– It felt like a kick in the stomach.
This is how Lisa describes (42) The Roe v. Wade case was overturnedThis means that there is no longer a federal right to self-abortion in the United States.
The middle school teacher lives and works in the small town of Saint Charles, Missouri. Even before Roe v. Wade was struck down, the Midwestern state had passed the so-called “trigger law.” It made abortion services illegal with immediate effect.
Read more: What is Roe vs. Wade?
Demonstrators protested in Missouri on June 24 when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via NTB
As a result, state abortion clinics have stopped offering their usual services. Now pregnant women in Lisa’s home area have to go to neighboring Illinois, an hour’s drive away, if they want an abortion.
– It’s outrageous. I think of my students and the situations they might find themselves in. Traveling out of state is expensive for them, especially with the gas prices we have now. Besides, the process is not free either. Lisa says that many will not be able to afford to go to Illinois for an abortion.
It will criminalize immigration
The winding road from the edge of Missouri to Illinois could soon become more complicated. and illegal.
Missouri Congresswoman Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican, recently introduced a bill that would make it possible to prosecute people who help Missouri residents perform abortions outside the state’s borders.
This could be anything from health care personnel to individuals driving a pregnant woman to an abortion clinic.
– My children are still young, but, frankly, I do not know how I will respond in a few years, if they get involved in an unwanted pregnancy, where the girl wants to have an abortion, says Lisa, and continues:
– Will I respect the law, if I forbid a person to make me happy to make a decision about his reproductive health?
Lisa says she is committed to raising her children to be law-abiding citizens, but the repeal of Roe v. Wade, as well as the new domestic bill on the table, challenges the ideal of law-abiding
– It’s something I will think about a lot in the future. I simply don’t have a good answer. I now feel deep despair. The heart of Roe v. Wade feels vulnerable. As if the ruling says that the freedom of women is less important than the freedom of men.
Facts: The state of abortion in the USA
The US Supreme Court has made many important rulings regarding abortion over the years. Here are some of them:
- 1973: The court legalized abortion across the United States in the Roe vs. valley.
- 1976: The Supreme Court struck down a Missouri law that required a married woman to obtain her husband’s permission to have an abortion.
- 1986: The court struck down parts of a Pennsylvania law that sought to influence women to carry out pregnancy, including requiring them to be informed of the risks of an abortion.
- 1989: Court rejects appointment of Roe vs. Set aside, but allowed by state regulations.
- 1992: The Court issued a ruling upholding Roe v. Wade says states cannot ban abortion before 23-24 weeks of pregnancy.
- 2000: The court struck down a Nebraska law banning second-trimester abortion without exceptions that take into account the health of a pregnant woman.
- 2007: Rowe vs. Wade weakened when the court upheld an abortion law in Congress that included much of the same Nebraska law that was repealed in 2000.
- 2016: In the strongest defense of abortion rights in 25 years, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that forced clinics to maintain hospital standards and physicians for hospital referral privileges.
- 2020: The Supreme Court overturns a Louisiana law similar to a Texas law that was repealed in 2016.
- 2022: Supreme Court decides Roe vs. Put aside, ending nearly 50 years of federal abortion law in the United States.
I was surprised by the reaction
Missouri is a republic state. In the last presidential election, Donald Trump received nearly 57 percent of the vote. Lisa says she was therefore surprised by the reaction she noticed among friends and acquaintances on social media.
Several people I consider conservative have written against abortion denial. It was a surprise, she says.
Democrats and Republicans are increasingly settling in different places. Lisa believes that the dismissal of Roe v. Wade could strengthen this trend.
– I think more and more people will leave the country. I would move myself to Canada if I could, but I have my parents here, I built a career in Missouri and earned retirement points, she says, and continues:
But it’s hard to live in a place that breaks so deeply with my basic concept of human freedom.
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