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The Inaction on Both Sides of the Political Spectrum Brought Us the End of Roe v Wade
A relatively small investment in social programs, education, and public health would have avoided this mess.
I’m going to start this post by saying that my opinion should not matter about the morality of abortion, because I do not have a uterus. Absent some sort of major scientific advancement, I will never be pregnant. As someone who will not be affected by abortion decisions, I am in no position to give my opinion.
What I want to do instead is offer some observations on what got us to this point, where the Supreme Court of the United States reversed a 49 year-old decision, removing a right from about half the population instead of granting it. (That takes care of the argument from people who say Brown v. Topeka Board of Education was the reversal of a precedent.) You see, there were a series of missteps in the last 49 years that brought us to this point. For almost three generations, local, state, and federal authorities failed to do things that would have made abortion a moot point. And we as a society failed to learn and advocate for one another.
There was no increased access to prenatal care, which would have led to more healthy pregnancies and less pregnancies that had to…