If you were unaware, access to abortion is once again under fire. Abortion became a right for women since the Supreme Court’s decision of Roe v. Wade in 1973. A lot has changed for women since the early 1970’s. I’m not saying that America is now a perfectly equal, post-feminist society, but the mentality that most educated Americans have when it comes to women has certainly improved. Women have more options now, and being misogynistic is now looked down upon in mainstream society, whereas before it wasn’t really thought about. It was just the way people typically thought of women.
However, things are changing. Like I said, things have never been stable and perfect in the realm of women’s rights, but now the foundations for improvement are quaking. The issue of abortion has come back up again in the Supreme Court. This is the biggest abortion case in over two decades. As a woman, this is very important to me. It’s also frightening. Growing up post-Roe v. Wade, I never thought much about abortion. I knew of it, saw girls deal with it on episodes of TV dramas, but I didn’t think much of it. I’ve lived in North Jersey my entire life, with the Manhattan skyline always in view. My mother never really instilled any beliefs in me—whether that be religious ones or political ones. She left everything up to me to decide for myself, which I’m very grateful for.
Since I grew up in a pretty liberal and progressive area, things like abortion access never really crossed my mind. I never worried about whether or not I’d be able to get an abortion if I’d ever need one. I always knew, even at a young age, the option was available to me—at a certain price—where I lived. It comforted me, especially as I got older and became sexually active, to know that if I took precautions and something still went wrong, that I’d have another safe option to choose from. I was reassured knowing I had the freedom to choose what I’d want to do with my body, and that no one would force me to choose something I didn’t want for myself.
Unfortunately, not all women grew up feeling as I did, and that is what this new case on abortion in the Supreme Court is about. The case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, puts Texas abortion regulations under review. The last time abortion was brought up in the Supreme Court was in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The Casey case focused on five provisions of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1982 that were thought to be unconstitutional under the decision that was made in Roe. When Casey was brought to the Supreme Court, there weren’t many justices who were supporters of the decision that was made in Roe. This provided an opportunity for the many people who opposed Roe to overturn it, which would as a result, send American women back into the darkness that they had fought so hard to march out from. Thankfully, this 1992 case ended in favor of Roe. The popular opinion which was held by Justices O’Connor, Kennedy, and Souter, stated that Roe should not be overturned because a case should only be reversed if there is a “special reason over and above the belief that a prior case was wrongly decided.”
It seems, however, that this new Texas case is trying to attack the strength of the decision made in Roe again. In fact, the current Hellerstedt case is very similar to Casey. Both cases are about whether or not states can create restrictions on abortion access that don’t create an “undue burden” on women who need them. The deceitful restrictions states have put on abortion access isn’t new, clearly, and the Hellerstedt case is primarily about Texas’s law, HB2, which does just that. This law forces abortion providers to be equipped at the level of a surgical center. It also forces abortion providers to be affiliated with local hospitals. This is a trick in itself, because the stigma surrounding abortion in Texas makes it harder for those who provide abortion to get admitting privileges at local hospitals. It is all a dishonest, conniving game—a game which seems as if it will never end for women. As John Oliver said in response to these restrictions, “Abortion cannot be theoretically legal, it has to be literally accessible.”
The Hellerstedt case was determined by the Fifth Circuit court to be constitutional (unsurprisingly). Now the case has been brought to the Supreme Court. If the justices vote in favor of the Texas law, this will lessen the already minuscule amount of abortion clinics in Texas, meaning hundreds and thousands of women will suffer. And if this happens in Texas, that decision will undoubtedly have a ripple effect among other conservative, anti-abortion states. In short, women’s lives are in jeopardy—again.
