Roe v. Wade, the renowned Supreme Court ruling affirming liberty in the 14th amendment in 1973, has recently been overturned. Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock should be aware of this by now – especially women. Roe v. Wade’s original ruling stated that reproductive rights and privacy to those reproductive rights are an essential part of the liberty mentioned in the 14th amendment.
Since 1973, this ruling has made incredible strides for women’s reproductive rights, decriminalizing abortion nationwide. The key word in this being “decriminalized,” since the criminalization of abortion will never stop abortions from happening and have failed to for hundreds of years. What the criminalization of abortion does is make it taboo, and something to hide, a social norm that we as women are still attempting to fight against and that stays intertwined into our society today. But the most disastrous part of a taboo narrative of abortion is the terribly unsafe procedures that occur when abortions are forced into secrecy.
For the past fifty years, women did not have to worry about this; we were able to relish in this exclusive freedom that men would never have to deal with or understand. But now, with Roe v. Wade overturned, these anxieties for women come back into play. Although this overturning does not necessarily mean that abortion is once again banned in all fifty states, it does mean that the states are able to make individual decisions on their own abortion restrictions. This automatically leaves an unfair disadvantage to women living in more conservative states, with some states discussing making it illegal for a woman to travel out of state for an abortion. And one can only wonder, how much further will this limiting of abortion access can go? (Especially if a possible recognizable candidate comes back into office this fall after taking a few years off.)
The Biden/Harris campaign is making the codification of Roe v. Wade one of the spearheads of their politicking, which I personally find hard to believe and out of reach for the President. But where I think the most danger lies is within the silence of the Trump campaign. Silence, most likely due to the unpopularity of pro-life movement, has shown in the polls. But we should know by now where his donors lie politically, and with abortion access so fragile right now, we should be worried about what’s to come if Trump is put into office.
With so many unknowns in question and women’s lives and livelihoods depending on what high political powers hold uncaringly in their palms, our priority should be to get out there and vote. Make your voice heard, and don’t take the Trump administration’s silence as unproblematic and anything more than the intensely political move that it is.