The League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women, each founded more than 100 years ago, are devoted to empowering women to chart their life course. Central to this fundamental freedom is the right to decide if and when to parent – decisions that profoundly impact all aspects of life: physical and mental health, family stability and well being, and economic and educational opportunity and destiny.
The SCOTUS decision is an assault on longstanding, hard-won reproductive rights. It will have far-reaching repercussions for all Americans. The 1849 state law – passed 71 years before women had the right to vote! – does not even have exceptions for rape or incest. This comes at a time when the U.S., compared to other developed countries, is a nation with high maternal and infant mortality rates, a high child poverty rate, no guaranteed access to health care or child care, no guaranteed paid maternity leave, and where two-thirds of minimum-wage workers are women. The right to a safe abortion is also a matter of racial and economic justice, as limits on access to reproductive health services disproportionately impact Black, Brown, and low-income communities.
A pregnant person is not a mere vessel. The course of every pregnancy is unpredictable and carries risks to health and life. Dangerous complications can occur suddenly, when medical decisions must be made quickly. Government has no place in a person’s reproductive decisions, other than to ensure access to affordable, quality health care, including birth control and the privacy to make reproductive choices.