Happy Birthday, Roe v. Wade

Posted by Natasha Chart, Open Left at 8:12 AM on January 22, 2009.

Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a decision that made a pregnant woman's life and health worth as much as a farm animal's, and put her autonomy in the law equal with the respect paid to the wishes a dead organ donor. How's that working out on the ground? Frederick Clarkson writes to tell us from RH Reality Check:

... In addition to the silence in the political arena, Zurek points to the silence in the health care system in which abortion is not integrated into the training of health care professionals; "because it is so stigmatized," she says. This same culture of stigmatization causes many patients to avoid even talking with their regular physicians about it, preferring instead "specialized settings" like Planned
Parenthood.

As a result, access to abortion care is a significant problem of health care delivery in the U.S. A major study by the Guttmacher Institute found that some 87% of counties in the U.S. lack a single abortion provider. ...

As Clarkson points out, increased access to abortion services isn't part of any of the healthcare plans floating around DC. It isn't in the Religious Industrial Complex's policy agenda. Thirty-six years later, women's right to comprehensive reproductive healthcare is the elephant. Either the white elephant it's clear some Democrats would love to get rid of, or the pink elephant they pretend not to see.

And that's a shame. Literally. It reinforces the idea that reproductive healthcare is shameful, something we should be afraid to talk about unless we're saying something negative. Whereas, all aspects of reproductive healthcare need to be recognized as necessary and normal. Even if some procedures are more like a triple bypass surgery or hip replacement, in that you hope they aren't needed but recognize that they must be available for those who require them.

On January 22, 2001, one of former President Bush's first acts of office, on one of his first full days in office, was to institute the global gag rule. This prohibited federal funds being used to support organizations that provided or spoke about abortion services, cutting off access to reproductive healthcare to some of the poorest women in the world. This reversal of Clinton's policy, itself a reversal of George H.W. Bush's policy, was a big news event in the Bush White House. They were proud of it and they wanted everyone to know.

Here's hoping, on this fine, anniversary morning, that when Obama signs the reversal of Bush's order, he's just as proud of that stance as his predecessor was of his.  

Tagged as: roe v. wade, birthday