Unintended Consequences

On June 24, 2022 the United States Supreme Court ruled by a 6-3 majority that abortion laws would be turned over to individual state governments, saying there is no Constitutional right to privacy that applies to abortions and that a woman does not have an inherant right to abortion services, as part of her overall healthcare. 

This upended Roe vs Wade, which granted women the right to reproductive care,  including abortions. Fifty years of precedent were reversed in favor of appeasing those in the far right Christian movement, and with them, The Heritage Foundation. 

It has been nearly three years since the disasterous decision we call "Dobbs". What has happened since?

 A few states managed to put Constitutional amendments on their ballots and the people supported the right to an abortion. That is all well and good until a federal ban is on the table, or the "bench", as it were. A federal ban would take over then. There will be no driving to another state for abortion care. It will take a plane ticket to another country to get that.

But, the consequences that are most heartbreaking to me have been the women whose lives were lost due to confusing language in state abortion bans. Doctors who have feared prosecution have waited to perform life-saving D&C procedures and these women died of infection or blood loss. For the sake of embryos or fetuses that were not going to live anyway, even those already dead, the mothers needlessly died! 

The law in the state of Georgia says a doctor may remove dead fetal tissue if it results from a "naturally occuring abortion"-in other words, a miscarriage. When a woman came to the ER with complications of an elective abortion (at nine weeks), physicians hesitated too long and she died, leaving a six year old son orphaned.

Other states have banned in vitro fertilization, saying each frozen embryo is a full fledged human with human  rights. Couples who had been hoping for a child through this method have been left in profound disappointment and grief. 

We must always consider unintended consequences of laws because laws affect REAL people with REAL lives.

In my next post, I will be discussing  current DHS policy about immigration and the ongoing  ICE raids that are terrorizing people, even our own citizens. 

Unintended consequences are everywhere and I  WILL share my thoughts about that!