Viewpoints: Overturning Roe Will Have Unintended Consequences; Congress Must Act Quickly To Preserve Rights

The New York Times: An Abortion Provider Confronts The End Of Roe
For almost a decade as a family doctor in California, I have provided first-trimester abortions and trained family medicine residents to do the same. My colleagues and I believe that offering competent, compassionate abortion care is a core aspect of reproductive health, and an important part of caring for families and communities. It is gratifying work, knowing I’m helping people choose the life path that makes the most sense for them. And I have been comfortable doing that work in a cultural environment that largely celebrates what I do as an act of feminist activism. (Dr. Alison Block, 5/6)

Bloomberg: Supreme Court Abortion Leak: Congress Must Stand Up For Women Before Roe Falls 
Barring a reversal, the court will hand the matter of women’s rights over to the states, just as abortion opponents have always wanted — and just as opponents of abolition, integration, and interracial and same-sex marriage had all urged in their day. That comparison will undoubtedly anger abortion opponents. But fundamental freedoms — whether on race or gender — should never be allowed to be determined by state legislatures and local plebiscites. Freedom for women is not merely equality under the law with men. It is the autonomy and authority to be in control about when and whether to have a child. (Michael R. Bloomberg, 5/5)

Newsweek: What The SCOTUS Leak Means For Black Women 
But abortion in particular affects the Black community in unique ways, raising the stakes of the debate for our community. Should the Supreme Court indeed do away with Roe, it would unleash legislation in Republican-led states throughout the South that includes criminalizing abortion as well as anyone involved in procuring one. This could potentially spur a new wave of mass incarceration and over-policing of Black women in states with strict abortion laws. (Pamela Denise Long, 5/5)

Wall Street Journal: Did Supreme Court Nominees Lie To Congress?
One media narrative congealing after this week’s Supreme Court leak is that President Trump’s nominees lied to Congress by claiming they wouldn’t overturn the abortion precedent of Roe v. Wade. So allow us to check the tape—and explain why respecting past decisions doesn’t bind the Court to stand by serious constitutional errors. (5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: The End Of Roe V. Wade Will Be Good For America
And you have to respect that as a wound, the Roe v. Wade decision never healed, never could. Josh Prager, in his stupendous history of that decision, “The Family Roe,” noted the singular fact of this ruling: Other high court decisions that liberalized the social order—desegregation of schools, elimination of prayer in the schools, interracial marriage, gay marriage—were followed by public acceptance, even when the rulings were very unpopular. Most came to have overwhelming support. But not Roe. That was the exception. It never stopped roiling America. (Peggy Noonan, 5/5)

The Boston Globe: A Pediatrician’s Point Of View: Antiabortion Is Anti-Child 
As a hospital pediatrician, I find the argument that banning abortions protects children particularly hard to bear. The opposite is true: Antiabortion legislation hurts children. Parental health is infant health, and maternal health is fetal health. This is why news that the Supreme Court may soon strike down Roe v. Wade is so alarming: Children will suffer. (Rebekah Diamond, 5/5)

Scientific American: Abortion Rights Are Good Health And Good Science 
The U.S. Supreme Court is about to make a huge mistake. If the leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is a true indication of the Court’s will, federal abortion rights in this country are about to be struck down. In doing so the Court will not only side against popular opinion on a crucial issue of bodily autonomy, but also signal that politics and religion play a more important role in health care than do science and evidence. (5/5)

The Atlantic: How To Win The Abortion Argument 
In May 2016, three women walked into a police station in Derry, Northern Ireland, and gave themselves up. They were unlikely criminals—all born in the 1940s, they arrived wearing warm coats and jeans. But Colette Devlin, Diana King, and Kitty O’Kane were deadly serious about their willingness to spend years in prison. Their offense: These three women had bought abortion pills on the internet. (Helen Lewis, 5/5)

Los Angeles Times: Pregnancy Is Risky. Losing Access To Abortion Puts Women's Lives At Stake 
As the United States struggles with the imminent demise of Roe vs. Wade, politicians and voters need to remember one thing ahead of the midterm elections: Abortion saves women’s lives. The Supreme Court’s decision, a draft of which was leaked this week, will all but eliminate abortion rights in half of the country by returning the decision over abortion to the states. (Tamara Kay, Susan L. Ostermann and Tricia C. Bruce, 5/6)

The Baltimore Sun: ‘I Was Lucky. I Didn’t Die.’ Regi Elion And Dangerous Abortions Before Roe
Readers of this column might have noticed that I try to avoid going over old ground or digging up long-gone columns and presenting them again. We’re not much for reruns around here. But, of the more than 6,000 columns I have written for The Baltimore Sun, few have remained as relevant as the one I wrote 30 years ago about Regi Elion’s abortion. (Dan Rodricks, 5/5)

Bloomberg: Abortion Rights Falter As Democracy Slides
Global progress on basic reproductive issues has, by and large, been steady and encouraging; as women gain economic and political power, religion eases its grip and societal attitudes mellow. Ireland cleared the path for legal abortion in 2018. Latin America, though still home to some of the world’s most restrictive bans, has taken significant strides, with Argentina permitting elective abortions in late 2020 and Mexico and Colombia decriminalizing the procedure. In Africa, Benin has just brought in a groundbreaking abortion law. Today, even if huge numbers of women still face significant hurdles, only 5% of women of reproductive age live in countries that forbid abortion without exception. Of 36 developed nations, 34 offer abortion on request or on broad social and economic grounds — only Malta and Poland fall short. (Clara Ferreira Marques, 5/5)

Kansas City Star: Decisions Involving Pregnancy, Abortion Should Be A Woman’s 
As the Supreme Court’s draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaks, I would like to share my story. It painfully highlights the ignorance, inconsistency and unintended consequences of anti-abortion laws. It’s 2009. I’m in a Catholic hospital, in labor with my first child at 21 weeks. They tell me the labor cannot be stopped. My baby will be born preterm and die this day. My contractions are painful, but not progressing. The nurse quietly explains that the hospital cannot offer me Pitocin, a drug regularly used to help women deliver healthy babies, to speed things up. I later understand that the hospital’s Catholic policy considers this an abortion. (Theresa Prenger, 5/6)