Feminist Court Watch
What Will Happen if Roe is Reversed
 If
Roe v. Wade is overturned, some women will die - some will
be maimed - too many women's lives will be sacrificed. We will return
to the days when desperate women risked their lives by resorting
to self-inflicted or illegal back-alley abortions.
While abortion is a safe medical procedure, illegal abortion continues
to cause tens of thousands of deaths worldwide annually. Before
the legalization of abortion in 1973, thousands of women died from
complications resulting from botched illegal abortions in the USA.
Currently, the Alan Guttmacher Institute estimates that 80,000 women
worldwide die annually from unsafe, illegal abortions.
Since 1973, the right wing has systematically chipped away at Roe
by enacting legislative restrictions and bans limiting a woman's
right to access safe, legal abortion. Restrictions include parental
consent and notification laws, twenty-four hour waiting periods,
informed consent laws, and bans prohibiting Medicaid funding for
abortion. All of these restrictions disproportionately affect poor
women, women of color, and young women. Such obstacles to abortion
access can force women to turn to unsafe, illegal means of ending
their pregnancies, which can result in painful complications and
even death.
 If
Roe is Overturned
Abortion will again be illegal in many states.
If Roe is overturned, a ban on abortion in all or most circumstances
is likely in the many states dominated by anti-abortion majorities,
particularly in the South. In thirty-one states, women are at risk
of having their reproductive rights significantly restricted due
to pre-existing bans (NARAL).
Many women will resort to unsafe methods and illegal abortions.
Before Roe v. Wade, it is estimated that 1.2 million illegal
abortions were performed annually. Outlawing abortion would result
in the endangerment of millions of women's lives and health.
Some women will die from illegal, back-alley abortions.
Before Roe v. Wade, botched illegal abortions were the leading
cause of pregnancy-related deaths. Many women suffered from infections
and perforations of the uterus due to self-induced or botched abortions.
These deaths claimed the lives of thousands of women per year in
the USA. The legalization of abortion led to a dramatic decline
in deaths from these back-alley, illegal abortions.
 Women
will risk their lives to obtain safe abortions.
Between 1970 and 1973, nearly 350,000 women traveled to New York
because it was one of the few states where abortion was legal. The
high cost of travel, hotels, and time away from work will force
many women to obtain abortions further along in their pregnancy
when there is a higher risk of medical complications or to resort
to illegal and unsafe abortions.
Abortion providers will face legal prosecution.
Any doctor who performed an abortion would be prosecuted and jailed.
Before Roe, many doctors risked arrest and incarceration
to save women from injuring or killing themselves while in need
of an abortion.
Access to birth control will be in jeopardy.
The right to abortion is grounded in the right to privacy regarding
reproductive decisions. The right to privacy in reproductive decisions
is based on cases challenging laws that restricted access to birth
control. If Roe is overruled, the "right to privacy",
which was first articluated in Griswold,
the legalization of birth control will be subject to question as
well, and the results of the birth control access cases may change.
It is clear that the agenda of those who would overrule Roe
extends to depriving women of birth control.
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