June 24, 2024 is the second anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning the 49-year-old decision of Roe v. Wade, permitting abortions during the first trimester. The last two years prove what a disaster the Supreme Court decision has been. Arkansas passed a law last year to create a monument celebrating “the life of unborn children.” No mention of all the women dying in pregnancies because of state laws for almost half the U.S. as predicted by Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote in dissent:
“As of today, this Court holds, a State can always force a woman to give birth, prohibiting even the earliest abortions. A State can thus transform what, when freely undertaken, is a wonder into what, when forced, may be a nightmare.”
The end of Roe resulted in an annual average of 16,000 more births, but no comprehensive records exist of the deaths it caused. Pregnancy is dangerous, and the laws with exceptions for saving the life of the pregnant person don’t work because few exceptions are ever granted. Other people die when they desperately try to end their pregnancies using unsafe means. People are trapped in lethal abusive relationships because they are forced to stay pregnant. Babies with fatal birth defects are forced into lives of pain and suffering until they are fortunate enough to die.
Before the disappearance of Roe, the question was focused on abortion, but issues have diversified. Questions raised in the past two years: Can people get abortions if pregnancy complications put them into septic shock? Will pregnant people find an obstetrician after new laws drive many of them out of states? Will the hospital send pregnant people home to bleed? Can anyone get in vitro fertilization? Abortion opponents declare stories about medical complications are overblown because women who need abortions for medical purposes can get them with exceptions to the bans. A poll in April, however, found 46 percent of registered voters have heard stories of women forced to leave states with bans to get abortions necessary from pregnancy complications, up from 35 percent last September. The media hasn’t let up on this tragedy for the past two months, and more people will hear about the disaster.
People also struggle with information about reproduction facts. Twenty-five percent of adults possibly believe the falsehood that “most women get their period on the first of the month,” and 22 percent falsely believe that eggs inside the ovaries have shells. Georgia’s ban after six weeks of pregnancy starts two weeks after the woman misses her period, not six weeks after conception. Sen Tim Scott (R-SC) said that human pregnancy lasts for 52 weeks instead of 40.
People don’t need to be pregnant to have their lives adversely affected by the overturn of Roe. States objecting to abortions also fight contraception because of the belief by one religion that life begins at conception—or before. Those same states lack sex education, and residents are subject to predatory men, poverty, and ignorance—from ages 11 to 51. Abortion prevention limit people from moving around the country even for job responsibilities and leisure travel. They have no full rights to their own lives.
The overturn of Roe has increased the number of people who support legalized abortions.
State laws establish far-right Christianity as the law of the land of their narrow belief that life begins at conception, eliminating the rights of moderate Christians, Jewish people, Muslims, and other religions as well as those who don’t subscribe to specific religions. Only white evangelicals oppose legal abortions by a large percentage although the Bible has little to say about it and considers the woman’s life more important than that of the fetus. The other religious categories all support abortion by a majority, and all major ethnic groups agree as do all age groups. A recent survey about abortion access.
Anti-abortion groups are so desperate to subjugate everyone to their personal beliefs that they use tactics, sometimes unethical and even illegal, to keep the population from making decisions about abortion and stop pro-choice citizens’ initiatives from reaching the November ballot. Since Roe was overturned, voters have used these initiatives to enshrine abortion rights or turned back efforts to restrict it in all seven states obtaining the signatures, and anti-abortion activists try to block it happening in any more states.
South Dakota: GOP legislators passed a bill permitting signers to withdraw their signatures on citizen-led petitions. An anti-abortion group impersonating government officials made hundreds of telephone calls to pressure people into removing their signatures, labeled a “scam” by the secretary of state.
Arkansas: The conservative advocacy group “Decline to Sign” published the names of paid canvassers for an abortion rights ballot measure effort to intimidate them.
