result in long-term impacts.
A 2021 study reports that an abortion ban in the U.S. would cause a 21% increase in the volume of overall pregnancy-related deaths in the country, as well as a 33% increase among Black women.
The WHO also reports that restricting access to safe abortion poses human rights violations for women and girls, such as the right to reach the highest attainable standards of mental and physical health and the right to benefit from scientific progress. Ninety-seven percent of unsafe abortions are performed in developing countries, but experts fear that women in the U.S. might not soon have a choice if Roe is overturned.
Despite medical and technological advances, scientific data, and testimony from women, allies, and physicians, conservative lawmakers continue to threaten the reproductive rights of women in the U.S.
Glamour spoke with women across the country about their thoughts on overturning abortion rights.
I truly believe this is a human rights violation. Women should have the right to body autonomy and be allowed to make an educated choice on whether they want an abortion. And, honestly, it makes me scared for the future. What other progressive rulings will they overturn next? We had that scare in Texas with an abortion report hotline, which was fully legal and used, I feel, as modern-day witch hunt. It still has me on edge thinking about how much I’d have to go through if I was to need an abortion. If Roe and Casey are overturned, then that means every woman or AFAB person—particularly those who live in the South—should be very worried for their future.
A ruling like this erases so much progress and opens deeply personal wounds. It’s devastating. Years ago, someone told me they believed anyone who had an abortion was a murderer and belonged in jail. It was the most extreme statement on abortion I’d ever heard, and I’ve been wary of the anti-abortion movement ever since. Abortion is a medical procedure. Do anti-choice activists not understand the fact that abortion is a safe and effective medical procedure? Or do they simply want to impose their specific moral and religious beliefs on others? Decisions about medical procedures are between a person and their doctor. The rights of millions of citizens to make decisions about their own bodies are being taken away by a handful of judges.
I am extremely disheartened. It feels like an incredible feat to try to convince someone they should care about women’s rights. They would rather devote more time and money protecting a six-week fetus than a woman’s life. There is so much time, energy, power, and influence spent on restricting someone’s rights, ironically from a party who consistently uses words like freedom and choice to push their agenda deeper into laws. There will never be enough funding to support those forced into existence because of laws like this, and we often condemn women who rely on federally funded programs for taking handouts.
The choice to get an abortion should be left up to women, period. I feel that in the long term, it could cause women to lead lives that were forced upon them that would cause both mothers and children to not flourish. As a woman, overturning Roe v. Wade is something I feared, and it’s concerning to me that there could even be a possibility of taking this right away.
Generations of women who have grown up with the right to self-determination will not go quietly back into the kitchen and under a man’s thumb. We will make sure our sisters and daughters aren’t forced into giving birth to a child that is unplanned. We are smarter now, we are stronger now, we have many avenues that we will use to vote out antiwomen legislators and we will help our fellow women when they are faced with an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.
If someone does not wish to—or cannot—continue a pregnancy, forcing them to do so can have tragic results. People take matters into their own hands, which can mean very different things. Anti-abortion advocates use the term “pro-life,” which I find offensive. If life is what they valued, they would understand the importance of bodily autonomy and be able to make their own decisions about their life path. Needless to say, those with power and money, including the very lawmakers involved in this decision, will always have access to abortion.
This news made me sad. Instead of moving forward and being able to decide what is best for me, I’m being told and directed on what to do. I feared something like this would happen. It seems like in the last eight years women’s and minority rights are coming to a halt instead of gaining more momentum. Every woman deserves to make her own decision based on quality of life and experience. It shouldn’t be old men in office deciding what they should do. I’m disappointed that as a minority, women are having to deal with these issues again and not being able to control their own bodies.
Why is this being brought up again? And why is this happening during a time of inflation? I was very angry, scared, and disgusted not just for but mostly for minorities like me. Not all women who have kids also have the means to take care of them. I never feared this would happen before because I was born at a time when we talked about all the good that Roe has done and how women should have a right to their own bodies. It’s just sad to hear that we have to fight again for something men don’t or even can have.
There’s so much misinformation surrounding women’s reproductive health that it’s hard to pin down one aspect people aren’t understanding, but I think a significant issue used to stoke fear is “late-term abortions.” Nearly 93% of abortions happen prior to week 14. “Late-term abortions” was a term coined by politicians to trick voters into thinking women are carrying fetuses for six, seven, eight-plus months, and suddenly deciding they don’t want that child. This simply isn’t true.
“Late-term abortions” are almost always performed on planned or wanted babies. Meaning women are forced to terminate pregnancy because their health is at risk or the fetus isn’t viable. We don’t seem to be talking about these facts enough. Forcing a woman to carry to term a nonviable fetus—a fetus or baby that will not survive—is a heinous form of torture. And it’s exactly why proponents of women’s rights advocate for these decisions to be made between women and their doctor, not their government.
But anti-choice advocates have so successfully distorted this reality that people truly believe there are countless “reckless” women out here going through eight months of pregnancy and then deciding, “Eh, never mind…” at the last second. It’s asinine.
I was shocked when I heard that the Supreme Court issued a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. I knew this was a goal of many Republicans but felt like the justices would not overturn a decision made almost 50 years ago. I felt like the justices would consider the law instead of caving to political pressure. I knew the new laws to pretty much prevent all abortions that Texas and Mississippi are passing would put Roe before the Court soon, but I just hoped the law was more ironclad. I also don’t think lawmakers and pro-life advocates understand that it isn’t as simple as having the baby and adopting it if you can’t keep it. Many women feel very sick when they’re pregnant. They may not be able to afford to take off from work when they’re sick. It takes a while for a woman’s body to recover after having a baby, and, again, women may not have paid time off to do that. I feel afraid that women may try to do illegal abortions and die or get very sick.
It scares me for our future. I take birth control to regulate my period and cramps because without it my cramps are so bad I can’t get out of bed. I’ve had slipups where condoms have broken and had to take Plan B, and knowing now I might not have access to that is pretty terrifying.
And the fact that it’s not just abortion rights; it’s women’s health care in general. Lawmakers are so adamant about bringing religion into it, and the Constitution, and other B.S. when it’s nothing about that. We’re in the year 2022 and, as women, we have to continue to take a back seat to men deciding what we should do with our bodies.
For some reason, every single time this is brought up in the year 2022, I’m just blown away. I’m angry, but I’m driven to help change this. I thought this was very possible when Trump became president and frequently brought it up. When he nominated Amy Coney Barrett, I knew we were going to see big changes and face injustices. I’m going to use my voice and vote to help make a change.
