Woe be Roe!
by EDITORIAL Amsterdam News
We have offered just an iota of the implications of the outcome if Roe v. Wade is overturned. And we certainly agree with the feelings expressed by President Biden about the wider implications of removing the law.
While Biden didn’t venture too deeply in what Justice Alito wrote “was egregiously wrong from the start,” Black Americans and other poor and marginalized people have known for years the devastating effects that will occur if Roe v. Wade is no longer in place, particularly for those living in states where they are challenged with acquiring the means of health care.
Bear in mind that more than half the nation’s African Americans live in the South, including women who make up a considerable amount of the population, and they already are struggling to gain access to desired abortions, some having to travel great distances to states where they are permitted.
In effect, poor women of color will have an additional hurdle to overcome, many of whom are currently burdened with children and in need of assistance.
Not only is it our opinion about the disproportionate impact of removing the decision, the Center for American Progress noted that women of color and LGBTQ people already experience bias and discrimination in health care.
“It is very concerning and very alarming and would devastate access for many millions of women in the United States,” said attorney and women’s health policy analyst Elyssa Spitzer. She said that subjecting women to carry an unintended pregnancy to term “is immensely painful, and arduous and a violation of human rights.”
Those human rights and the rights of women to make their own decision about their body are clearly on the docket, and not only at the Supreme Court, but in other societal decisions, those wider concerns the president evoked.
No court, no judge, no elected or civic official should have jurisdiction over a person’s body, and that unequivocally applies to a woman and her pregnancy.
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