By By Brendan O’Reilly
Sandra Day O’Connor’s forthcoming retirement from the Supreme Court has put a spotlight on the issue of abortion. If the Supreme Court no longer finds in the Constitution a right to choose, there will be a devastating effect on the United States.
If the court overturns Roe v. Wade individual states will be allowed to decide whether or not abortion is legal within their borders. Some states still have laws on the books that make abortion illegal and these laws would go back into effect automatically.
If the Supreme Court bans abortion throughout the country, it will become a federal crime, allowing the federal government to enforce the law even within states that overwhelmingly support the right to choice. Some people feel abortion is identical to murder; if the law agreed, women could be executed for terminating a pregnancy.
How would a court reach a conviction against someone accused of having an abortion? Where is the evidence? How would the jury decide? A woman could say she had a miscarriage or was never pregnant in the first place. She could be telling the truth and still be convicted of having an abortion.
What if her friends, family or partner encouraged her to get the abortion? Are they criminals too? Will they be arrested for conspiracy to commit abortion? Are the doctors who perform the procedure less guilty, guiltier, or just as responsible? Is the doctor charged with the same crime as the woman? If someone is suspected of trying to obtain an abortion, could law enforcers step in? Could they keep a girl in custody for up to nine months?
The truth is if abortion were made illegal in the United States it would not stop abortions from occurring. Sure, the government could shut down all clinics and prevent hospitals from performing the act, but that will not wipe out abortion. A woman could give herself an abortion in the privacy of her own bathroom. It’s easy to find out online how to perform an abortion, and this information would only become more available if the government banned it. Guides on the Internet are not always accurate, which could sadly have hazardous results.
If you think abortions performed with coat hangers are just myths, you are mistaken. Females have ended their pregnancies by sticking a metal coat hanger up through their cervix and removing the developing fetus. There are many things that could go wrong with this procedure. A woman may kill the fetus but fail to remove it and end up with dangerous complications. She may not kill the fetus and end up crippling it instead. She may remove the fetus just fine but cause damage to herself and end up not being able to have a child later in life. The woman could unintentionally end her life as well.
Think of the anti-abortion people who shoot doctors or burn down clinics. Some people believe it’s a fetus’s right to life so adamantly they are willing to break the law and even kill. Now think of the people who vehemently believe in the right of a woman to choose whether or not to carry out a pregnancy. These people are not going to change their minds just because Roe v. Wade is overturned. They will violate the law to help women attain abortions.
Pro-choice doctors may lie and say a baby was premature and stillborn, or that the woman’s health was at risk and the abortion was necessary to save her life. The doctors may be truthful and still find themselves under investigation. The constant violation of the doctor-patient relationship by investigators will ravage the medical industry.
Clinics will open illegally with unsafe conditions and unlicensed doctors. There will be no medical records and no emergency room if complications happen.
John Roberts said Roe v. Wade is “settled as precedent,” but never made it clear if he would uphold it. Samuel Alito’s previous decisions indicate he could go either way. I hope President Bush’s appointees on the Supreme Court have the wisdom to respect a 32-year-old precedent. n