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Letter to Salon - Post-Roe America
Source: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/01/23/roe/index.html
Letter: http://letters.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/01/23/roe/view/?order=asc
I'd like to see an article on what we can expect of post-Roe America. Because, let's face it, Roe is almost certainly history. In the near future, abortion will become effectively unavailable for women in "red" states, at least those who are too poor to travel to an area with more liberal laws.
(I recognize that many American women are already facing that situation due to the restrictions placed on abortion by state legislatures in conservative states, of course.)
So what does the future hold? A rise in back-alley abortions, dead girls with lacerated uteri, unwed young mothers, babies with serious birth defects, etc.? If so, will the media cover the issue, or cover it up?
Will the pro-choice movement reformulate itself as a movement to restore the right to abortion? What might such a movement look like? Was there a similar movement in pre-Roe America?
In fact, it would be very helpful to those of us who don't remember or didn't experience pre-Roe America to have a picture of what it was like. And that would probably be a pretty fascinating article. How about it, Salon?
Letter: http://letters.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/01/23/roe/view/?order=asc
I'd like to see an article on what we can expect of post-Roe America. Because, let's face it, Roe is almost certainly history. In the near future, abortion will become effectively unavailable for women in "red" states, at least those who are too poor to travel to an area with more liberal laws.
(I recognize that many American women are already facing that situation due to the restrictions placed on abortion by state legislatures in conservative states, of course.)
So what does the future hold? A rise in back-alley abortions, dead girls with lacerated uteri, unwed young mothers, babies with serious birth defects, etc.? If so, will the media cover the issue, or cover it up?
Will the pro-choice movement reformulate itself as a movement to restore the right to abortion? What might such a movement look like? Was there a similar movement in pre-Roe America?
In fact, it would be very helpful to those of us who don't remember or didn't experience pre-Roe America to have a picture of what it was like. And that would probably be a pretty fascinating article. How about it, Salon?
no subject
I'm a member of a feminist mailing list which has been having a very heated discussion about this topic. Living in the UK, our abortion laws are obviously different, and not subjected to the whims of conservative politicians. Not so much anyway :-P
After reading up about Roe Vs Wade (which I didn't experience first hand so can only really know about academically) I felt a little shocked. The idea to me that just a judge with a different opinion can change the laws on something so controversial.
I could rant for hours about abortion and the pro-life/pro-choice argument, seriously I could. I've been known too. I'd say I'm in the middle of this spectrum of choice, maybe leaning a little towards pro life because I take a hard line on people who make irresponsible sexual choices and use abortion as a method of birth control. Regardless of all the arguments, I'd hate to see the numbers of back alley abortions rise, which is what will happen if we make abortion effectively illegal. It doesn't matter if you outlaw something, if it has been necessary forever, then it will be provided forever. Just in more dangerous and life threatning situations which I am loathe to put women into.
I really don't think making abortion illegal will help the problem. I think instead the government should work on tightening up the laws so that terminations are achieved responsibly and sensibly.
no subject
I am far more worried by the fact that it looks like Alito will be a spineless, Executive Branch bootlicking Renfield, who will act as if the President is a French monarch.
no subject
I think that some other rights might have been included, but I'm not sure. This includes the right to operations that result in sterilization, and possibly free access to birth control.
If all of that is true, then the pre-Roe world was pretty grim (and that is, in fact, consistent with what I know, at least about pregnancy in the 1950s). But it may also mean that a post-Roe world will not, in fact, resemble a pre-Roe world.
That depends on whether the "over-throw" of Roe Vs. Wade reverses these aspects of the original decision as well. And that will probably depend on the specific case, or cases, that are used.
Kiralee
no subject
Thing is that Alito would probably also vote to allow states to ban contraception (remember that many anti-abortionists consider The Pill to be abortion, and remember that some hard-core folk consider contraception immoral and remember that contraception was illegal in some states until a Supreme Court decision in the early sixties). And we get the impression that Alito would be prefectly happy to let Dubya have the powers of an Emperor.
But for all that, perhaps some folk who've figured that the Supreme Court will protect basic freedoms are going to realize that they can't vote for GOP'ers who they may like for some reasons but who will quite happily vote to move America back to a mythic time of forced "morality." And maybe those Republican Senators who claim to be pro-choice but who will vote to approve Alito will find themselves forced out of office.
Still, well, it may be time for a dissolution of the Union so as to allow those who want a government that meddles in their private lives while letting corporations do as they please and giving benefitst to the Rich can have their own nation while those of us who prefer a country that recognizes a Right to Privacy while curbing the excesses of the free market and providing a framework of support for the citizenry can have our own nation.