 | By Lauren Kelley Ms. Kelley is a member of the editorial board. |
The erosion of U.S. abortion rights has happened slowly — but it may now be happening all at once. |
This week Americans had to confront this reality when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a Mississippi case that could result in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion in all 50 states. We likely won't have a decision in that case until the end of the court's term, next June or July. And it is famously difficult to predict exactly what the Supreme Court will do. But the justices were unusually frank during arguments on Wednesday, giving some hints about what is to come. |
We've published several essays this week that examine the oral arguments, and reflect on the human impact that overturning Roe would exact. |
Until Wednesday morning, Mary Ziegler, a law professor and abortion historian, believed that Roe v. Wade's days were numbered, but that the precedent would survive this court term. The arguments changed her mind. "After hearing arguments, I now believe that the justices will fully overturn Roe v. Wade when their decision comes down next year," she wrote in a guest essay for Times Opinion. |
Melissa Murray, another law professor and abortion rights expert, was particularly struck by comments made Wednesday by the court's newest justice, Amy Coney Barrett. "Justice Barrett suggested that the advent of safe haven laws, which allow parents to relinquish newborns for adoption by leaving them at hospitals or police stations, relieved women of the burdens of 'forced motherhood'," Murray wrote in a guest essay. "It was a startling exchange — one that suggested that anti-abortion laws raise few constitutional issues in a world where adoption is available to those who wish to avoid parenthood." |
Also tackling the issue of adoption was Elizabeth Spiers, a Democratic strategist who was adopted as an infant and later reconnected with her biological mother, Maria. "I resent the suggestion by people like Justice Barrett that adoption is a simple solution," wrote Spiers, "and I resent it on behalf of Maria, who found the choice she made traumatizing and still feels that pain, 44 years later. Even when an adoption works out well, as it did in my case, it is still fraught." |
Spiers's essay is a reminder that as important as political and legal analyses are, what matters most is the human impact of these laws and legal decisions. Michele Goodwin's haunting personal essay from earlier this week also gets at that human toll of abortion legislation. She writes about being a survivor of incest who needed an abortion at age 12. "I am fortunate that my body was spared an additional trauma imposed by my father — one that today would be forced by some state legislatures and courts," Goodwin writes, noting that neither the Mississippi law before the court this week, nor the Texas anti-abortion law that remains in effect as the court deliberates about it, contains exceptions for rape or incest. |
Someone else who shared a personal story with our readers this week was our own Lulu Garcia-Navarro, the host of a Times Opinion podcast launching in early 2022. In a fascinating round-table discussion that also included the columnists Michelle Goldberg, Ross Douthat and Charles M. Blow, Garcia-Navarro noted that "My life has intersected twice with abortion. I had one in my early 20s, and if I had not, I certainly wouldn't be arguing this issue in The New York Times." |
Rounding out our reactions to this week's Supreme Court arguments is a guest essay by Mary Fitzgerald, the director of expression at the Open Society Foundations, who notes that if Roe v. Wade indeed falls next year, the United States will "join of a small cadre of increasingly authoritarian countries that have become more restrictive on abortion in recent years." |
| Read More on Reproductive Rights | | | | | | | |
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