The proverbial fist fight began in the 1800’s, when the first state (Massachusetts) decided to outlaw the practice of abortion. During colonial times, there really wasn’t much of a problem with abortions. The real fighting over the issue; however, began with one woman: Norma Leah McCorvey, better known as Jane Roe, from the famous Supreme Court case: Roe v. Wade. Up until this case, abortions were only legal in situations where continuing with the pregnancy would be hazardous to the health of the mother. Of course, Roe won the case. The opinion of the court (7-2) stated that
Right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=410&invol=113)and ever since, the battles have been fought on the steps of state capitols across the nation.
Roe v. Wade prevents states from making abortion illegal—it doesn’t prevent them from making it extremely difficult to get one. Oh, and they can make it extremely difficult. A prime example of the potential difficulty of getting an abortion is South Dakota. There is only one abortion clinic in the entire state, the doctor isn’t a native of the state (he travels from neighboring Minnesota), and the clinic can be as far as four hundred miles! New York is probably the easiest state to get an abortion—there’s a clinic in nearly every community, and there are next-to-no restrictions. Most states are somewhere between these two extremes.
The opinion on abortion is vastly different in every state, and this is clearly visible when you look at the numbers from the Guttmacher Institute. This is easily measured by the number of clinics, and the percentage of women who have access to these clinics. Hawaii and Idaho have roughly the same population, but Hawaii has seven times more abortion clinics. In states like California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, 90% of women have an abortion clinic in their county—this is only true for 25% of women in other states (Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming).
The most interesting part is that all of these contrasts can exist with Roe v. Wade in effect! What could happen if the decision in that case were overturned? The state-to-state differences would definitely expand greatly. There are some states that have laws called trigger laws, that once the “trigger” condition is met, the law goes into effect. Six states have trigger laws that’ll make abortion illegal if Roe v. Wade is overturned, the very second that it is. More states have other trigger laws that will ensure that abortion remains legal if Roe v. Wade becomes null. Also, legal experts are still out on if pre-Roe v. Wade abortion bans would become law again. Regardless of if states have trigger laws, the overturn of Roe v. Wade would cause a political upheaval across the country. Lobbyists will be out in full force, for both sides. Most experts agree that the decisions made in most states will be dependent on the party that controls congress and the governorship—and that the federal government would likely sit on the sidelines, and let the local governments do the dirty work.
Roe v. Wade hasn’t prevented states from passing restrictions on abortions. Since the decision in 1973, state lawmakers have passed hundreds of laws intended to prevent abortions. This is true in 49 of the fifty states—Vermont being the lone wolf. These laws have many different ways of trying to stop abortions in any way possible: everything from regulating costs and ability to receive Medicaid for the procedure, to requiring the abortionist to inform the parents of any minor getting an abortion, to regulating the size of the doors in a clinic, to requiring doctors to try to talk the woman out of it. Sometimes doctors are required to inform the mother that her fetus can feel pain, sometimes they must offer the mother painkillers for the fetus, and sometimes the doctors are required to show the mother a sonogram picture of the baby before she’s allowed to have the abortion.
One of the most effective laws that states use to prevent abortions is the parental consent and notification law. These laws prevent minors (one of the largest group of people who want to get abortions) from getting them without at least the notification, and sometimes without the consent of the parents. In some states, girls can bypass this by getting a judicial bypass. These laws have been brought before the Supreme Court, and in 2006, the court sided with the laws. A majority of the states that have these laws require the parents to be informed 48 hours before the procedure is done, but some require one or both parents to consent to the procedure. In 2004, Florida voters voted in a similar law. Some states, specifically Alaska, California, Idaho, Illinois, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New Mexico passed these laws as well, only to have them struck down in their state courts for violating privacy or equal-protection. Overall, there are twenty-two states that have these laws, and only North Dakota and Mississippi require the approval of both parents.
Another effective law that is designed to prevent abortions is categorized as “Consolation, including fetal pain and ultrasound.” There are 28 states that require doctors to council mothers on alternatives to abortion, such as adoption, and inform them of the potential dangers of abortion. Some require doctors to inform patients of potential mental effects of having an abortion, some require doctors to explain that the fetus can feel pain, some require doctors to tell the patient that having an abortion can cause in increased risk for breast cancer, and even more require doctors to give sonograms to patients before an abortion.
There are also 24 states that have forced waiting periods before you can get an abortion—most of the 24 states require a full day’s wait. Categorized along with the actual waiting period are other cost-increasing factors, and as cost goes up, so does availability. There are 39 states that require the abortion to be performed by a licensed doctor, 20 that require the procedure to be done in a hospital, and some more that require more than one doctor. Cha-Ching!
The anti-abortion lobby frequently uses costs as a way to keep abortions away from the people who want them. Not only do they raise the costs, but they also attempt to prevent public funding for abortions. Known as the Hyde Amendment, federal funding for abortions is limited to cases that involve rape and cases that put a woman’s health at risk. To further that, only 13 states pay for almost all abortions. That isn’t all on the finical front: five states actually outlaw the ability of private health care to pay for abortions, unless the health of the mother is at risk. It doesn’t end there, however. In a whopping forty-six states, doctors have the right to refuse to give a patient an abortion. Recently, there have been laws that prevent certain types of abortion: specifically partial birth abortions. These laws don’t even allow for health exception.
The termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus: as a: spontaneous expulsion of a human fetus during the first 12 weeks of gestation. If only it were actually that simple. No, no. This is much larger than a simple termination of pregnancy. This is where the sanctity of life meets the rights of women in an all out battle. There’s no clear end in sight, and who’s to say which side will come out victorious? With all of the differences around the country, and lacking a clear central authority on the topic, the battles will likely continue for a long, long time. One side will continue to do everything in its power to limit abortions, be it through costs, restrictions, waiting periods, parental approval, counseling, the limiting of federal funding, telling the mothers that the fetus can feel pain. It’s going to be a bumpy road for either side on its path to glory. Who will come out on top? Only time will tell.
Works Cited
"Abortion - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 02 Nov. 2009.
"FindLaw | Cases and Codes." FindLaw: Cases and Codes. Web. 02 Nov. 2009.
Vestal, Christine. "States probe limits of abortion policy." Stateline.org. Web. 02 Nov. 2009.
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