Tara Murtha & Susan Frietsche: Nothing 'pro-life' about overturning Roe v. Wade

[littlemissmartypants]

Tara Murtha & Susan Frietsche: Nothing 'pro-life' about overturning Roe v. Wade

TARA MURTHA AND SUSAN FRIETSCHE Saturday Jan. 12, 2019, 7:03 p.m.

Updated 20 hours ago

Next week is the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case that affirmed a woman’s constitutional right to access safe, legal abortion.

Every year around this time, people who call themselves “pro-life” cite statistics related to the number of abortions in the United States since 1973 while calling to overturn Roe.

Abortion is indeed a common experience. One in four U.S. women will have an abortion by the time she is 45.

Of course, women don’t have abortions because of a decades- old court case. American women had abortions before Roe. We know this from the testimony of women who lived through those times and the death certificates for women who didn’t. In 1965, 17 percent of all pregnancy- related deaths were related to illegal abortion.

Link: https://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/14497628-74/tara-murtha-susan-frietsche-nothing-pro-life-about-overturning-roe-v-wade

[littlemissmartypants]

1. More of this clearly stated, succinct argument.

We also know that women living in places where abortion is criminalized have abortions at roughly the same rate as countries where it is legal (a recent study suggests abortion is in fact more common where it is criminalized).

Criminalizing abortion doesn’t lower the abortion rate; however, it significantly raises the maternal mortality rate. Approximately 13 percent of global maternal mortality is due to unsafe abortion in places where it’s criminalized or inaccessible.

Overturning Roe would enable states to criminalize abortion, which hurts and kills women. What’s so “pro-life” about that?

Meanwhile, while working to bring the big case they believe will overturn Roe, pro-life lawmakers have passed hundreds of state-level restrictions designed to reserve access to safe, legal abortion care for the relatively rich.

https://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/14497628-74/tara-murtha-susan-frietsche-nothing-pro-life-about-overturning-roe-v-wade

[littlemissmartypants]

2. The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country.

Meanwhile, while working to bring the big case they believe will overturn Roe, pro-life lawmakers have passed hundreds of state-level restrictions designed to reserve access to safe, legal abortion care for the relatively rich.

In part as a result of that strategy, in Pennsylvania, only 17 freestanding health facilities provide abortion care, and 90 percent of Pennsylvania counties lack an abortion provider. That means many Pennsylvanians — especially rural women — struggle to come up with the means to travel hundreds of miles to obtain safe abortion care.

Not everyone can do it. The vast majority of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. And so some low-income women are circumstantially coerced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, give birth against their will and face related medical risks.

The risk is significant: The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country. Here in Pennsylvania, the same “pro-life” lawmakers obsessed with passing abortion restrictions have allowed the maternal mortality rate to double since 1994. Like everywhere else, maternal and infant mortality rates are much higher for black women and infants than their white counterparts.

https://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/14497628-74/tara-murtha-susan-frietsche-nothing-pro-life-about-overturning-roe-v-wade

[KT2000]

3. unwanted children

is another result of criminalizing abortion. Those who cannot access abortion because of lack of money are not prepared to assume the financial responsibilities of having a child. It is nonsense to believe a woman will automatically turn the child over to adoption services. Hormones after birth help to create a bond that makes that even more difficult.

Our society is already loaded with the result of having children without the commitment and money to raise the child properly. There are children with attachment disorders, anger issues, alienation problems etc. As adults some can be found in our prisons, halfway houses, homeless encampments etc.

Instead of creating more unwanted children, maybe we should be stressing what it takes to raise a child with the best chance of succeeding in life - for their own happiness as well as the good of society.
Anti-abortion people can focus their efforts to fixing the sad lives of unwanted children.

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Excellent points. nt