Safe Abortion

What’s the issue? The E.M.W. Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville is Kentucky’s only abortion clinic, and it is at risk of closing. If it were to close, Kentucky would become the only state in the USA without an abortion clinic. Neighboring Louisiana, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia all have a 24 hour waiting period before an abortion, Indiana has an 18 hour waiting period, and Tennessee has a 48 hour in-person waiting period for abortions. This makes Illinois Kentucky’s only neighbor with no waiting period before an abortion. So, if the E.M.W. Women’s Surgical Center were to close, access to safe abortion would be severely limited for women in Kentucky.

Why do I care? Access to safe abortion is one of the pillars of reproductive health and justice for women around the world. According to the United Nations, criminalizing or restricting abortion services amounts to discrimination based on sex and “is one of most damaging ways of instrumentalising women’s bodies.” The UN Human Rights Commission has previously ruled that denying women access to abortion when it is a legal procedure is a violation of human rights. In the United States, abortion has been legal since the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade.

Even if decreasing the number of abortions is the goal, restricting access to safe abortion services does not work. In fact, a Lancet study of abortions in countries both where abortion is legal and where it is highly restricted found no significant difference in the rate of abortions between the two.  Meanwhile, legal abortion is an extremely safe procedure. In the United States, less than a quarter of a percent of women have complications from an abortion (which is about the same rate as for colonoscopies). Worldwide, however, 47,000 women a year die from unsafe abortions, accounting for about 13 percent of all maternal deaths. There are proven ways to decrease the number of abortions without endangering the health and safety of women. Perhaps the most effective is increasing access to contraception, especially long-acting reversible contraception such as IUDs.

As with many things, restricting access to safe abortion is disproportionally harmful to women of color and women who are living in poverty. African American women are almost five times more likely to have an abortion and Latina women are twice as likely to have an abortion as white women (perhaps because Black and Latina women are less likely to receive comprehensive sex education and more likely to experience bias from doctors when they seek reproductive services). Additionally, Black and Latina women are more likely to live in poverty, and women living in poverty are less likely to have consistent access to health care and contraception. Women living in poverty are also more vulnerable to abortion restrictions because they cannot afford to take time off work and to travel to receive an abortion, and also have trouble paying for the procedure itself.

So in conclusion, restricting access to safe abortion, as is happening in Kentucky, needlessly endangers the lives and rights of women, and is especially dangerous for women of color and women who are living in poverty.

What can you do if you care too?

1. Engage in state politics. At least for now, the majority of abortion restrictions in the United States are occurring on the state level. Here is a summary of abortion restrictions by state. Follow what’s going on in your state legislature so you’ll know when to engage.
2. Follow Sister Song, a women of color reproductive justice collective, on facebook for updates and ways to engage.
3. Support the Kentucky Health Justice Network. According to their website, “KHJN supports Kentuckians towards achieving autonomy in our lives and justice for our communities. Our work is guided by the reproductive justice framework, developed by women and people of color. We believe reproductive rights are human rights, and that all people should be able to decide if, when, and how to parent.”
4. Donate to the Guttmacher Institute. The Guttmacher Institute is a leading research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and globally, and has done some excellent research on abortion, some of which I’ve sited in this article.
5. See my previous suggestions on how to support the mission of Planned Parenthood.
6. Sign-up for breaking news and action alerts from NARAL Pro-Choice America or even to volunteer with them.

Cover photo by Steve Rhodes from Flickr.