Judge Scalia’s death put Roe v. Wade back in the conversation. After all, abortion and that 1973 opinion are always foremost in the minds of U.S. Senators confirming judicial nominees. One side is looking for a justice to save it and the other side wants one to overturn it.
Nevertheless, abortion clinics are closing across the country and it has nothing to do with Roe v. Wade. It’s about states restricting the clinics, as we see in this report:
At no time since before 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion, has a woman’s ability to terminate a pregnancy been more dependent on her zip code or financial resources to travel.The drop-off in providers — more than one every two weeks — occurred in 35 states, in both small towns and big cities that are home to more than 30 million women of reproductive age.
My state of Texas has been at the forefront of this issue. The legislature has drawn up very tough mandates forcing doctors to have admitting privileges at hospitals nearby. Back to the aforementioned article:
The drop-off in access has helped depress the abortion rate in the state by 13 percent, according to a July study, and providers there say full implementation of the law would leave almost a fifth of Texas women 150 miles or more from a facility.
There are two issues here: a woman’s safety and whether or not a state legislature can regulate abortion.
On the safety issue, it sounds reasonable to me to have certain standards at the abortion clinics. After all, an abortion is a medical procedure and there are risks to the woman.
On the state issue, it is totally legitimate for citizens to make these decisions in their legislatures.
No one is denying a woman her right to an abortion. We are simply seeing states creating some rules to reflect the wishes of its citizens. It sounds like democracy to me. It sure sounds like what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
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