Missouri: GOP officials and anti-abortion groups stalled the restoration of abortion rights in the citizens’ initiative process. Recently appointed AG Andrew Bailey delayed the campaign for months followed by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s effort to describe the initiative as allowing “dangerous and unregulated abortions until live birth.” A state appeals court rejected his wording for being politically partisan. The “decline to sign” campaign sent texts to voters, falsely accusing petitioners of trying to steal people’s personal data. GOP legislators also tried for another ballot measure to increase the number of voters to amend the state constitution. The pro-choice proposal now has twice the required number of signatures to be verified.
Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Nebraska: Opposition groups tried to create their own ballot amendments to codify existing abortion restrictions and confuse voters but failed in Florida and Colorado. A possible anti-abortion initiative name in Arizona was “Arizona Abortion Protection Act.”
Texas’ ban on abortions is connected to a 13 percent increase in infant and newborn deaths. Babies born with congenital anomalies also increased by almost 23 percent while it decreased by about 3 percent nationwide.
The first year after Roe was overturned saw an 11 percent increase in U.S. abortions since 2020, the last year for comprehensive estimates, and the highest rate in over a decade. Yet 14 states banned abortion with highly restrictive exceptions after Roe ended, and another seven states created greater gestational timelines than Roe. The number is certainly an undercount because they are only within formal healthcare. Abortions peaked in 1990 with a sustained decline until 2017 when they started to rise again.
While 17 states have banned all or most abortions, Democrats have won major elections in which they made abortion rights a top message. According to a conservative Gallup poll, a record number of people state they will vote only for a major candidate who shares their views on abortion, and a record number of people support abortion rights.
Research is difficult because conservatives delay, limit, and block studies related to abortion. Statistics have been stripped from government websites such as the number of abortions per Georgia county. Formerly, anti-abortion activists wanted data such as patients’ race, ethnicity, and zip code once provided by states hostile to abortion, but its abortion ban removed the data. Knowledge is power, and the Republicans want to keep that power by restricting knowledge to people who believe in science.
A study released in early May with data from 2014 to 2020 found that murder by an abusive partner is the leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum women in the U.S., higher than such medical issues as sepsis and hemorrhage. Pregnancy can increase the severity of violence or initiate abuse in a previously non-violent relationship.
Conservatives are trying to use the 1873 Comstock Act to block the mailing of the abortion medication mifepristone. The same law also blocks the mailing of boxing photos, also included in the “obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy, or vile” categories; anything used in abortions, including equipment is considered “indecent” and “immoral.” Both Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito referred to the Comstock Act when discussing mifepristone. Thomas said that the drug is covered under Comstock, and Alito said that the FDA should have considered Comstock when allowing mifepristone through telehealth. Comstock also disapproves of nudity in medical textbooks or art because it encourages them to have sex.
When the Comstock Act was passed, the terms abortion and miscarriage were used interchangeably, meaning the same thing. At that time, pregnancy before “quickening,” which happens 16 to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Humoral medicine was practiced when the Comstock Act was passed, the belief that the body contains four humors or fluids which must be kept in balance for good health. Black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm corresponded to hot, cold, wet, and dry. Women are cooler and wetter. At that time, male lawmakers knew nothing about menstrual cycles and pregnancy.
A popular deadline for abortions is the “fetal heartbeat,” that they maintain occurs at six weeks. The bean-sized embryo, with no heart, doesn’t become a fetus until ten weeks. San Francisco OB-GYN Dr. Jennifer Kerns said the sound is electrical activity from a grouping of cells. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/heartbeat-bills-called-fetal-heartbeat-six-weeks-pregnancy-rcna24435 The sound is manufactured by the ultrasound machine. “Heartbeat” is not accurate until 17 to 20 weeks. Abortion opponents, however, jerk on the heart strings with terms such as “fetal heartbeat,” “unborn child,” and “little person.”
The discussion about abortion has brought out the hypocrisy in Republicans. Colorado’s lawmaker Richard Holtorf, running for Congress against Rep. Lauren Boebert, consistently votes against abortion rights but once gave money to his girlfriend for her own procedure. He said he “respected” her right and wanted her to “live her best life.”
Ask a republican about climate change, and they say, “I am not a scientist.” However, when it comes to a woman’s right to choose, suddenly they all become doctors.
Nel's New Day 
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