Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court case involved the right of women to privacy. In the court’s decision, women were granted the right to seek abortion when they felt they needed it because the judges concluded that it was one of their constitutional rights to privacy. Although the decision was made four and half decades ago, its effects are well pronounced in the US. Many women are seeking abortion services and organizations have sprouted that provide these services. For instance, Planned Parenthood is renowned for providing abortion services in every corner of the US today. Similarly, the decision made the providers of these services to improve their ways of work making abortion to be included in the list of the safest medical procedures in the country. In fact, providers of abortion argue that abortion is 99.9% safe.
The embracers of Roe vs. Wade’s ruling believe that the decision was justified since it acknowledges women’s fundamental right that is well pronounced in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The ruling allows women to decide on what to do on their bodies as well as the beings they carry in their wombs. However, being a pro-life makes one disagree with the court’s decision. Life starts at conception although the Supreme Court argued that the right of the unborn to live starts when it is delivered. Thus, terminating pregnancy equates to the murder of the innocent being.
If the decision by the Supreme Court in the Roe vs. Wade case had gone the other way round, the practice of abortion in the US would not have reached its current state. Policies would have been made to ensure women are restricted from accessing abortion services anywhere in the country (Roe v. Wade, 1973). The assertion is evidenced by how health care reform is politicized in the US. The Republican Party through one of its representatives introduced the Defund Planned Parenthood Act in 2017 to influence reform of the ObamaCare. This bill is aimed at stripping Planned Parenthood federal funds so that it cannot manage to offer abortion services (Civic Impulse, 2018). From the bill, one can also note that the government through its representatives is determined to ensure the organization stops offering abortion services since it states that it will provide funds to Planned Parenthood if it certifies that its affiliates, as well as clinics, will not perform abortions.
If the Supreme Court had allowed states to continue restricting women from terminating a pregnancy by ruling in Roe’s favor, reproductive health care would not be accessible in almost all states. Politicians would have waged war on any organization that tries to provide abortion services. The claim is evidenced by what happened in Texas a few years ago. The anti-abortion politicians introduced a program that was aimed at destabilizing the Planned Parenthood. According to Stevenson et al. (2016), Texas is among the states in the US that have restricted the organization above from offering healthcare services through the support of the public funds. Similarly, states would have lowered family-planning grants to ensure women do not access abortion services (Stevenson et al. 1).
Based on the current event in the US, it is apparent that the national policy on abortion would have been different. Provision of abortion services, as well as the practice of abortion by women, would have been criminalized. The claim is supported by the current government’s disapproval of abortion practice by waging war on the Planned Parenthood (Civic Impulse 2018). Similarly, Roe’s argument in the Roe vs. Wade case presents the government’ view about the practice. According to Roe, the state’s interest was to regulate abortion (Roe v. Wade
1973). Thus, the ruling in favor of Roe would have influenced the nation to come up with a national policy that restricts access to abortion.
Works Cited
Stevenson, Amanda et al. Effect of Removal of Planned Parenthood from the Texas Women’s Health Program. N Engl J Med. 2016, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1511902
Civic Impulse. H.R. 354 – 115th Congress: Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2017, 2018. Web. April 28, 2018. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr354.
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 1973. Accessed from LexisNexis database.
