In recent months the abortion ban has been spreading across the United States. The series of anti-abortion bills being passed has raised concerns regarding the safety and freedom of the women in this country. Roe v. Wade was the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in all 50 states, allowing women to make the decision to have an abortion.
“The most restrictive abortion law in the country is in Alabama. The ban makes abortion illegal in virtually all cases — including cases of rape and incest — and doctors who perform abortions could face life in prison,” CNN Reporter Nicole Chavez said. “Lawmakers in Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky and Mississippi also proposed so-called ‘heartbeat bills’ this year and successfully got them signed into law. Those bills generally ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — when many women don’t yet know they’re pregnant.”
Protecting a woman’s access to safe abortions is dismissed in these states, therefore increasing the risk of health complications. According to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, “Liberalize abortion laws, ensure you have the professional health system to support safe abortion – and you can reduce deaths from abortion by 91%. Restrict abortion, and it’s a green light for untrained providers working in unsanitary conditions to carry out the unsafe abortions which have major impacts on health, and can lead to death…So what are the risks? Immediately: severe bleeding, uterine perforation, tearing of the cervix, severe damage to the genitals and abdomen, internal infection of the abdomen and blood poisoning.”
The following Northwood students provided opinions on abortion and the recent bans.
“A woman should have the right to decide what happens to her body and the decisions she makes should not be dictated as wrong by someone who is not a woman,” junior Gabriel Kobe said. “The recent laws passed in Alabama and Georgia are a direct attack on the basic rights that we and these women are granted at birth. Women should not be prosecuted for trying to execute any basic human right, especially one that has been determined legal by a supreme court case. Laws that prohibit abortions are against basic human rights and unfair and should not be passed.”
“I know it’s a very divided topic and everyone is totally entitled to their own opinion,” senior Grace Lake said. “But I tend to look at it like every life is precious and we should help preserve life and help women through pregnancy rather than just to terminate the pregnancy; I definitely feel like I am pro-life.”
Whether or not women are given control over their bodies when it comes to abortion, what’s clear is that state governments hold very different views from one another on this issue. It is now clearer that with the spread of legal restrictions on abortions, this issue is far from being settled.
