U.S. Supreme Court

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 223 (1973)

Argued December 13, 1971

Reargued October 11, 1972

Decided January 22, 1973_____________________________________

The Supreme Court’s decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt delivered a victory to abortion-rights advocates in June by striking down a set of Texas restrictions on abortion providers that had closed 21 clinics .

Opposing that are both President Trump and VP Pence. The actual decision is what was written by Justice Blackmun.  Further, “It would be very extreme to overturn a 43-year-old precedent so soon after Whole Woman’s Health,” said Jessie Hill, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. She pointed out that even with Trump’s appointee, the five-vote majority that upheld abortion rights in the Whole Woman’s Health decision would remain intact. “You would need two or really even three vacancies to change that math, because I think John Roberts in particular doesn’t want to overturn Roe.

Meanwhile, some abortion-rights activists — and at least one physician who performs abortion procedures — say they are bracing for possible violence against clinics. According to the National Abortion Federation, an abortion-rights advocacy group that tracks violence and threats of violence against clinics, the number of threats against abortion clinics surged after the summer of 2015, when an anti-abortion group released videos purportedly showing Planned Parenthood officials illegally selling fetal issue. (Numerous investigations have found no evidence that these accusations are true.) These threats culminated in November of that year, when a gunman killed three people at an abortion clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Poor women account for a disproportionate share of abortion patients. According to Guttmacher data, in 2014, three-quarters of abortion patients were low-income: Nearly half lived below the federal poverty line, and just over a quarter had incomes between 100 percent and 199 percent of the poverty threshold. Fifty-three percent of patients paid for their abortion procedure out-of-pocket.

An abortion is a significant expense for patients who pay out-of-pocket, particularly if they have to travel to a clinic or take time off work. One study of 639 women at six geographically diverse health care facilities found that, excluding women who had no out-of-pocket costs, the average cost for a first-trimester abortion was $397, and the average cost for a second-trimester abortion was $854.

Previous studies on the impact of abortion restrictions show that many women go to great lengths to obtain abortions. A study of Utah’s 72-hour waiting-period requirement found that although the law resulted in additional costs and logistical problems for those seeking an abortion, few ultimately decided against the procedure. And although it’s hard to quantitatively measure self-induced abortions, there is some evidence that Google searches related to self-induced abortion techniques have risen over the past few years.

Abortion arguments begin before fertilization. The Catholic Church is against birth control which is pre-pregnancy. The arguments end shortly after birth where everyone agrees that infanticide is wrong. An infant who is born must begin to breathe. If breathing doesn’t occur the event is recorded as a still-birth. Once breathing occurs, the other changes needed to identify an infant as born, breathing and able to survive the battle over abortion is moot.

The abortion issue is about who is in charge of the process. The so-called pro-life supporters actually stand for pro-choice but they want to make the choice for the pregnant woman, for the doctors and for the courts.