Lauren Dube

Media Writing CM105-01

Opinion Piece
8 March 2023

The Overturning of Roe v. Wade

On June 24, 2022, The Supreme Court overturned the landmark case, Roe v. Wade.

Roe v. Wade made access to an abortion a federal right, but the decision to overturn completely
tore down 50 years of legal protection over abortion and allowed individual states to decide on
abortion rights.

Immediately after this ruling, nine states had already implemented abortion bans. As of 2023, 13
states have a full abortion ban in effect and one state has a six-week ban in effect.

In many states, there aren’t even any exceptions for rape or incest. In Georgia, there is a ban on
abortions after 6 weeks, which is before most women even know they are pregnant.

There are multiple reasons a woman would want to have an abortion, some bring rape, a poor
financial situation, and just not wanting children. Banning abortion would not prevent women
from having abortions, it would prevent women from having safe abortions.

In fact, according to the World Health Organization, about 20 million women have unsafe
abortions every year, leading to the deaths of about 70,000 women annually.

Women have the right to nondiscrimination since the right to gender equality is a fundamental
principle of human rights laws. Denying women access to an abortion is a form of gender
discrimination since men cannot have abortions.

When asked how the overturning of Roe v. Wade could affect her job as a teacher, Sarah
Gosselin stated “how are we supposed to teach kids to be themselves and to do what they want in
their lives when women can’t have their own bodily autonomy?”.

Most of the people who pushed for abortions to be illegal used their personal or religious pro-life
beliefs to fuel their decision. This means that these people who helped Roe v. Wade get
overturned were almost forcing their beliefs onto other people.

What would happen if abortion was illegal everywhere? The only alternative to having an
abortion is going through childbirth. Unfortunately, childbirth has a 14 times higher risk of death
than an abortion.
If a state is denying a woman an abortion, it is forcing a woman to experience a significant
medical risk against their will.

Research from the Turn Away study followed 1000 women for five years after being denied an
abortion that they wanted.

This study found that women who were turned away from having an abortion were more likely
to stay in contact with a violent partner. The financial well-being of past and future children was
also negatively impacted when these women were forced to have a baby they didn’t want. Lastly,
giving birth was found to be connected to more serious health problems than having an abortion.

Forcing a woman to have an abortion will end up causing more problems than just letting women
be in charge of their own bodies.

https://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/default/files/documents/pub_bp_safeandlegal.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html

https://www.american.edu/cas/news/roe-v-wade-overturned-what-it-means-whats-next.cfm