Original link: https://sehseh.substack.com/p/8qa
?The full text is easy to read and share: The battle for abortion rights in the United States: 8 major QAs to watch at a time
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned two historic decisions in support of abortion rights: Roe v . Wade and Planned Parenthood v . Casey . Casey).
This means that abortion is no longer a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and states can legislate to restrict or prohibit a woman from having an abortion for any reason.
How was this influential judgment reached? What will be the future of American women?
The following is a QA question and answer set organized by the world. Regarding abortion rights in the United States, what questions do you want to know more about? You are also welcome to reply or leave a message to tell us :
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I heard that abortion rights in the United States were overturned, what happened?
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Is abortion illegal in the US?
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What is Roe v. Wade?
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What is the Supreme Court’s reasoning for overturning Roe v. Wade?
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Who will be affected by the abortion ban?
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What should women who want an abortion do?
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What do Americans think about abortion rights?
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After overturning abortion rights, the next step to target contraception, LGBT rights?
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Q. I heard that abortion rights in the United States were overturned. What happened?
Last May, the Supreme Court began hearing Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The case began in 2018, when Mississippi passed the Gestational Age Act, which banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The state’s only abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health, sued the state government. questioned that the bill was unconstitutional.
The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. At the beginning of May this year, Justice Samuel Alito’s main opinion drafted in the case was leaked , causing an uproar.
More than a month later, conservative justices overwhelmed liberal justices with a 6-3 majority: the Supreme Court affirmed Mississippi’s state law and declared “Roe v. Case” (1973) and Planned Parenthood Alliance v. Casey (1992) were invalid.
Q. Is abortion illegal in the United States?
Look at the area. Roe v. Wade was overturned, meaning that “trigger laws” would take effect immediately or soon.
The New York Times quoted experts as saying that some states that are strongly anti-abortion have already written laws restricting abortion into statutes, which will take effect immediately once Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Currently, six states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Missouri, have completely banned abortion.
The New York Times estimates that nearly half of all states in the U.S. recently banned or severely restricted abortion: 16 states ban abortions at any stage of pregnancy, and another 5 states strictly limit legal abortions to 15 weeks of pregnancy; these In at least eight states, abortions are not allowed even for sexual assault or incestuous pregnancies.
Among the 20 “abortion-legal states” in the United States, some legislation guarantees the right to abortion, while some states do not expressly guarantee it, but abortion is legal in principle. These states include Alaska, California, Colorado, Washington, D.C., New Hampshire, New Mexico, and more.
The situation in the remaining states is not yet clear, but many conservative governors and lawmakers are ready to move.
Q. What is Roe v. Wade? How does the case protect the right to abortion?
In the United States, women’s abortion rights are not protected by national laws such as the Constitution and federal laws, but are delegated to states and determined by state laws.
Before the Luo case, only 4 states in the United States allowed abortion in principle, and 16 states allowed abortion conditionally; after the Luo case was released, the abortion laws in as many as 30 states were automatically invalidated due to violations of the Supreme Court decision. The subsequent Planned Parenthood Alliance v. Casey reaffirmed the Luo case’s decision to protect the right to abortion.
In Roe v. Wade in 1973, the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion was based on the protection of the “right to privacy.”
At the time, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution not only guarantees the “right to privacy”, then the scope of the right to privacy should also be “enough to cover a woman’s decision whether or not to have a child.”
In addition, the justices at the time also proposed the “trimester standard” to divide the time line of abortion law:
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Early pregnancy (1st to 12th week): The embryo is still small and the viability outside the mother is low. The pregnant woman and her doctor can decide whether or not to have an abortion.
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Second trimester (weeks 13 to 28): States can legislate to limit medical procedures for abortion in order to protect the health of pregnant women.
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Late pregnancy (after the 29th week): The fetus can survive outside the mother’s body, and the risk of abortion is extremely high during this stage, so states must take necessary measures to protect the right to life of the fetus.
In other words, the Luo case guarantees “the right to choose an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy.”
So what about after three months of pregnancy?
Although Roe v. Wade and Casey succeeded in protecting the right to abortion in practice, they failed to resolve the biggest debate that has long torn American society: can a fetus be legally considered a “person”?
The importance of women’s “reproductive autonomy” and the “right to life” of a fetus has always been the main battleground for abortion rights in the United States: pro-life opponents of abortion rights are trying their best to advance the “fetal life right” Pushed to the early stage of pregnancy and even the moment of conception, and pro-choice supporters of abortion rights hope that the law will give women as much freedom as possible to choose whether or not to have children.
Q. What was the Supreme Court’s reason for overturning Roe v. Wade?
“It’s time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to elected representatives,” reads the majority opinion in the Dobbs case.
The main opinion, written by Justice Alito and co-authored by other conservative justices, argued that abortion destroys the legal “unborn human-being” and is highly morally controversial, so the right to abortion is not Article 14 of the Constitution The “liberty” guaranteed by the amendment , and the interpretation of the abortion right in Luo’s case is “abuse of judicial power.”
Alito further questioned the need for abortion: U.S. laws at all levels already prohibit pregnancy discrimination, laws in many cases guarantee maternity leave, health insurance and government assistance also cover pregnancy-related expenses, and a growing number of states have implemented ” “safe haven laws”, women have little reason to worry about giving up babies.
