Abortion Rights Are Good Health and Good Science

The Supreme Court is about to make a mistake.

If the leaked draft opinion in Jackson Women's Health Organization is true, federal abortion rights in this country are about to be struck down. The Court will side against popular opinion on a crucial issue of bodily autonomy, but also signal that politics and religion play a more important role in health care than do science and evidence.

For almost 50 years, people in the US have had the right to end a pregnant woman's life. The accessibility and affordability of abortion has always been a problem, but the ability to get a safe and legal abortion before fetal viability was settled law.

The opinion that overturned the Pennsylvania law that required a pregnant married woman to inform her husband of her plans to have an abortion was struck down by the new decision. Many states have already passed or are planning to pass laws that either ban abortion completely or put severe restrictions on this medical procedure that it will be almost impossible to legally end a pregnant woman's life. Some states will make abortion providers criminals. A Supreme Court ruling would deny people the right to end pregnancies that happen after rape or incest, or that pose grave medical dangers. These laws are contrary to all relevant science, and any health-related claims used to support them are incorrect.

Anti-abortion legislators claim that abortion harms pregnant women. In a landmark study from the University of California, San Francisco, scientists found that abortion leads to worse mental and physical health as well as financial stability. The Turnaway Study followed 1,000 women who were seeking abortions for five years. Some people were turned away because their pregnancies were past the legal cutoff, but others were turned away because they were early in their pregnancies. Women who had abortions reported fewer mental health issues years later, and their most common reaction was relief. Women who were denied abortions experienced a brief decline in mental health.

Women who were denied an abortion were more likely to end up poor, unemployed or receiving government assistance, even though they were in the same financial situation as women who were able to get one. In a post-Roe world, people will be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term because they are denied most basic form of health care and the ability to make decisions about their own bodies. The effects of access to abortion seem to be very positive.

The fight against abortion rights is often portrayed as a religious mission, but not all religions oppose abortion. The political moves are part of a long-standing effort by some conservative Christians and anti-abortion politicians.

The ideologues strip women of political and earning power when they force people to have children when they don't want to. These laws prolong patterns of poverty by forcing people to have children when they are not financially secure. The states with the most restrictive abortion policies have some of the worst social safety nets.

Some U.S. states have maternal mortality approaches that are different from those in developing nations. Some of the abortion restrictions that have been passed are based on the early stages of a pregnant woman's life. There are too many biological and genetic problems to list, and too many variables to assign a deadline to. Laws and total bans go against the basic workings of human biology.

The justices of the Supreme Court who strike down abortion rights are telling the American public that science doesn't matter and that evidence can be ignored. High courts struck down mask and vaccine mandates. The right to an abortion is not in the Constitution and could apply to all reproductive health. The highest court in the land must value evidence and respect best medical practices, but the conservative majority doesn't.

Pro-choice elected officials, including President Joe Biden, have pledged to protect abortion rights. Some degree of abortion access is ensured by legislative means. It will be difficult to get the needed votes to pass measures protecting abortion with the current federal legislature. We hope that the issue of abortion rights will be seen as an issue by lawmakers.

The Supreme Court is poised to change the lives of many people in the U.S., and we applaud the states that strengthen their abortion protections. We applaud the people who are fighting for their right to health care and privacy. The health care workers, the doctors, the nurses, the medical assistants, and the volunteers, donors and programs that help people who are pregnant care for themselves and their health, we applaud. Science, medicine, and respect for human dignity support safe and accessible reproductive health care. Everyone should have access to it.