Abortion has been present in America since our founding fathers signed the constitution. Although legislation existed against abortion as early as the 1890s in order to prevent illicit sexual conduct, protect the mother from dangerous medical procedures, and promote the state’s interest in “protecting” life more that two million abortions were being preformed a year. In the 1960s feminists began to campaign for a woman’s right to chose to have a safe and legal abortion. In 1973, the Supreme Court decided to hear Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case. In Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court asked the question, is it constitutional for a state to prohibit a woman from having an abortion? Justice Blackman gave the majority decision and answered “the statute, cannot survive the constitutional attack made upon it here” (Schneir, 407); the due process right to privacy in the fourteenth amendment prevents state interference in private matters. However, the court did allow the state to regulate abortion. The guidelines set out for regulation were exceptionally vague. It was illegal for the state to interfere in the first trimester, but in the second trimester (3- 6 months pregnant) states were allowed to restrict access to abortion based on women’s health. Many states have taken the leeway allotted in the second trimester and imposed numerous restrictions on women 12 to 24 months pregnant. Thus, while Roe v. Wade made huge strives for the pro- choice movement many believe the ruling has been whittled away by the states and helped galvanize their pro-life opponents. The ability of states to limit Roe v. Wade affects every single woman’s life.
On Tuesday April 13, 2010 Monica Davey reported breaking news in her article, the state of Nebraska had passed a new law that set limits on abortion, which directly violated Roe v. Wade. Nancy Northup, the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said, “If some of these other anti-abortion bills have been chipping away at Roe v. Wade, this takes an ax to it” (Davey, 2). The law bans “most abortions 20 weeks after conception or later on the theory that a fetus, by that stage in pregnancy, has the capacity to feel pain” (Davey, 1). This law is the first to restrict abortions on the basis of fetal pain, a contested topic with no definitive scientific proof. There was no new scientific discovery that caused Nebraska to pass this law but it grew out of the battle over abortion among the people of the Mid-West. “After an abortion opponent killed Dr. Georg R. Tiller, a leading late-term abortion provider in Wichita, Kan., last year, Dr. LeRoy H. Carhart, who sometimes worked with Dr. Tiller, said he would carry on his legacy by performing some later-term abortions in his clinic in Bellevue, Neb” (Davey, 1). After this comment the people of Nebraska as well as lawmakers feared becoming the next late-term abortion destination for the Midwest. It is clear this law is a direct reaction to the events put in motion by Roe v. Wade, increased pro-life groups influence on states to chip away at the Supreme Court decision.
The power of the Nebraska bill does not stop at the state level where a woman in need of a late term abortion could potentially go out of state to get around the law. “Abortion rights advocates said that the measure was unconstitutional, and that the motive behind it was to set off a challenge to legalized abortion before the United States Supreme Court” (Davey, 1). Thus, the Nebraska law could make it in a case to the Supreme Court and potentially strengthen Roe v. Wade or completely dissolve it. In Davey’s article Mary Spaulding Balch, the direct of state legislation at National Right to Life expresses her belief that the capacity for fetus pain was not known at the time of Roe v. Wade and this new knowledge may be able to sway the supreme court. “’ You need five votes,’ Ms. Balch said. ‘I think there are five on the current Supreme Court who would give serious consideration to Nebraska’s claim’” (Davey, 2).
It is astounding that we are merely five votes away from completely changing every woman’s life in America. Two women who have had experiences with unwanted pregnancy and abortion are Allison Crews and Inga Muscio. Crews shares her story in And So I Choose, which chronicles her struggle with unwanted teen pregnancy. Crews grew up in a pro-life household, but when faced with her own unwanted pregnancy she wanted a choice. She scheduled three abortions, but backed out each time. “After much prayer and divination, many tears and several horrible poems, I made a choice to bear a child” (Crews, 145). However, after she made this difficult decision she was faced with another question should she keep the child or give him up for adoption. Crews felt extremely pressured into adoption as she was told she was an unfit mother. “When it came time for me to give birth, not one person believed I was capable of birthing on my own. When I asked my doctor about the possibility of birthing in my home, he laughed at me” (Crews, 145). Crews ultimately decided to keep her child and currently runs a website for teenaged mothers. Crews states, “Whatever our reproductive choices, nobody can ever deny us our right to them. And this is what being pro-choice means to me” (Crews, 149).
Muscio has a very different experience with unwanted pregnancy in her article, Abortion, Vacuum Cleaners and the Power Within. Muscio experienced three abortions. The first two abortions were clinical abortions in the early stages preformed by a “vacuum cleaner.” For her last abortion she “had the same choice as before, that glowing, outstanding choice we ladies fight tooth and nail for: the choice to get my insides ruthlessly sucked by some inhuman shit pile” (Muscio, 114). Muscio instead had an abortion at home with help from friends. Muscio believes that abortion should “be a personal intimate thing among friends” (Muscio, 117).
Although Muscio and Crews experiences were extremely different they both benefited from the right that Roe v. Wade gave them, the right to choose. The new legislation passed by Nebraska has the potential to challenge Roe v. Wade and abolish this right. Even though Nebraska has created this law based on the events of a deranged man killing an abortion doctor and the unproven scientific evidence that fetuses can feel pain, the law has the power to change lives. Every woman needs choice whether they choose to have a child like Crews or to have an abortion like Muscio.
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