Women who fought for the right to abortion in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s have spoken out against a leaked report from the Supreme Court that suggests they may be willing to give the decision over abortion to individual states, many of which would make abortion illegal, leaving 36 million American women to have children they do not want. Currently, abortion is guaranteed at Federal level by the 1973 Roe v. Wade legal ruling, but this looks likely to be overturned.
Frances Beal, an 82-year-old black-American woman, has campaigned tirelessly for abortion rights since her friend died in 1958 from a failed illegal abortion. She said:
"She was dead because she'd had an illegal abortion. And it had gone bad. And if you take a look at the statistics, the number of women that died from illegal abortions was tremendous."
She now worries that this situation could occur across the country again over 60 years later if Roe v. Wade is overturned. She continued:
"The overthrow of Roe v Wade equals the murder and assassination of women and that's something that I feel in my heart will happen again. Unfortunately, America often acts as a precursor of things to happen in other countries. And if they can attack and destroy a woman's right to choose an abortion in the United States it won't be too far before the right will be destroyed in other countries around the world."
"The question of access to abortion, even as it was legal, was somewhat limited because of class and racial differences. We don't forget that. But we can put aside those class and racial differences, as well as generational differences, and stand together and say: 'No, this is not something that we are going to accept. We didn't accept it back in the 1970s and we're not going to accept it today.'"
Dr. Nori Rost, a minister and clergy leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, and long-time pro-choice advocate also made her voice clear, suggesting that the roll-back on abortion could also mean a roll-back on equal marriage between LGBTQ people. She said:
"It's just shocking to think that we're back to where we were in 1972 – 50 years later, here we are in the same panic, in the same uncertainty about what's going to happen with people who need to access safe legal abortion. It's a very helpless feeling that five people can have the right to choose how millions of women in this country can access healthcare to have agency over their own bodies. It's very demoralising."
[Based on reporting by: The Guardian]
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