Vice President Pence’s influence has emboldened states to limit reproductive health self-determination. But, only for girls and women. Only if female. Akin to Margaret Atwood’s dystopic novel, A Handmaid’s Tail, new state laws aimed at restricting women’s control over what occurs inside fallopian tubes and uteruses were enacted in 2019. Furthermore, these were legislated against a backdrop of Trump’s national policies curtailing women’s civil rights – and ensuring that more women across the US will become (and remain) pregnant.
From Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s support in the 1860s for reproductive rights (besides the right to vote) to current feminist concerns about laws aimed at curtailing female reproductive decision-making and healthcare access, diverse elected politicians are striving to derail self-determination rights for females (reflecting a fundamentalist religious perspective embracing the central role of women as existed 2,000 years ago).
Shame on the nine states in 2019 that have curtailed emergency contraception access. Shame on Trump’s nationwide expansion of the exemption for employers based on religious beliefs from providing contraceptive coverage for their employees. Shame on the following states for passing anti-abortion laws in 2019: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, and Utah. Shame on any man who does not stand up for the right of women to control their (our) own internal reproductive systems.
Alabama – At the Forefront of Harming Women’s Reproductive Health
There were 58,936 live births in 2017 in Alabama – of which 4,285 were to females aged 10-19 (per the Alabama Department of Public Health). Meanwhile, Alabama (a state that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act [ACA]) in 2017 ranked in 37th place in terms of its rate of uninsured residents. Among women in Alabama, 14.9 percent had no health insurance in 2018.
This state also ranked in 48th place for obesity in women, and 45th place for smoking in women. Likewise, Alabama ranked in 49th place for infant mortality, and 48th place for low birthweight at delivery (and the American Diabetes Association reports that 15.2 percent of the adult population in Alabama have diabetes). As noted in a Population Research and Policy Review article in 2017, African-Americans have persistently lower insurance coverage rates at all ages; 25 percent of the Alabama population is African-American.
Given the lower access to healthcare in tandem with higher public health risk factors, infants in Alabama are likely to require more – not less – healthcare services. Moreover, 33 of 67 Alabama counties have no maternity care providers.
The draconian Alabama anti-abortion law passed in 2019 forbids abortion even in cases of rape and/or incest. While an exception is possible (if absolutely necessary) to save the life of the pregnant woman, that “medical necessity” decision-maker is not the pregnant woman or her designee. Moreover, this law enables Alabama to prosecute all physicians performing an abortion, and impose a felony sentence on an abortion-performing physician of 99 years in prison.
The hypocrisy of anti-abortion advocates such as Alabama’s governor is that the lives of infants and their mothers (and pregnant women) are discounted in comparison to the fetus. In Margaret Atwood’s futuristic United States, women’s bodies had become merely vessels for carrying fetuses. This is the Republican-controlled Alabama legislature’s goal.
Comparison of State Anti-Abortion Laws
According to Amnesty International, 42 abortion restrictions were enacted in the US between January 1- May 15, 2019. Moreover, laws prohibiting abortions were passed in 2019 in the following nine states (which are noted with corresponding date of the Governor’s enactment into state law):
- Arkansas: Republican; Governor Asa Hutchinson on March 15, 2019.
- Kentucky: Republican; Governor Matt Bevin on March 15, 2019.
- Mississippi: Republican; Governor Phil Bryant on March 21, 2019.
- Utah: Republican; Governor Gary Herbert on March 25, 2019.
- Ohio: Republican; Governor Mike DeWine on April 11, 2019.
- Georgia: Republican; Governor Brian Kemp on May 7, 2019.
- Alabama: Republican; Governor Kay Ivey on May 15, 2019.
- Missouri: Republican; Governor Mike Parson on May 24, 2019.
- Louisiana: Democrat; Governor John Bel Edwards on May 30, 2019.
Reported by National Public Radio (NPR) in June 2019 was that six of these above-mentioned nine states passed laws prohibiting abortion after only six weeks of pregnancy. Since most women are unaware of pregnancy until at least one menstrual cycle has been missed, the intent of the laws in these six states is obviously to prohibit all abortions – not just lessen their occurrence. These six states enacting laws in 2019 prohibiting such early abortions are: Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and Alabama (no abortion after 0 weeks).
Arkansas as a Case Study of Race-Based Discrimination toward Pregnant Women
According to America’s Health Rankings, Arkansas in 2018 ranked in 49th place as compared to all other states in terms of “baby-friendly” facilities. Arkansas ranked in 25th place in terms of its uninsured rate; 13 percent of all Arkansas women were uninsured in 2018. Meanwhile, 23.5 percent of all children under age 18 in Alabama in 2017 were living below the federal poverty level (FPL).
Disparities in the poverty rate by ethnicity in Arkansas were presented on the website of TalkPoverty as follows:
- African-American: 28.9 percent living below FPL.
- Latino: 26.7 percent living below FPL.
- Native-American: 25.2 percent living below FPL.
- Asian-American: 14.6 percent living below FPL.
- White: 14.1 percent living below FPL.