The main opinion states that it was the Roe case that imposed a set of nationwide restrictions and repealed abortion bans in all states that led to a bitter debate in American society for half a century.
Q. Who will be affected by the abortion ban?
Some 16.6 million women of reproductive age will be affected in states that have or are about to implement strict abortion bans. Among them, women of color and economically disadvantaged women suffer especially.
For a long time, pregnant women of color in the United States have often experienced racial discrimination when seeking medical treatment, and have also been marginalized and ignored in the medical system. There is a racial disparity in maternal mortality.
Black Americans are 3.5 times more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth than whites ; Native Americans often rely on medical facilities for Native Americans that do not provide abortion services; poor women may not be able to afford it The cost of travel to states where abortion is legal.
Data shows that the U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any advanced country and is rising sharply. Scholars estimate that existing state bans could add an additional 75,000 people in the U.S. each year to inability to have abortions and lead to a 21 percent increase in the national pregnancy-related death rate .
A disproportionately high share of patients abortion are women of color — a result of systemic inequities, advocates say.
The Guardian, citing experts, pointed out that pregnant women may seek abortions because it is not safe for them to continue their pregnancy – including health conditions, family circumstances and the harassment and stress of life that accompany their status. There are a variety of reasons that can increase the risk of death in pregnancy.
In addition, in terms of women’s economics and careers, although Justice Alito believed that “Medicare and government assistance both pay for pregnancy-related costs” and “women have little reason to worry about the birth of a baby”, the New York Times It is also questioned that although 90% of employees can take maternity leave, less than a quarter of them are “paid leave”. Furthermore, even if employers offer health insurance, women still have to pay an average of $3,000 extra for pregnancy and childbirth—and these are limited to earning working women.
For young pregnant women, the inability to have an abortion may result in disruption of their studies, limited employment opportunities, and only part-time or lower-paying occupations, which ultimately reduce women’s earnings and limit their career aspirations , reinforcing gender inequality. equal status.
In conclusion, restricting abortion can have a huge impact on a woman’s physical health, economic life or career.
Q. What about women who want an abortion in states that prohibit abortion?
Pregnant women can still go to states where abortion is legal to have an abortion, or obtain abortion pills through online shopping and telemedicine. However, these alternatives have their risks and difficulties.
Although there is no state legislation that explicitly prohibits pregnant women from interstate abortion, the vast territory of the United States and many states with strict abortion bans are adjacent to each other. Local women must travel long distances to distant states where abortion is legal, which is extremely disadvantageous for the economically disadvantaged. .
Currently, 19 states in the United States prohibit medical personnel from using telemedicine to prescribe abortion pills, requiring both the prescriber and the pregnant woman to be present at the same time. Still, many women still walk in the legal grey area, trying to get abortion pills by mail.
In addition, as early as last September, Texas passed the Texas Heartbeat Act, which does not directly prohibit abortions for pregnant women, but punishes all those who perform and participate in abortions and institutions , and encourages all citizens to report. These measures have greatly increased the cost and risk of abortion.
Q. What do Americans think about abortion rights?
Overall, more Americans are opposed to overturning Roe v. Wade than are in favor of overturning.
According to the poll , 59% of the public opposed the overthrow of Luo’s case, compared with two-thirds of women. More than half of the public said the decision was “regressive” for the United States, while another 31% said it was “progress” and 17% said it was “not progress nor regression.”
In fact, on the eve of the overthrow of the Luo case, the proportion of public opinion supporting abortion rights (pro-choice) climbed to a new high (55%) since 1995, and the proportion opposing abortion rights (pro-life) fell to its lowest level since 1996. (39%).
In addition, the percentages who agreed that “abortion is a moral wrong” (38%) and “abortion should be illegal under all circumstances” (13%) were both at record lows.
Opinions are also highly partisan: A whopping 78 percent of Republicans favor overturning the Roe case, while only 38 percent of independents and 17 percent of Democrats. Immediately after the Luo case was overturned, the “red states” that were preparing to implement an abortion ban were also “red states” with a majority of Republican supporters, and their legislatures were dominated by Republican representatives of public opinion .
Q. After the abortion right is overturned, what is the next step to target contraception and LGBT rights?
While the ruling was limited to abortion rights, the justice also named precedents that guaranteed contraception, same-sex sexual activity and same-sex marriage .
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion: “We should reconsider all Supreme Court jurisprudence under the due process clause, including Griswell, Lawrence, and Obergefell. ”
In 1965, Griswold v. Connecticut ruled that state law banning contraceptives was a “violation of marital privacy” and established that the use of contraceptives in intimate relationships should be free from government interference.
In 2003, Lawrence v. Texas declared that state governments could not prohibit consensual same-sex sex between adults, and same-sex sex was officially decriminalized in all states in the United States.
In 2015, Obergefell v. Hodges argued that same-sex marriage is constitutionally guaranteed and states cannot legislate against it.
These cases, like Roe v. Wade, are based on the “Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution . Conservative justices believe that these precedents are excessive interpretation and abuse of the meaning of the law.
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