My life with Roe
As of today, the Supreme Court nullified Roe, and a majority of states will ban abortions in the near future. It is widely expected that other rights established by the privacy clause, from contraception to gay relationships and marriage, are under threat as well.
I am part of the generation that experienced life without Roe and what seems like a lifetime knowing that I had free access to abortion, if that option became necessary. It is the young women of today who, without that option, will be forced to bring an unwanted pregnancy to term, face an incomprehensible alteration to their lives and watch their dreams and careers evaporate. The lack of access to abortion is especially consequential for poor women who can’t afford to travel to states that permit abortion or fall into deeper poverty.
I was a child of the 1950s and 1960s, before women were granted the protection of legal abortion. I remember a high school friend who had to leave school and our community when she became pregnant. I don’t know what happened next for her, whether she had outlived the shame, trauma, stigma and responsibilities of motherhood, because she never returned to school. There was a good chance that the young father was able to finish his schooling without interruption. Except in cases where the young couple was forced into a “shotgun marriage,” there were few consequences for the father. As I recall, people made excuses that “boys will be boys” and could “sow their wild oats” or that the girl was at fault for being “loose” or for tempting her partner. It was seldom acknowledged that a girl in puberty had the same sexual desires as a boy. The only difference was that it was the girl who got pregnant and suffered the consequences.
Avoiding pregnancy through abstinence was an unlikely option for young people driven by the onset of sexual desire, then or now. Recent data show that nearly 70% of teens have had sexual relations by the time they reach age 18. At age 16, nearly 30% of girls and 34% of boys have had sexual intercourse. Pregnancy is a possible outcome for all of these teenage girls. Contraception is now widely used to avoid pregnancy but no method is fail-safe. Data show that the abstinence rate among unmarried women is only 9 percent. At some point in their lives, most women will uncomfortably watch their monthly periods for proof that they have once again avoided pregnancy. Even more if, as Justice Thomas suggests, we next lose the right to contraception.
This was my point of view when I was a teenager and saw life through a narrow lens. The consequences of unwanted pregnancies for married and unmarried adults were beyond my comprehension, but now I have a broader knowledge of how access to abortions changed the lives of all women.
It then seemed that my world changed overnight. I entered college in 1968 and shortly after arriving my roommate suggested that we go to Planned Parenthood to get the pill. The availability of contraception, the 1973 Roe decision, the women’s movement, and the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment changed my life and outlook. As if hand in glove, more women and families had access to family planning and clinics opened nationwide to enable women to plan childbirth for when they are able and ready to bring a child into the world and love and support it as each child deserves. As if overnight, I realized freedom as a woman. Not inconsequential was the realization of female sexuality. Without the fear of pregnancy, women were free to express their sexual needs and desires as they never had before.
A young woman recently suggested that some women rely on abortion as a form of birth control, but this is a falsehood. No woman chooses the trauma of abortion without thought. My best friend had an abortion not long after Roe passed. An unknown man broke into her home and raped her under threat. She didn’t even see her attacker. She became pregnant and didn’t believe that bringing her pregnancy to term was an option after the horror of her rape. She moved in with me and stayed for many weeks before she felt safe enough to return home. The new anti-abortion laws would have added trauma to trauma. This is women’s experience.
Roe is fundamental to women, their sexuality, equality, dreams, freedom from fear and freedom of choice to live full and satisfying lives. That is why 61 percent of the population wanted Roe to stand, especially when the life of the mother is endangered (the U.S. has one of the highest women’s mortality rates in the developed world) or when their pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Among 11 developed countries, the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate, a relative undersupply of maternity care providers, and no guaranteed access to provider home visits or paid parental leave in the postpartum period, a recent report from The Commonwealth Fund concluded. In 2018, there were 17 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births in the U.S. — a ratio more than double that of most other high-income countries. In contrast, the maternal mortality ratio was three per 100,000 or fewer in in the Netherlands, Norway, and New Zealand.
Fundamentally, anti-abortion laws are laws against women and their impact is immeasurable. As if to prove that anti-abortion law are anti-female laws, some states have criminalized abortion and the women who want one. The state legislators that passed them have no interest in providing a social safety net that pregnant women and mothers need. There is no interest in providing paid parental leave, financial support for mothers who can’t afford a child, or medical and mental health care. There isn’t even a whisper of identifying fathers and holding them accountable. With the Supreme Court’s ruling against abortion, a fundamental right of women has suffered a body blow and women in this Nation are no longer free to live the lives they choose.
I am glad that I was alive to benefit from the constitutional rights to womanhood. It is now up to younger women to once again fight the good fight for women’s rights and freedoms. They know what it looked like only a day ago and have a roadmap. The mantle is passed.