The Arkansas law prohibits abortion beginning at 18 weeks of pregnancy. While an exception is possible in the case of rape or incest (or if necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman), Arkansas had previously legislated various other abortion restrictions following Trump’s presidential election victory – creating huge obstacles in Arkansas to actually acquiring an abortion.
According to the National Asian-Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), Arkansas’ HB 1434 – enacted in 2017– was “racist” in intent. This anti-abortion law requires healthcare providers to investigate any pregnant patient interested in receiving an abortion if that clinician perceived the patient’s motive as potentially based on newborn gender preference. NAPAWF concluded that it actually targeted pregnant “women of color” for extensive investigation beyond that necessary for performing an abortion.
Criminalizing Abortion-Providing Physicians as Fear-Mongering
Besides the previously-described law in Alabama, the anti-abortion laws of Louisiana, Missouri, and Ohio also criminalize abortion-providing physicians (and enable imprisonment, albeit with different durations). Meanwhile, the Missouri and Mississippi laws enable revoking the medical licenses of abortion-performing physicians.
Just as Germany in the 1930s used fear-mongering to prevent the populace from helping Jews and other targeted populations, criminalizing physicians is simply a strategy to prevent doctors from helping pregnant women who do not want to carry a fetus to term. After all, who would risk their medical license and/or imprisonment for a pregnant woman wanting an abortion?
Criminalization of trained (and skilled) abortion physicians just promotes the resumption of an illegal marketplace for unsafe “back-room” abortions as was common before 1973 – typically resulting in permanent uterine damage or the pregnant woman’s death. After nearly 250 years of existence, what kind of nation do we want to be in future? Can we remain a democracy if millions of female citizens are forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term?
No Exceptions in Anti-Abortion Laws for Rape and/or Incest
In six states (Alabama, Kentucky, and Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio), rape and/or incest do not constitute an exception to the abortion prohibition. In Georgia and Utah, an exception for rape and/or incest is permissible if a police report was filed before the abortion was requested.
These laws not only punish the pregnant female rape/incest survivor, but may become the impetus for perpetrators to intentionally impregnate their female victims as a way to inflict more harm – thus creating a broader climate of terror for women of childbearing age. Rape as a present tool of war (especially in the Middle East and Africa) is well-recognized; the use of severely-restrictive anti-abortion laws to terrorize women is equally documented.
Minor-Aged Daughters and Parental Notification Requirements
Written notification for an abortion on a minor is required by the Missouri anti-abortion law (which means that a parent of a pregnant minor could enable the child to die by refusing to allow an abortion –something a sexually-abusing parent might find acceptable to avoid a criminal charge). While parental notification is presently required in many states, the Missouri law makes no exception for rape or incest.
Lawsuits Against Abortion Bans – Supreme Court as Decider
Most of the recent state anti-abortion laws are considered “trigger laws” in that their intent is to overturn Roe v. Wade as federal law. These nine states were emboldened by Trump’s nominated Supreme Court Justices (Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh) that have resulted in a more anti-abortion Supreme Court. Indeed, the appointments of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have strengthened the resolve of anti-abortion movement activists, while also broadening their scope to preventing both the use of contraceptives and child adoptions by LGBT married couples.
Meanwhile, Louisiana’s anti-abortion law goes into effect only if Mississippi’s law is upheld by a federal appeals court (per a recent NBC News article). Since President Trump has appointed 89 federal judges (including 34 appellate judges), there is an increased likelihood that such a state law will be upheld than under Presidents Barack Obama, George Bush, or Bill Clinton.
State Passage of Laws Protecting Abortion
As of June 1, 2019 – according to a report of the Guttmacher Institute – 10 states have laws protecting the right to an abortion under certain conditions. These states are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Oregon, and Washington (with only Oregon protecting the right to an abortion in later-term pregnancy). On June 12, 2019, Illinois enacted a law to protect abortion rights, and public hearings are currently being held in Boston, Massachusetts pertaining to various proposed bills focused on abortion.
Since the Georgia anti-abortion law includes prosecution for traveling to another state to receive an abortion, laws passed by states to protect abortion rights are not a realistic strategy to protecting women’s abortion rights across the US. However, it can provide freedom from anxiety for “pro-choice” women of childbearing age residing in such abortion-protecting states.
Concluding Thoughts
Around 47,000 fatalities occur annually in women worldwide consequent to an illegal (and unsafe) abortion. Coat-hangers and screwdrivers were commonly utilized to induce abortions across the US prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade – with horrific consequences. As a woman who had an abortion in the 1980s and never regretted that decision, this political issue is truly personal to me.
I fear for the future of adolescent women in the US who may not have the capacity to make the choice to undergo a legal abortion. The anti-abortion movement was never “pro-life” as it claimed; it was always foremost about controlling women’s bodies (as evidenced by this movement’s broadened scope to support legal obstacles to contraceptive access).
Power over women’s lives and capabilities is the real goal of the anti-abortion movement. It really is that simple. For this reason, we need to ensure that Roe v. Wade remains “settled” federal law. Every other right that women have gained since the 1970s has been an outgrowth of this Supreme Court ruling, and no state protections for abortion can take its place.
We need to protect our reproductive rights in the US while we still can!
Trump's Healthcare System Reform Plans 