In 1969, sociologist Nancy Howell published The Search for an Abortionist, in which she interviewed 114 women who had illegal abortions. What she discovered provides a chilling glimpse of what women may face in the future.
Howell found that when governments outlaw abortion, women “will use informal methods to get around the law to achieve what they think is best for themselves. This is not what we usually think of as law-breaking or deviant behavior, but I believe that it is a frequent response to laws that are felt to be unjust.”
Howell, professor emerita of sociology at the University of Toronto, is worried about the possibility of returning to those bad old days.
“The anti-choice movement seems to be energized and emboldened by the election of Trump and his promises to nominate Supreme Court judges who will support the overthrow of Roe v. Wade, and hence the re-criminalization of abortion,” she says in an interview.
In a preface to the 2014 edition of her book, Howell celebrated the security that Roe v. Wade was able to provide women: “In a short period of time, the elaborate methods of contacting illegal abortionists—involving passwords, pick-ups in hotels or on street corners, being driven to unknown locations, paying cash, etc.—became irrelevant, soon to be replaced by referrals from doctors, new clinics staffed by reputable health providers, ads in the telephone book, and so on.”
As Howell and others see it, Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court creates the real possibility that all this progress will be wiped out.
“Since day one, [the] Trump-Pence Administration has pushed policy after policy to take away women’s basic health, rights, and freedoms,” says Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in an interview. The administration has, for example, proposed a gag-rule that Laguens says will make it “illegal for doctors, nurses, hospitals, community health centers, and any other provider in the Title X program to tell patients how they can safely and legally access abortion.”
The Title X program is the only federal grant offered for family planning and preventative health services. The Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed “Protect Life Rule” would dramatically cut Title X funding for facilities offering abortion services. This would prevent health providers from referring patients to safe abortions, and remove requirements for medically approved contraceptives. From 2006 to 2010, 25 percent of poor women who received contraceptive care did so through a Title-X supported site.
“The result of this rule could mean that millions of people will not get the health care they need—birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, or even general women’s health exams,” Laguens says.
Even with the participation of retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy—who leaned pro-choice in his rulings—the court delivered a serious blow to women’s reproductive rights in its last term. In NIFLA v. Becerra, it ruled 5-4 that “pregnancy response centers” or “crisis pregnancy centers” are not required to advertise pro-choice options on First Amendment grounds.
The case concerned a challenge brought by the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates against a California law known as the Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency Act (FACT Act), which had passed in 2015. The Supreme Court struck down the act, saying it “unduly burdens protected speech.”
“This ruling devalues women, undermining our health and denying us basic rights,” said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, “It allows anti-abortion zealots to continue targeting young women, women of color and low-income women in ways that delay and deny them access to the health care they need.”
The anti-choice movement perpetuates a number of myths to justify its crusade against reproductive rights.
In anticipation of a Supreme Court dominated by anti-choice judges, many states are taking the opportunity to roll back access to reproductive health care. In Iowa, Republican Governor Kim Reynolds signed the “Fetal Heartbeat Bill,” which would criminalize nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. In Ohio, Republican lawmakers introduced a bill to ban all abortions even in cases of incest and rape. Other anti-choice laws have been passed in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
The anti-choice movement perpetuates a number of myths to justify its crusade against reproductive rights. A favorite argument is that abortions will become less frequent if they are illegal. In fact, as the Guttmacher Institute has documented, the number of abortions in the United States was higher in 1973 than it is today.
“After forty-five years of safe and legal abortion, during which the rates of unwanted pregnancy, teenage pregnancy, and legal abortion have all gone down substantially, it is sad to now see widespread support for restrictive laws on abortion providers, attacks on Planned Parenthood, and other anti-woman proposals in the United States,” Howell says.
After decades of success in preventing unwanted pregnancies, health clinics such as Planned Parenthood are becoming scarcer, especially for the most vulnerable and impoverished in American society. The rash of clinics closing due to lack of state and federal funding, as well as the skyrocketing costs of healthcare, is imperiling women’s health to epidemic proportions.
“Rarely do you hear a compassionate attitude expressed toward the women who have abortions, or suggestions for supporting women who are experiencing unwanted pregnancies . . ."
“The anti-choice movement consistently allocates 100 percent of the blame for unwanted pregnancies to women, and expects women to provide 100 percent of the care and expense of the child conceived,” Howell says. “Rarely do you hear a compassionate attitude expressed toward the women who have abortions, or suggestions for supporting women who are experiencing unwanted pregnancies. I have come to the view the opposition to effective contraception and abortion as primarily a strategy for insuring male dominance.”
These are dangerous signs. While countries like Ireland and Argentina are repealing or reforming their archaic laws on abortion, the United States is regressing.