Anti-abortion activists and conservative lawmakers persist in attempts to restrict abortion rights and even repeal Roe v. Wade.
Although the Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that women have the right to have an abortion, those opposed to the practice — namely conservatives — have not rested in attempts to repeal the controversial ruling. As a result, about 19 states have laws on their books in defiance of Roe v. Wade, and more are attempting to do so — all in the name of protecting human life.
Most Americans likely remember the large debate that surfaced this past summer in Texas when the Republican-led state legislature passed a controversial piece of anti-abortion legislation that would severely limit access to female reproductive services by restricting the types of facilities that could perform an abortion.
By requiring abortions to occur only in facilities that are equipped with a surgical center, all but five of the state’s 42 abortion clinics would be shut down, which is why state Sen. Wendy Davis famously attempted to filibuster the bill for 11 hours during a special session. News of Davis’ filibuster traveled fast and sparked a discussion throughout the nation on whether women still wanted access to safe and legal abortions.
Featured on a panel on Current TV, now owned by Al-Jazeera, Karen Hunter of karenhunterpublishing.com, said she is not surprised that young people are not involved in fighting to protect a woman’s right to have an abortion because younger generations have not had to debate this issue.
“It’s been settled for 40 years,” she said, which is why young people are getting involved more in issues such as gay marriage.
The Juneau Pro-Choice Coalition says that for those women who grew up in the post-Roe v. Wage era, they have never known what it’s like to live in a country where abortion is illegal.
“They tend to take abortion for granted, seeing it as something they’re entitled to, not something to fight for,” the group said.
However, Hunter’s fellow panelist Scottie Nell Hughes, news director of theTea Party News Network, contributor for Townhall.com and the Christian Post, sees the issue a differently and told MintPress that one reason young women may not be as vocal about abortion rights is that there is a different culture in the U.S. now than there was in the 1960s and 70s.
Hughes, a staunch anti-abortion advocate, says birth control is easier to obtain now, and its use is more accepted, which should mean that there are fewer abortions occurring in the country. But Hughes says unfortunately, in the U.S. we have created a culture where women view and use abortions as a form of birth control.
In response, many pro-choice advocates point out that the number of women who use abortion as a form of birth control is minimal, and that most women who have an abortion are under the age of 25; and 6 out of 10 women got pregnant because their contraception failed.
My body, my choice
The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice think tank, released a study on Monday that found that the abortion rate in the U.S. dropped to its lowest rate ever in 2011.
According to the report, there were fewer than 17 abortions for every 1,000 women in the U.S. in 2011, which is down 13 percent from 2008. Though the study didn’t report reasons why the rate of abortions had declined, the numbers were applauded by several organizations, including Planned Parenthood.
“This report comes just as some politicians and corporations are trying to make it harder for women to get birth control by chipping away at the historic benefit in the Affordable Care Act that requires insurance plans to cover birth control without a copay,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
“Every year, more than 700 Planned Parenthood health centers provide birth control to more than two million patients from all walks of life. We know firsthand that when a woman has access to birth control, she has the power to plan her family and pursue her goals. Access to birth control is a healthcare issue, an economic concern, and a matter of basic justice.
“One important finding in this report is that women who do decide to end a pregnancy are increasingly using medication abortion, which is a safe and effective method used early in pregnancy,” she said. “This report underscores the need for women to have information and access to their full range of options, in consultation with a medical provider and without political interference.”
Angelina K., of Hawaii, agrees that abortion should be legal, and said that in order to reduce the number of abortions, women need to be given affordable and easy access to birth control.
“Part of taking responsibility for ourselves and our families is to have children when we are ready and able to care for them,” she said. “Preventing unwanted pregnancies helps everyone. What would our society be like if all children were wanted and well cared for? My son was planned, and it made such a difference. My choice, my responsibility.”
But for anti-abortion advocates such as Hughes, the numbers are not convincing enough to prove that America doesn’t have an abortion problem.
“Unfortunately we are relying on the same people doing the abortions to record the numbers,” she said. But, if those numbers are accurate, Hughes said she is pleased.
Though abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood have been continuously attacked over the years, the group says it has no plans to alter the services it offers anytime soon.
“Planned Parenthood is proud to provide abortion services for women who make the deeply personal decision to end a pregnancy; we are proud to fight for a woman’s right to make that decision without interference from politicians; and we are proud to provide birth control that prevents that need for abortion in the first place,” Richards said.
Protecting women in the womb
Since a woman’s right to abortion has been classified by some as a women’s health issue, MintPress asked Hughes what kind of response she gets from people when they learn she is anti-abortion.
Hughes said because she is “extremely pro-life” people assume she doesn’t have the interests of women in mind but said that’s not true at all, and that in her pro-life crusade, she is “fighting for the right of the woman in the womb.
There is a 50-50 chance the unborn fetus is female, Hughes said. “I’m speaking on her behalf. That is my freedom to believe.”
Hughes said one problem that she sees with people on both sides of the issue is that “once they get passionate about something they get passionate about the facts,” and refuse to listen to what the other side has to say.
The anti-abortion advocate knows this to be true all too well and says that her words during an interview on Current TV were twisted to make it appear that she believed all women decided to abort a baby conceived from a rape should serve as much time behind bars as her rapist.
“My answer to a question was edited out of the context of the question,” Hughes stressed. The question was, if Roe v. Wade were reversed, and a woman decided to have an abortion after being raped, who should serve the most time behind bars: the rapist, the doctor who performed the abortion or the woman?
Hughes responded all deserve equal time behind bars because if Roe v. Wade were overturned, abortion would be illegal and would be a criminal act. However, many only heard Hughes responding that a woman who terminated a pregnancy from rape should be imprisoned for the same amount of time as her rapist.
“Rape is a horrible, horrible act,” she said, explaining that she doesn’t think a woman should be imprisoned for terminating a child she conceived during a rape. But Hughes did add that life is life, and abortion shouldn’t be allowed, even in cases of rape and incest.
Though the abortion debate continues, Hughes said she doubts Roe v. Wade will be overturned. But as young women increasingly rely on birth control and appear to lose interest in protecting their right to having an abortion, pro-choice advocates say the possibility that this right will be taken away from women will continue to exist, so long as there are people fighting against it.