Reflecting on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade
Tuesday is the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that found a woman's right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. 40 years later, a history professor reflects on what has been achieved - and what is to come.
Reflecting on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade
Janet Golden
By Janet Golden
Twenty years ago I appeared in the film Motherless: A Legacy of Loss from Illegal Abortion, talking about the history of abortion. The 28-minute documentary, embedded above, profiles three women and one man whose mothers died of complications from abortion before its legalization. The film also includes the testimony of a former chief physician at Philadelphia General Hospital recalling the 32-bed ward for women being treated for what he called “botched, criminal abortions.” Surprisingly, the film is still being used in classrooms, and its message - that the legalization of abortion following the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision saved women’s lives - is still relevant.
Tuesday is the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that found a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The decision invalidated all state laws restricting access to abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, allowed states to regulate second trimester abortions in ways related to maternal health, and permitted third trimester abortion restrictions including allowing states to outlaw them. You can hear the oral arguments and read the full opinion.
As everyone knows, in the decades since that decision, vehement debates over abortion and the cultural divide those arguments represent have grown ever more virulent. Abortion battles have taken lives, with the assassinations of abortion providers and the bombings of clinics in which abortions are performed. State laws restricting abortion have increased in number, limiting access to safe, legal abortions and making abortion more expensive. But restrictions do not decrease demand. As the Guttmacher Institute points out, “By age 45, nearly half of American women will have an unintended pregnancy and nearly 1 in 3 will have an abortion.”
As we reflect today on the impact of Roe v. Wade, let us remember what it achieved. Maternal mortality declined significantly after the legalization of abortion, because abortions were performed by skilled professionals rather than untrained back-alley practitioners or by women themselves. The safety of legal abortion is documented in a study published last year in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology reviewing the years 1998-2005. During that time death rates from induced abortion were 0.6 per 100,000. By way of comparison the death rate among women who delivered live neonates was 8.8 per 100,000.
Roe v. Wade was a public health success story. But the next chapter has yet to be written. It will involve reducing the rate of abortion by increasing access to contraception. A recent study confirmed that providing free birth control does just that. The Affordable Care Act mandates that private health insurance plans offer birth control and other preventive services. Let us hope that this will reduce the rate of abortion and let us urge that co-pays and other restrictions on birth control be eliminated.
Access to safe, legal abortion and to contraceptives are vital to protecting the public’s health. They are means of ensuring the health of women. And, let us not forget, when women can access the professional medical services they need, fewer children grow up motherless.
Janet Golden, a Rutgers University history professor, specializes in the histories of medicine, childhood and women.
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Very reasonable and rational article. Thank you for writing it so thoughtfully and thank you editors for publishing it.
The people who are still against this decision being legal should, however, agree, if they are fair and honest, that it is just not their decision to make for someone else's family.
It is also an interesting to ask who would be supporting the "60 million" if they had been born?
There are studies that note that we are all better for not having millions more of unwanted children; we already have far too many unwanted, abused and neglected children; no amount of adoption has ever been able to care for the unwanted children now.
Who wants 60 million more or 20% of our total population of unwanted children being neglected?
Please understand and offer those parents the compassion you have for the unborn.
Understand that many people make mistakes, they are not as perfect as those of you who oppose abortions and they need to make medical decisions for themselves.
Please be kind and caring and leave them alone.
— GAC- Did you really think the "editors" at the Inky would have any problems publishing this article? They really are a courageous lot.... — Wiseman6
- Stalin would love this definition of success...the murder of millions.— rudytbone
- Success story? Success?? Disposing of inconvenient children is never a success.— anti-tax
- More than 300,000 facilitated by Planned Parenthood, last year alone. And we're going through all this angst over "gun violence"? Of course, the underlying theme is that abortion and birth control should be "free". So don't be shocked when the time comes that the entity subsidizing these "services" (i.e., your federal gov't) starts telling women that they MUST have abortions in the interest of public health and keeping costs down.— nellar
- It's a health procedure where two patients walk in alive, one walks out alive (usually) and the other leaves in a medical waste red-bag heading for the crematorium.— sandiego1969
- Oh look the Christian way as defined by Conservatives -- use shame and false accusations. They have their choice, these women. Its protected. "protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution". So its not m2rder. Thank god for these forums, where Conservatives can blow off steam and take the edge off their fake outrage just long enough to not have their delusions turn violent, as we've witnessed with the a22assinations and b0mbings.— Murrayman
Comment removed.- Sounds like a "medical procedure" to me... Chilling.. — Wiseman6
- Comment removed.
- This article celebrates Murder.— GREEKPICNIC
- Terrible headline...seriously.— kjuggs77
I guess while we are celebrating success, we should recognize those who made it possible. Please join me in applauding those who aborted so they could avoid having a child of undesirable gender -- usually a girl and part of "family balancing". It just shows how far the US standard of living has advanced when women have the legal right to abort for reasons of convenience.
At a time when 2nd amendment rights are being constrained, American women should be relieved that their right to abortion on demand is more important than any other right. The Presidential election shows how firm is the grip of power of older women over unborn children.— Jack Hughes- Sooner or later , maybe fifty years from now, we'll be like China, especially if moms have kids they can't or won't provide for.— Lew Klein
- "The success story known as Roe v. Wade." I thought my eyes were going on me but no. Killing millions of innocent babys is called a success. How sad;how pathetic. I am not a holy roller or Republican. I am not far right or far left. What I am is a human being that knows that abortion is the killing of human life and to me that is morally and ethically wrong. Who knows, maybe one of these aborted babys would have grown up to be the person who discovered a cure for cancer, MS, AIDS,the common cold. Maybe I am right or perhaps way off. The people who are so vocal to support abortion would not be here today if their mother had chosen abortion for them. A women's right? That is total BS. I am sure the Nazi Party thought they were a success in killing millions of Jews, Polish Catholics, Russians, and their very own that did not meet Hitler standards. Abortion today for many young women has become a form of birth control. I have been in the medical field for over 30 years and never will understand abortion. How about using restraint or birth control? Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.— Bob H
