Tag: Abortion

The Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade, which protected the right to abortion nationally since 1973. The 6-3 decision in the case Thomas E. Dobbs, State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health, et al., Petitioners v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, et al also strikes down Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 case that upheld the right to abortion established in Roe.

Curbing abortion rights and expanding the right to be armed in public are long-sought goals of the conservative legal movement that the Supreme Court seems poised to deliver within the next month.

If the Supreme Court follows through on overturning Roe v. Wade, abortion likely will be banned or greatly restricted in about half the U.S. states. But experts and advocates fear repercussions could reach even further, affecting care for women who miscarry, couples seeking fertility treatments and access to some forms of contraception.

Years ago, I visited a privately-funded facility in Marin County that counseled pregnant women about their choices and offered emotional and financial support as well as prenatal and postpartum care to those who chose life over abortion.

In Dr. Rebekah Fenton’s medical practice, she often sees young patients with unplanned pregnancies who understand what’s at stake. “It’s not this narrative of ‘Oh, people just don’t understand what parenting is,’” she said in a Center for Health Journalism Health Matters webinar last week.