Notice a trend in the age of Dobbs?
Fifteen-week abortion bans from Lindsey Graham. Twelve-week abortion bans from RFK Jr, or maybe not; who knows wtf RFK Jr wants. SIX-week abortion bans from Ron DeSantis.
And the media reports on the "controversy" instead of on the lovely compromise that was Roe V. Wade. Yup, Roe V. Wade WAS the compromise.
In January of 1973, seven men on the Supreme Court of the United States decided (against two men on the Supreme Court, ugh) that American women in the earlier stage of pregnancy had a right to their own bodies.
And that at the end of the pregnancy, the state could restrict those rights within limits, like the mother's life. The Supreme Court explainer at Oyez.com puts it this way:
- In the first trimester of pregnancy, the state may not regulate the abortion decision; only the pregnant woman and her attending physician can make that decision.
- In the second trimester, the state may impose regulations on abortion that are reasonably related to maternal health.
- In the third trimester, once the fetus reaches the point of “viability,” a state may regulate abortions or prohibit them entirely, so long as the laws contain exceptions for cases when abortion is necessary to save the life or health of the mother.
A trimester is about twelve weeks. All the malarkey about Roe legalizing late-term abortions is nonsense. It's just right-wing propaganda for fundraising.
We need Roe v. Wade codified into federal law, with additional protections for both women and clinics. States should be forbidden from regulating the width of hallways in clinics, and the whole "hospital admitting privileges" nonsense. Medication abortion (mifepristone) should be available at your local urgent care facility without question or interference.
And when it's "the life of the mother," and that includes ALL ten-year-old rape victims, the state must be required, by federal law, to butt out.
Roe v. Wade was and is the compromise.
Enough.
