Outrage sparked from outcome of overturning the decision from Roe v Wade

The landmark decision of Roe v Wade in 1973 provided women the rights of abortion in the first three months of their pregnancy, and the right to obtain an abortion despite any legal bans if it is necessary to save her life.

However, the Supreme Court has recently ruled that individual states now have the power to ban this procedure again. Half of the states in the US are expected to implement this new restriction.

Reading about the overturning of this right made me consider the controversy this new restriction would produce. It made me wonder the position and feelings of women who conceived their babies through rape or are carrying a baby who is incompatible with life. This made me wonder how the women who conceived their child through rape feel as they have now been deprived of their choice to keep a baby that was conceived in such a traumatic experience. 

Women who would have initially chosen to have an abortion are now exploited to the emotional trauma of raising a child who they did not consent to conceiving. It also made me wonder about the women who are carrying a child who is incompatible with life. 

Do these women now have to carry a child knowing the child will die at birth? 

These women previously would have undergone an abortion to lessen the trauma and devastation they are already feeling from losing a child. Now they are forced to carry this child knowing they will not be greeted with the joys that are typically attached to birth. 

Instead, devastation from giving birth to a baby she already knows has died. I believe these new restrictions that have been implemented have completely restricted women’s rights over their own bodies. I am astonished that a third party can have such control over a woman's life. 

Women now must keep a baby when they would have opted for an abortion, this has life changing effects on that woman.

I read about the beginning of the devastation surrounding the restriction of this right in a shocking case where a US mum was refused an abortion despite her baby being ‘incompatible with life’. It shocked me how doctors refused to perform an abortion knowing the baby would die. Even though the abortion was not necessary to save this woman’s life, surely an abortion was essential for her mental health. 

Chloe Partridge was forced to continue a pregnancy that was doomed; she was left with the two options of travelling to another state and paying for expensive treatments or carrying on her ill-fated pregnancy which may leave her with life threatening conditions. 

After the refusal of doctors to carry out an abortion Chloe was left feeling the multiple seizures her baby was having inside her daily. I am amazed women are left to suffer everyday until their baby dies. Even though Chloe’s situation was not life threatening, surely this is life changing on her mental health. The emotions that are attached to having to feel your unborn baby having multiple seizures inside you daily, knowing she is slowly losing her child when an abortion could have simply ended all the pain and mental distress. 

The first option of travelling and undergoing an abortion in another state does not come cheap; the cost of an abortion typically cost around $17,500. Most citizens would have nowhere near enough money to fund this procedure and would be left with the second option of having to endure an ill-fated pregnancy or raise a child they are not prepared to care for.

In Chloe’s case she successfully raised the money through a GoFundMe page to allow her to have the procedure to end the mental distress she was being forced to endure. 

The implementation of banning abortions is an extremely controversial topic, as traditionally abortions are widely shrouded in shame and stigma, as many deem this procedure as a solution to unwanted pregnancies. 

These individuals ignore the fact abortions are utilised in situations where the baby is incompatible with life, the child is conceived through rape, or the mother is not in the mental state to care for a baby. This new restriction fails to take into consideration whether it is a child requesting an abortion, the state would allow this individual to bring up a baby when they are only a child themselves. Refusing abortions in these circumstances specifically presents how restrictive these laws really are. 

This new law has created significant uproar amongst women who began their periods at an extremely young age, as these women would be expected to bring up a child at such a young age. Devastation will continue as more states implement this new restriction and leave women no longer in control of their own body. The only question left is what state will implement this restriction next?

If you would like to discuss anything within this blog or your situation, please contact our specialist family lawyers here Family Solicitors Family Lawyers Basildon, Chelmsford, Colchester (birkettlong.co.uk)

Molly Smith, Work Experience student