Tag: abortion

Being a Woman In a Post Roe v Wade World

Pat Liberty

In 2021 the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. Fifty years of settled law was overturned in minute–fifty years of women having control over their bodies, deciding if they want to be pregnant. This opened the door for states to make their own laws which delineate what health care services a woman can access. Currently, abortion is banned in fifteen states.

In Alabama, all abortions at every stage of pregnancy are outlawed. The law allows an exception only if the patient’s life or health is at serious risk. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

In Arkansas, abortions are banned entirely from conception, with an exception only to save the life of the pregnant person. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

In Kentucky, all abortions are banned, with an exception only to save the life of the pregnant person. There are no exceptions for rape or incest

In Louisiana, all abortions are banned with exceptions only for life endangerment or lethal fetal anomalies. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

In Missouri, all abortions are banned allowing intervention solely for medical emergencies.

In Oklahoma, all abortions are banned from the moment of conception. An exception is made if the life of the mother is in danger. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

In South Dakota, abortion is banned except when necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant person. The law explicitly excludes rape or incest.

In Texas, abortions are banned from the moment of conception. An exception is made only to save the life or prevent substantial physical Impairment of the mother. Rape and incest are omitted.

In West Virginia, abortion is banned from the moment of conception. There are very narrow exceptions for medical emergencies and lethal fetal anomalies. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

Other states have heavy restrictions on abortions. Idaho, North Dakota and Mississippi allow exceptions for rape or incest but restrict them tightly. A police report is required and access to abortion is capped at six weeks. Most women do not even know they are pregnant at that time.  

It doesn’t stop there. In states that ban abortion, women are three times as likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or soon after giving birth. Babies born in states where abortion is illegal are thirty percent more likely to die in their first month of life.

One in four teens live in states that ban abortion. Seven in ten women live in states that ban or severely restrict abortion.

These are human beings forced to carry a pregnancy to term, even if it is the result of sexual assault or incest. Age is irrelevant; children as young as 13 are forced to carry a pregnancy to term. Often girls are impregnated by a much older man. Only seventeen states explicitly ban child marriage. Yes, seventeen out of fifty.

In high income wealthy nations, the United States ranks the highest in maternal mortality. Neonatal deaths are also disproportionately high compared to other wealthy developed countries like Canada and the United Kingdom.

Significant racial disparities exist among minority populations. Non-Hispanic Black women and American Indian/Alaska Native women experience maternal and infant mortality rates two to three times that of white women.

Women who seek abortion care are often subject to heavy fines and in some cases imprisonment. Fear and suspicion on the part of medical personnel have already resulted in denial of necessary reproductive care, with death being the result.

It is dangerous to be pregnant in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease control from 2018-2022, maternal mortality increased from 17.4 per 100,000 deaths to 33.6%per 100,00 live births.

Let’s be clear; this has nothing to do with being concerned about children. This is about a bunch of men deciding that every conception should lead to a live birth. This is about men controlling women’s bodies. This is about taking agency from pregnant persons when they face one of the most difficult decisions in their life. This is patriarchy on parade, unapologetically slashing women’s rights. Men should not be in women’s uteruses.

I am not debating the morality of abortion. I believe that access to abortion is a decision between a pregnant person and her health care provider. I believe that abortion is health care.

Abortion is as old as human history. It is widely believed that abortion was practiced in ancient near eastern civilizations and throughout the ancient world. The first written reference to abortion occurred in 1600 BCE when The Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Ebera was penned.

Abortion likely existed during the writing of the First Testament. It occupies no significant space in the narrative of Israel. It was a non-issue.

Since abortion existed in Jesus’ time, it is interesting that he never mentioned or commented on it. It played no part in the narrative of Jesus’ life and the life of the early church. Jesus trusted the agency of women to lead fledgling churches, serve as deacons and generally take on all the tasks that men performed in the early church.  Jesus kept company with women. They were part of his inner circle. There are clues hidden throughout the Second Testament. This is not to say that women were treated equally, far from it. Women were regularly stoned to death for adultery. Laws about divorce favored men. Women had little power under Roman occupation.

Jesus was revolutionary in his treatment of women and was roundly criticized for it. Maybe it’s time we acted more like Jesus. Women’s lives are depending on it.

Period

Pat Liberty

Period

No, it’s not the one that comes at the end of a sentence. It’s the one that comes about every 28 days to women of particular ages. In a post Roe v. Wade world, there is increasing fascination about menstruating people.

This has nothing to do with the health of those menstruating people.

Rather, it is about controlling their bodies. It is about limiting access to abortion and birth control. It is about usurping agency from their own being. A total of 41 states restrict access to abortion in some way. Some states, like Alabama and Arkansas, make no exception for rape or incest. Other states allow abortion under specific circumstances such as fetal viability, gestational duration, or threat of harm/death to the pregnant person. Even in states where there are exceptions for rape or incest, they are essentially meaningless. In order to qualify under the law, the sexual assault must be reported within forty days. Incest must be reported to law enforcement within one hundred and forty days. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 63% of rapes are not reported. Only about 12% of child sexual abuse is reported to law enforcement. With such a dismal reporting rate, and the stipulations imposed, the rape/incest exception is useless. Further, even if the criteria for pregnancy termination are met, there is often no one to perform the procedure. This means travelling to another state, which is not an option for many poor pregnant people, who are disproportionately BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color).

In other states, abortion care must happen before six weeks of gestation. Most pregnant people do not even know they are pregnant at that time. It is another “allowance” that is essentially meaningless.

According to http://www.ReproductiveRights.org, Project 2025 outlines a detailed plan to limit access to abortion care and other reproductive services. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Ending access to medications like Mifepristone, which accounts for 63% of all abortions.
  • Allowing hospitals to deny medical care to pregnant persons in crisis.
  • Prosecuting people for shipping or transporting abortion pills and supplies across state lines.
  • Establishing an abortion surveillance system requiring states to report personal data of all patients receiving abortion care.
  • Restricting access to birth control, emergency contraception and other reproductive health services.
  • Tracking pregnant persons who are “at risk of having an abortion” (Missouri).
  • Paying a bounty of $10,000 to individuals who report a person seeking abortion care by crossing state lines (Texas).
  • Tracking pregnant persons through their internet search histories and social media. (Platforms track data using algorithms and selling the data. Setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and using encryption can limit access to search history, but it isn’t foolproof. A public computer is a better choice.)

These tactics are front line ammunition to control menstruating people who may unintentionally get pregnant. They also feed the larger goal of keeping those who give birth subservient to and dependent on men (though there are few consequences for men who do not support the children they create). 

While access to reproductive health services is being severely limited, social safety net programs are being slashed: WIC, SNAP and Early Intervention to name a few. As a result, persons with children, particularly BIPOC people are trapped in a cycle of poverty that is almost impossible to escape.

Sr. Joan Chittister writes, “I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion, that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t?” Because you don’t’ want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth.”

For many conservative evangelicals and white Christian nationalists, all their anti-abortion rhetoric is wrapped in a neat little package, branded with a Jesus sticker and called Christian. In truth, Jesus was unwaveringly concerned about and committed to the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. What was true then is still true…the most vulnerable among us are women and children.

You would think the government has better things to do than peer in the windows of women’s bathrooms and see who is peeing on a stick. But it is all part of the re-entrenchment of a patriarchal society where white, cisgender, heterosexual men are in charge. Whatever progress we have made in dismantling the patriarchy is on the line in Project 2025. And it all begins by trolling your social media.