Letter: Losing federally-guaranteed abortion rights hurts all women, with lower-income women most at risk

Posted 6/30/22

The conservative members of the Supreme Court have done what they suggested they would never do during their confirmation hearings: they reversed the Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

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Letter: Losing federally-guaranteed abortion rights hurts all women, with lower-income women most at risk

Posted

The conservative members of the Supreme Court have done what they suggested they would never do during their confirmation hearings: they reversed the Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion access a legal right. Now women across the United States who need access to safe, legal abortion care will no longer have it.

This decision is a travesty. After 50 years of women having the right to make medical decisions for themselves and their own bodies, a body that comprises predominantly men are making those decisions for them.

Compounding the problem is that as many as 13 states have passed “trigger laws,” which are expected to go into effect almost immediately with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. This means that women in those states will not be allowed to terminate a pregnancy unless it endangers their life. Most of these laws don’t make exceptions for rape or incest.

This Supreme Court decision will have an impact on women who do not have access to funds to travel across state lines. Many will resort to so-called “back-alley” abortions, popular before 1973, which killed hundreds of women each year.

Everyone has a right to access the appropriate health care based on consultation with their physicians, no matter who they are or where they live. I will fight to ensure the women of Philadelphia who are most at risk continue to have that right.

The justices who voted to overturn this landmark 1973 decision are not pro-life. They are pro-power.

City Councilmember Cindy Bass

Mt. Airy

Editor’s note: this letter has been lightly edited for clarity