The End Where It All Began: The Journey of Texas, Pre- and Post-Roe
At this point in time, no matter who you are or what your background is, you have heard the word “abortion.” Although, when it comes to your upbringing and personal beliefs, your opinions may vary. For some, it is a necessary evil; for others, it is a saving grace. That’s the beauty of abortion: unless you know what is going on in someone’s life, you do not know if they have received an abortion. According to Planned Parenthood, 1 in 4 women in the United States have received an abortion before the age of 45. That includes teenagers and mothers. For all you know, your friend’s mother could have had an abortion. The political climate in the United States is now deciding whether or not a woman is allowed to have an abortion. The irony behind it is that when the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case was passed in 1972 with a 7-2 majority, the majority was Republican.
Norma Leah McCorvey, more commonly known as Jane Roe, was a Texan woman who wanted an abortion. After being born to a woman who wanted an abortion herself, Norma did not lead a normal childhood. She faced abuse at the hands of her mother, and when she was just 15, she was pregnant with her first child. At 16, after having a child, Norma stayed with her abusive partner and had another child, whom she decided to put up for adoption. It is only at the time of her third pregnancy that Norma decides she doesn't want to have the child; an archived account from the New York Times has Norma saying, “‘Um [I] didn’t want to have it, didn’t want it in my body,’” and that was when Norma learned about abortion. At the time, it was not legal in Texas, where Norma resided, so she was put in contact with two lawyers, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, after she tried to go to an illegal abortion clinic in Texas that had been shut down by law enforcement. The two lawyers used Norma to help them bring an abortion case up to the Supreme Court, which ultimately passed as the landmark Roe v. Wade case, but Norma was still left to have her child, unable to get the abortion she wanted.
The 14th Amendment, the right to privacy, allowed the Supreme Court to pass Roe v. Wade under the jurisdiction that women had their own right to privacy. Prior to the 22-week viability date, women had the right to get an abortion in any state. The Planned Parenthood v. Casey case, decided in 1991, allowed each state to decide when abortions were legal, as long as they considered a woman’s health and ensured abortion was still legal at some point during pregnancy. For states like Texas, this meant six weeks, when 1 in 3 women do not even know they are pregnant.
Now, let’s fast-forward fifty years after Roe v. Wade, which brings us to 2022. This year, the Dobbs v. Jackson case passed through the Supreme Court. Jackson is in reference to the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which was the only abortion provider in Mississippi, and Dobbs is Dr. Thomas Dobbs, who is the head of Mississippi’s State Health Department. This case was brought before the Supreme Court in order to limit abortion access in Mississippi to 15 weeks, seven weeks before the Roe v. Wade viability date. In the end, this case did not only allow this change to Mississippi’s abortion laws, but it overturned Roe v. Wade with a 6-3 majority of Republicans. The reason why Roe v. Wade was also overturned at the time is due to the fact that abortion is never mentioned in the Constitution. So, the 14th Amendment, which helped pass Roe v. Wade, was looked over because abortion was not stated.
For many states, this meant that trigger laws, which were put in place in the event that Roe v. Wade was overturned, came into play. In Texas, this means a full abortion ban. Right now, 13 states have full abortion bans, and 10 states have pending blocks. Since Texas is where it all began, this state will be the focus.
In Texas, it is illegal to get an abortion. And on top of that, any citizen can sue a provider who aids and abets abortion for up to $100,000, as seen in the Texas State Law Library. And at the top of their website, there is a note:
So on top of abortion being illegal, there is a possibility, no matter how slim, that someone who gets an abortion can be sued. Without safe access to abortion, women are forced to seek the procedure on their own, whether through back alley abortions, as Norma Leah attempted, or by being forced to continue their pregnancy against their will. In a state like Texas, the odds look grim. They have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the US at 24 births per 1,000 people, and their maternal mortality rate is in the top 10 in the country at 34.5 deaths per 100,000 births. Although you may say that these numbers don’t look too bad, the fact is that they are some of the highest in the country. These numbers are just a few months after abortion became illegal, so without the right help for women, these numbers can take a large leap.
