Reversing Roe vs Wade Was Supposed to Reduce Abortions, Right?

 

At a time where the cost of living is skyrocketing, the cost of just about everything related to raising a child in a decent and healthy environment is going through the roof. From housing and childcare to food, from transportation to clothing to medical care. It’s no big surprise that a young woman, married or not, who finds herself pregnant but without the means to support a child, might consider an abortion. And while there are a very few well-meaning antiabortion groups willing to help place the child into an adoption agency, that is both an unappetizing choice for many… and requires the woman to carry a child for 9 months… without motherhood at the end. But abortions were up back in 2020, before this current economic pall. What’s going on?

Jennifer Haberkorn, writing for the June 15th Los Angeles Times (via the Associated Press) explains: “Ahead of a historic Supreme Court decision on the fate of Roe vs. Wade, the nation recorded its first significant increase in the abortion rate in more than three decades, according to new statistics… The rate rose 7%, from 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women and girls of child-bearing age in 2017 to 14.4 in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

“Overall, there were 930,160 abortions in the United States in 2020, compared with 862,320 in 2017, an 8% increase… ‘Basically, since 1990, this is the first time we’ve had an increase,’ said Rachel K. Jones, principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute and lead author of the study… Guttmacher’s figures, collected from state health departments and individual providers, are considered by both sides of the abortion debate to be the most accurate national statistics.

“The last time there was a significant increase in the national abortion rate was in 1988, when it was 27.3 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age. Since then, the figure has been on the decline, with a small bump in 2007. The overall number of abortions nationwide similarly dropped.” Trends in 2021 already suggest results similar to 2020. Most state bans or limitations on abortions not only failed to provide a penny of state aid for the children they want to see born, these same states have tripped all over themselves to cut medical and other benefits for the lowest economic classes that would be most impacted. While the overwhelming majority of Americans do not want Roe vs. Wade to be reversed, and the vast majority of state legislators who voted to impose abortion bans or near-bans were older and mostly men elected with heavy support from that religious minority of Americans who support abortion bans, abortion has become more common that ever. Why? Haberkorn tells us:

“The study’s authors cited several possible reasons for the increase, including greater private funding to support abortion access and expanded Medicaid coverage for the procedure in some states. The group also speculated that the Trump administration’s cuts to the Title X family planning and contraception programs may have resulted in more unintended pregnancies.

“During the same three-year period, the national birth rate declined by 6%, with a total of 3.6 million births in 2020. Because the decline in the number of births was much larger than the increase in abortions, it means fewer people got pregnant and a larger proportion had abortions, the group said.

“The data are likely to inflame tensions around the Supreme Court’s upcoming abortion decision, expected to be released early next month. A draft copy of the ruling, published last month by Politico, listed five votes to undo the 1973 Roe decision… The draft, which may differ from the final opinion, restored states’ authority to set their own abortion laws. Several states have already moved to make abortion illegal in many or all circumstances.

“‘The need for abortion is growing at the same time that the Supreme Court is getting ready to strike down Roe vs. Wade, which will allow states to ban abortion,’ Jones said.” The court is considering a case in Mississippi. In the most populous red state, where you have citizens who can sue those in the “abortion” chain, it’s called the Texas Heartbeat Act. Many Texans, below the poverty line, still make under $10/hour.

“For many Texans who have needed abortions since September, the law has been a major inconvenience, forcing them to drive hundreds of miles — and pay hundreds of dollars — for a legal procedure they once could have had at home. But not everyone has been able to leave the state. Some people couldn’t take time away from work or afford gas, while others, faced with a long journey, decided to stay pregnant… Nearly 10 months into the Texas law, they have started having the babies they never planned to carry to term.” The Washington Post, June 20th. And they have no way to support these little unintended lives.

You have to wonder if the mass protests, suggestions that the Supreme Court itself needs to be reconfigured and both a litany of related death threats and a recent stalker outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home – resulting in new bipartisan federal legislation extending personal protection for the Supreme Court justices and their families – might actually produce a different result from Justice Samuel Alito’s maladroit draft. It may soon be a matter for states to decide, as more than half of those states impose total or significant bans on abortion, some attempting to reach into other states where abortions are provided to their desperate citizens.

I’m Peter Dekom, and, as if the “Ginny” Thomas/Clarence Thomas non-recusal issue were not bad enough, the legitimacy of a Supreme Court – reversing itself for “Christian values” after half a century reliance in the face of overwhelming popular ire – goes a long way to undermining the credibility of the entire federal judicial system.