Recently, the Supreme Court decided to review laws that may overturn Roe v Wade and give more power to the states to make restrictions on abortions. This case, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, will determine Mississippi’s abortion limitations on whether or not they will be allowed to restrict abortions to 15 weeks after pregnancy. Roe v Wade legalized abortions for the first six months of pregnancy. The majority of the justices today are ideologically aligned with conservative beliefs: six of the justices tend to lean more conservative while three are considered more liberal. 

While stances may differ, it’s quite evident that abortions will not stop occurring just because they are illegal. In countries like El Salvador where abortion is completely banned and criminalized, around 5,000 abortions are performed on the black market annually. It is very possible that mortality rates will rise due to dangerous procedures and abortion rates won’t necessarily decrease. In some cases of unsafe abortions, both the mother and the child will die. Advocates argue that for many women who choose abortion, it is because they simply are not prepared to give life to a child who could grow up in an unstable environment, making abortion the responsible choice. In states like Mississippi, where Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the only abortion clinic in the state, abortion is already hard to gain access to. If the new law gets passed, it will be more difficult than ever to get a safe, legal abortion.

There are more than 400,000 children in the foster care system. Around 120,000 are waiting to be adopted. Each year approximately 20,000 teens will come out of the foster care system without ever having found a family by the age of 18, 21, or when they graduate from high school. In Mississippi, there are over 4,000 children in the foster care system. In 2018, lawyers asked a federal judge to appoint an outside evaluator to attempt to fix the problems in the Mississippi foster care system. Abortion restrictions have a quite significant connection and influence on children in foster care.

We may never come to a unanimous conclusion about the morality of abortion and when conception begins. But accessibility to healthcare, contraceptives, and directing funds to education will help prevent people from going through the shock and anxiety that comes with an unwanted pregnancy. Giving birth takes a toll on a person mentally, physically, and emotionally. For a country that claims to have liberty and justice for all, this battle over reproductive rights endangers around half of our population. Taking away the choice presented is a direct threat to the freedom promised by our nation.