By Gabriela Gutierrez
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, what happens next?
A leaked Supreme Court draft which aims to overturn Roe v. Wade, if passed, will leave the country with more disparities in equality for women than it already has.
Without Roe v. Wade, it would be likely that people would opt for other alternatives or methods to have abortions.
Trigger laws would be brought into fruition. The decision would be likely to affect primarily women of color.
Protests and activist movements to protect abortion rights would also skyrocket. There would even be an increase in the number of children given up for adoption. Despite all potential possibilities, abortion continues to be legal.
Women of color already have the highest poverty rates in America according to statusofwomendata.org.
Taking a woman’s right to abortion would only widen the gap of inequality that women of color, and women in general already face.
Without the right to abortion, there could be a strain on resources available to women. With less financial stability, women are at risk of homelessness.
The last time Roe v. Wade was revised was during Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992, in which the trimester framework in Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Now, the leaked memo obtained by Politico said the right to abortion is not an explicit constitutional right.
“They have found no support for the existence of an abortion right that predates the latter part of the 20th century- no state constitutional provision, no statute, no judicial decision, no learned treatise,” Samuel Alito, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, said in the leaked memo.
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, there are 13 states with trigger laws on stand-by.
Some states would ban abortion altogether. Others would consider making an abortion a felony and would consider it a crime to perform an abortion.
Texas Bill SB8 is proof of that.
“Any person, other than an officer or employee of a state or local governmental entity in this state, may bring a civil action against any person who: performs or induces an abortion in violation of this subchapter,” said bill SB8.
The biggest threat to women who live in states with such trigger laws is the possibility of having nowhere to turn for safety and not having an unbiased network of resources to help them make the best decision for them when it comes to their specific circumstances.
Women in more conservative states would potentially have to travel to other states to have abortions legally, or they would also likely resort to old-fashioned and unsustainable methods. This can put their lives in danger.
Ironically, a woman’s right to an abortion can be granted if the pregnancy is life-threatening to the mother.
Eliminating Roe v. Wade, although not explicitly, could create a bias even against pregnant women whose own lives are threatened by their pregnancies, not just against women without complications who simply wish to eliminate their pregnancies without a good-enough reason for the government to approve.