Reclaiming Roe for Philly Women

Forty-three years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in the United States through the landmark Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision. This decision gives us much to celebrate, because before Roe many states either heavily restricted or altogether banned abortion care leaving few safe options.

But as a staff member at Women’s Medical Fund, as I commemorate the anniversary of Roe I find it equally important to reflect on the many ways in which Roe has never been a reality for some. Since Roe, anti-choice politicians have actively chipped away at rights guaranteed by this Supreme Court decision at the expense of low-income women.

In the past four years alone, state politicians have passed over 280 new laws restricting abortion. These restrictions include laws designed to shut down clinics, make doctors give women false information, and force women to make multiple unnecessary appointments to delay abortion care.

Although the past few years have been particularly overwhelming in terms of anti-choice legislation, this organized strategy is nothing new. In 1976, just three years after Roe, Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) sponsored the Hyde Amendment—an amendment prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortion care. Today, Hyde affects over 100,000 people in Philadelphia alone. Last year we funded over 2,000.

Under the Hyde Amendment states may use state funds to pay for abortion. But in 1985, Pennsylvania’s legislature banned the use of state Medicaid dollars to pay for abortion care. That same year, a group of local women’s health advocates created the Woman’s Medical Fund to provide financial support to women seeking abortion care in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Thirty years later, we are still here taking calls every day from women in our community.

Instead of focusing on issues that really matter to Philadelphians—like education and the economy—U.S. legislators have repeatedly catered to the most extreme anti-abortion ideologues at the expense of women struggling to make ends meet. This is why 43 years after Roe, a woman in Philadelphia seeking abortion care is subjected to a state mandated “counseling” session aimed at dissuading her from having an abortion and a 24-hour forced delay between the counseling session and the abortion. And this is also why teens must either obtain parental consent or navigate the difficult and invasive judicial bypass process.

Take for example Leslie.* When Leslie found out she was pregnant, she knew that she was not ready to become a parent. Leslie could not turn to her mother for help because her mother had threatened to kick her out of the house if she ever became pregnant. Obtaining a judicial bypass was not an option because Leslie did not want to miss school. After some research, Leslie was able to have an abortion by arranging for a friend to drive her to a state with no parental notification laws.

We spoke to Leslie in the 90s, yet her story is strikingly similar to the stories we hear today. Leslie’s experience and the experiences of callers since, have only strengthened my conviction that however we feel about abortion, it is not our place to make such a personal decision for someone else. And that’s exactly what anti-abortion legislators aim to do by slowly chipping away at access.

With upcoming elections and the Whole Women’s Health v. Cole case, this year is going to be a very important year for abortion access in the United States. As we commemorate the anniversary of Roe, it is imperative that we fight back by reclaiming Roe for the many Philadelphians for whom Roe has never been a reality.

To reclaim Roe for ALL women in Philadelphia and across the country, we must center the experiences of women most impacted by abortion restrictions, because restrictions fall hardest on those who are already facing significant barriers to quality health care. Reclaiming Roe requires us to recognize that decisions about abortion are never made in a vacuum. The majority of callers to our Help Line cite financial difficulties and a desire to care for existing children as major reasons for choosing abortion.

Our movement to secure and protect legal abortion intersects with many other justice movements. Therefore, our advocacy work in support of abortion access needs to be intersectional–work across issues–so that we can better appreciate the many conditions that must be in place so that all women can freely make decisions about if and when to become a parent.

No one should be excluded from dignity and justice. It’s time that we reclaim Roe from politicians for our families, communities, and ourselves.

*Name has been changed to protect privacy.