Roe vs Wade: Our right to bodily autonomy

 

  • Fifty years ago in 1973, the case of Roe vs Wade established that women in the United States had a constitutional right to an abortion.
  • On 24 June 2022, the US Supreme Court of 9 judges voted to overturn this ruling.
The implications of this are huge, not only for 36 million American women who are immediately affected, but for women everywhere including the United Kingdom.The embers of the debate about the ownership and politicisation of women’s bodies have re-ignited and there is no room for complacency in even the most stable of liberal democracies. It’s vital for women to look carefully at what is happening, and to take action.

The ruling means that individual states in the US are now able to ban abortion. ‘Trigger laws’ for an automatic ban have already been passed in thirteen states, some of them making abortion illegal even in the event of rape or incest.

Throughout America the response to the ruling has been swift, angry and fearful. Protests and demonstrations have been supported by worldwide condemnation and calls for reversal. Political divisions have been inflamed and the response by the Democrats has been publicly criticised as being too weak.

The implications for the US

The historical and political context to all of this is a complex and disturbing one that is riddled with rumours and inaccuracies. The immediate effect, however, will be on the poor and on women of colour. Pregnancy in the US currently kills about a thousand women a year and injures hundreds of thousands more. Medical professionals have warned of the severe long term consequences of unwanted/unsafe pregnancies. And as state level provision is withdrawn and clinics close, women will be forced to travel much longer distances to seek treatment.

Beyond the United States

The politicisation of women’s rights, and the state policing of bodily autonomy is commonplace throughout the world.

Healthcare funding of about $9 billion a year is given by USAID to countries around the world. But amendments since 1973 have stipulated that funding may not be spent on enabling access to abortion. These regulations have resulted in thousands of deaths annually as countries avoid providing basic services for fear of losing funding. The’Global Gag’ rule, which has prevented foreign NGOs from giving advice or assistance on abortion, is regularly rescinded when Democrats are in power, and reinstated when Republicans are in the ascendancy. Women’s lives are subject to an ideological yo-yo.

Benin, Mozambique and South Africa are the only African countries where abortion is possible in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. In Turkey, it’s up to ten weeks after conception, but a spouse’s consent is required for married women. In Poland there is an almost total ban and the Polish parliament has just rejected a bill to move to a twelve week period. Harassment of women seeking abortion in Spain and Italy is common. In Nigeria, British colonial law still stands, with a penalty of between seven (patient) and fourteen (provider) years. A complete ban on abortion in El Salvador is widely enforced and women have also been prosecuted following stillbirth and miscarriage. In Malta, the recent widely reported experience of Andrea Prudente, an American tourist, has highlighted the island’s draconian laws. And of course at the other end of the spectrum are the reports of the forced sterilisations of indigenous, black and Puerto Rican women and the ruthless one child policy pursued by China between 1980 and 2016.

The UK also has serious issues

There is no room for complacency here in the UK, where abortion has never technically been decriminalised. The 1861 Offences against the Person Act still stands, although the 1967 Abortion Act made some exceptions, giving the power to assess the legality of the procedure to doctors.

Passed in the context of public health concerns, the 1967 act enabled safe access to abortion and saved lives. However, abortion remains an offence in criminal law and women are still being prosecuted - fifty two women have been reported to the police since 2015. Anyone who undergoes an abortion without the permission of two doctors (perhaps by using pills bought online) can be prosecuted and imprisoned.

In an echo of the situation in America, Birthrights, the UK charity protecting human rights in childbirth, has reported stark disparity in maternal mortality rates between Black and Asian aggregated ethnic groups and white women.

In Northern Ireland, in spite of a change to the law in 2019, many women are still forced to travel to England for abortions because provision of services has been blocked repeatedly by the Health minister, Robin Swann. Intervention by the British Government has been threatened, but nothing has happened so far.

Dominic Raab, the justice secretary has recently commented, only to say that the abortion issue is ‘settled in UK law’.

In a recent analysis in the London Review of Books, Lisa Hallgarten and Jayne Kavanagh point out:

Only complete decriminalisation, regulation of abortion in the same way as other forms of healthcare, and the secure funding and commissioning of accessible abortion services across the UK will reassure us that our bodies are truly our own.

Action and support

Throughout the world, high profile campaigns for political change run alongside organisations offering practical help, advice and support. Here are just a few examples.

In America, SisterSong (the US women of colour reproductive justice collective) campaigns to win access to abortion and other reproductive rights, but also works to establish support networks. Also in the US, the National Network of Abortion Funds uses funding to help women in crisis. They can recommend clinics, offer transport, childcare, translation services and places to stay.

In the UK, the parliamentary All Party Pro-Choice and Sexual Health group is working closely with Abortion Rights (the national pro-choice campaign) and also with the Voice for Choice coalition of sexual health and education providers. Stella Creasy MP has said that the situation is more fragile than people realise and is spearheading a campaign to embed the right to choose in the proposed Bill of Rights. The Women’s Equality Party are campaigning to highlight the importance of resisting the global attack on women’s rights.

The Alliance for Choice focuses on supporting women in Northern Ireland and the Abortion Support Network offers practical support and financial assistance for women in difficulty, reaching out to Poland and other countries. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service is running high profile campaigns and petitions, and the Fawcett Society is working to cement women’s right to choose as a human right.

What can you do?

  • Make sure that you are fully informed
  • Support campaigns, donate, sign petitions, write to your MP and support the proposed amendment to the British Bill of Rights
  • Talk openly about the issues and the fight for bodily autonomy.
There is urgent need for change. Women must prevail.
Location: Milton Keynes, UK

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