Section of Individual Rights &
Responsibilities
The Legacy of Roe and the Work Ahead |
| Estelle
Rogers is the IR&R Section delegate to the ABA House of
Delegates. |
On the 25th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that first recognized a woman's constitutional right to choose abortion, we should realize that Roe isn't about politics—it is about matters much more profound. Roe provided the nation a highly informed, keenly reasoned and extraordinary balance of the many complexities surrounding the most profound human issues: sexuality, gender roles, power over reproduction, what each of us believes personally, religiously and socially to be good and true, and the great diversity of opinions on all these matters in our pluralistic democracy. When thinking about and planning your family, did it occur to you to consult your senator about the timing? If you ever had a pregnancy scare, did you call your state legislator for his thoughts on what to do? Like the majority of Americans who agree with the logic behind the Roe decision, the answer is a resounding no! Instead, you probably sought advice from your family, your doctor, your priest or your rabbi. Twenty-five years later, Americans still believe that abortion should be a personal, moral and medical decision, not a political one. It is important to remember that Roe did not spring forth from a vacuum. It extended a common-sense view of privacy that protects us from government intrusion into the most personal aspects of our lives. To quote from the decision, the "right of privacy is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." This exact same view of privacy is what legally protects our right to use birth control—so we won't need an abortion. Just one year before Roe, the Supreme Court struck down the last laws against contraception in a case called Eisenstadt v. Baird. The Court wrote, "If the right of privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child." When one looks below the surface, you see that Roe and Baird protect principles much broader than the right to privacy. It is critically important, not just for individuals, but for families, and for our nation, that women decide for themselves when and whether to have children. A child at the wrong time, under the wrong circumstances, to a woman unprepared and unwilling to care for it can seriously alter the course of the woman's life and the child's future. It could bar her from having the happy family for which she yearns. It could force the child to grow up unloved, neglected, emortionally and physically harmed. The value that every child should be a wanted child is deeply embedded in Roe. Today, this is a value hardly any American would question. Which is why the challenges to Roe —that have not let up even 25 years after the decision—are so troubling. It is time for this nation to move beyond the relentless battle over abortion. Congress, state legislators and the community need to help move the debate to the next level. The politicians who want to keep debating abortion must stop voting against the services that prevent the need for abortion in the first place. Access to family planning for every American family, and responsible, balanced sex education for every young person is an agenda most Americans feel is long overdue. For those in the women's rights movement, that mission predates Roe. As we look at the impact of Roe on this 25th anniversary, let's resolve not to wait another 25 years to achieve our next goal: access to family planning and responsible, balanced sex education. |