According to Jiana Menendez, the overturning of Roe v. Wade will lead to worsening health care disparities, higher maternal mortality rates, criminalization of pregnant people and their doctors, lack of medical care for people experiencing pregnancy complications, attacks on routine medical care, and broad assaults on human rights currently in place for marginalized groups.
Jiana Menendez / Huffington Post
Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case legalizing abortion, has been overturned, and we are grappling with the profound loss of bodily autonomy and personhood that was stolen.
As a family medicine doctor with a focus on reproductive health, including abortion care, I have been fighting against this outcome for years, and I’ve already seen a steadily increasing stream of patients who have needed to fly for compassionate abortion care. I’m lucky to live and work in New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul recently signed several laws further codifying and protecting abortion access. Connecticut was the first to pass similar protections, and states like California and Massachusetts are working on legislation. But this is a stark contrast to what Americans in other parts of the country are facing, even though access to high-quality, evidence-based health care should not be based on where you live.
So let’s explore what’s coming next, thanks to the fall of Roe: worsening health care disparities, higher maternal mortality rates, criminalization of pregnant people and their doctors, lack of medical care for people experiencing pregnancy complications, attacks on routine medical care for people who can become pregnant, and broad assaults on human rights currently in place for marginalized groups.
‘Women will die’
To start, it’s important to understand that millions of Americans have already been living in a post-Roe reality. States led by anti-abortion politicians have spent decades making abortion access nearly impossible through targeted regulations of abortion providers, or TRAP laws. They have forced people to drive hours to get care, followed by a visit where doctors are legally obligated to deliver medically inaccurate information. After jumping through those hoops, many states require 24- to 72-hour waiting periods before patients can return to finally get the abortion they need.
It’s easy to see how these barriers are lengthy and expensive. However, lawmakers pretend these obstacles haven’t represented an “undue burden.” Before Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe, seven states had two or fewer abortion clinics left due to the onslaught of TRAP laws.
We have already been operating in a system where people with wealth and power are able to end unwanted pregnancies, while marginalized groups, including Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people, children, and people with disabilities, have suffered and will continue to suffer the most due to harsh abortion restrictions. If you are new to abortion advocacy, I encourage you to look to long-standing reproductive justice and advocacy groups ― including SisterSong, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, the Afiya Center and Shout Your Abortion, among others ― and follow their guidance.
In 2022 alone, the Supreme Court’s decision will directly cause the deaths of hundreds of people as their bodies are used by the state against their will. Abortion is significantly safer than pregnancy ― period. The World Health Organization ranks the United States 57th in the world for maternal mortality. This rate has increased in past decades, unlike the decline seen in most of the rest of the world. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. at 23.8 deaths per 100,000 births. Non-Hispanic Black women fared much worse, with a staggering 55.3 deaths per 100,000 births, making them 3.5 times as likely to die as non-Hispanic white women. For comparison, the death rate from abortion in the U.S. between 2013 and 2018 (the most recent data available) was 0.41 per 100,000 abortions ― which means abortion is 25 times safer than continuing pregnancy.
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