Quote of the Day: “Poor women don’t have choice.”

Today’s QOTD goes to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who continues to speak frankly about the unequal state of abortion rights in this country. 

“Reproductive freedom is in a sorry situation in the United States. Poor women don’t have choice.”

As I wrote at Pacific Standard the other day, the Hyde Amendment preventing Medicaid from covering abortion may be the policy that most directly strips poor women of their right to choose. Certainly, it’s the one most obviously intended to do so. Back when it was first passed in the ’70s, Rep. Hyde himself admitted that he’d like to prevent anyone — “a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman” — from getting an abortion if he could, but “unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the… Medicaid bill.”

But it’s really the cumulative effect of all the anti-choice state restrictions that contribute to this reality — putting barrier after barrier until the cost is so high that only the economically privileged can meet it.