On top of the sheer number of people that are affected by young pregnancies and deaths from giving birth, it is important to know that for women who are in poverty, it can drastically change their lives. An abortion can cost anywhere from $600-$2,000 depending on what time in the pregnancy it is received, and this does not include the traveling costs, which now have to be taken into account for states that do not allow abortion. In Texas, which is surrounded by states in which abortion is also illegal, the cost of travel alone could match the cost of an abortion. For a woman in poverty or at the poverty line, this poses serious risks. The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) did a study from 2015-2018 in several states, including Texas, New Jersey, New Mexico, Arizona, and South Carolina, where they looked at how women were affected if they were turned away from getting an abortion. They found that the economic insecurity that was created by having a child lasted at least four years longer than in the same household in which the mother was allowed to get an abortion. That four years in a child's life could mean less food or diapers, or a family’s inability to stay in their home. Along with financial concerns, mental and physical health can deteriorate, with many women continuing to live with abusive partners, whether physical abuse or mental abuse. For a woman who wants an abortion, being turned away, whether because they have come to get an abortion too late in their pregnancy or they do not have the means to pay for it, can be the difference in how they continue their life. At the bottom of the research that UCSF conducted, there is a statement:
Abortion has more than just an impact on the woman’s life; it also has an impact on the lives of her family, especially the unwanted child.
Right now in Texas, the way the state is trying to prevent pregnancy is by implementing a new sexual and reproductive health curriculum in schools. For children in middle school and high school, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Health Education (TEKS) has revamped its curriculum to include more than just abstinence. But even in their new teachings, it is still lacking. The students are taught about how condoms are necessary for preventing STIs, but, as a high school junior stated, they are not taught about what an STI actually is. On top of that, it is actually necessary for parents to opt their child into topics related to sexual and reproductive health, so if someone thinks it’s not important, they can actually allow their child to not learn about them. This leaves children uneducated and ill prepared for their own experiences, which can ultimately lead to teen pregnancy if the proper measures are not taken. Along with attempting to fix the education of sexual healthcare, there are funds in place to help women in Texas pay for their abortions. However, some funds, including the Lilith Fund, have been collecting donations for years to help women receive the abortions that they want, but with the aiding and abetting laws in Texas, they are unsure if, at the current moment, the funds can be accessed without being sued. Like the photo to the right, the Lilith Fund is trying to abide by the new laws passed after Dobbs v. Jackson. Outside of Texas, there are numerous funds set aside for women to help them access funds to receive their abortions. At this point, there is also availability for abortion pills to be shipped from overseas to Texas. Since there are no laws specifically outlawing abortion pills to be sent from over state lines, the Texas government cannot sue the company that is sending abortion pills, an at-home method that accomplishes an abortion through the use of two pills. This method is only available for anyone who is less than 10 weeks pregnant. The hope is that Texas and other states that ban abortion will not be able to regulate abortion pills sent by mail out of state or out of the country, where many of these pills are sourced, so it is a viable option for women early on in their pregnancies.
As someone who has spent years doing research on women’s health and contraception access, it is sad to see how badly a state like Texas can be affected. Since I live in New Jersey, I’m happy to say that if needed, I can receive an abortion without any issues as long as it is before the 22-week mark. Since I am only 19, I have been doing research as a minor, and even in a state like New Jersey, the laws are flawed. At the age of 15, I could receive an abortion without parental consent, but I couldn’t get access to any birth control options before the age of 18 without consent unless I had already had a child or an abortion. The laws in the United States are enabling politics to control what can and cannot be done to a woman’s body.
Texas is an example of what a state can become. After goin so far as to make abortion legal, Roe V. Wade assisted thousands upon thousands of women in obtaining abortions for the next 50 years. As time goes on, there is the hope that law makers will see just how impactful easy access to abortion is for women’s health and how, for many people, there is no regret with an abortion; it will make their future better, with or without children. Texas’s small steps in fixing education are ones in the right direction, and the overall hope is that they can continue their knowledge to ensure that children understand the risks of pregnancy and sexual health. The only thing we can do is wait and hope for the best.
-Isabel Gringeri
Sources:
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/abortion/considering-abortion
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/505/833/
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/19-1392
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/abortion-laws-roe-v-wade.html?
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/teen-pregnancy-rates-by-state
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/ask-experts/how-much-does-an-abortion-cost
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