On the Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, We're Still Fighting for Access to Safe, Legal Abortion

In January of 1973 — after years of delays, arguments and questioning from an all-male Supreme Court — the world changed for women. Up until then, women didn’t have the right or freedom to control their bodies, lives or future. Up until then, a woman’s ability to access a safe abortion depended on how much money she had, who she was and where she lived. And for some women, it still hasn’t changed. But the fact remains: the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade was a resounding victory: for women, for their families and for the doctors who had been previously barred from providing the full spectrum of reproductive health care — including safe and legal abortion. Zora Neale Hurston once wrote, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” The year 1973 gave us an answer.

As we approach the 46th anniversary of Roe, I’d love to say that the battle over women’s bodies and health care is over. I’d love to say that abortion care is no longer questioned as anything other than the standard medical care that it is. But we all know that this isn’t the case. In the nearly five decades since Roe was decided, politicians have slowly chipped away at the constitutional right to abortion by passing laws that have no basis in medicine, like forced ultrasounds and sham TRAP laws.

Since 2011, over 400 bills have been signed into law that directly restrict abortion access. Opposed by doctors, nurses and public health leaders, these barriers to care disproportionately impact women of color, women in rural areas and those with low incomes. With Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, 25 million — one in three women of reproductive age — could soon be living in states where abortion is outlawed. We are dangerously close to a world that looks much like the one before Roe was decided in 1973.

As a doctor, I’ve seen women’s health care siloed, stigmatized and attacked like no other aspect of health care. I’ve seen the cost of abortion restrictions firsthand. The cost is women’s lives.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/roe-v-wade-2019-781520/