Fight for Reproductive Rights
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Over the years many specialized abortion clinics, which are medical facilities specifically for abortions, opened. But as the governments added legislations and laws, the number of clinics has been declining. Specifically, there was a 7% decline from 272 facilities in 2014, to 253 in 2017(Jones) leaving fewer options for women. These newly enacted legislations are also a fuzzy ground for women to follow as they are not all feasible. Just in the last four years, states have enacted 231 abortion restrictions with the numbers continuing to grow. Many of these restrictions don’t take away the right to abortion, but they set a ‘term limit’ which for most women is impossible to follow. In 2019, a total of 15 states had introduced, moved, or enacted a six-week ban.
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Although the woman’s voice is becoming louder and harder to ignore, politicians who have the control over these legislations are silencing the women by reading between the lines of the Roe vs wade court ruling and making their own conclusion on what is best for a woman. Politics are discriminatory to women and they will continue to be as long as they don’t give women the right to choose what path they want to live their life.
As decades have passed after the Roe V Wade legislation in 1973, the opinions of anti-abortion advocates have flooded within political debates and gone against the mainstream pro-choice feminist views. This has led to more regulated and restricted abortion access throughout America. As more governors and law-making politicians are siding with the pro-life frame of mind, things are only becoming more difficult for women and people in need of contraceptives.
Neoliberalism & the Abortion "Market"
We can link the evolution of the anti-abortion movement with the rise of neoliberalism. In a society where neoliberalism is advancing, the privatization of abortion procedures is closing down many public abortion clinics.
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Many neoliberalism policies enhance the workings of free market capitalism and attempt to place limits on government spending, government regulation, and public ownership. In this sense, with the reduced funding put into abortion clinics from states and more regulations, there is truly no other choice than for the number of abortion clinics to become smaller, and overall restrict access to abortions even further. As laws and restrictions were enacted, privatization increased over time.
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A neoliberal approach to abortion has meant that those in power have brought market principles to abortion restriction. In the data collected by the Guttmacher Institute in 2016, after 43 years since Roe v Wade, states enacted 1,074, 288 restrictions just in 2010. And since 2016, hundreds more have been added.
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Another issue comes up of affordability. In 2014, 49% of abortion patients had a family income below the federal poverty level. An additional 26% of abortion patients in 2014 had an income that was 100–199% of the poverty threshold. In other words, 75% of abortions in 2014 were among low-income patients (Boonstra). In general, the cost of abortion can range from anywhere from $0-$1,000.
Power of Decision-Making
The power construct in our society is built upon a hierarchical and misogynistic world. According to statistics from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the percentage of female elected heads of state dropped from 7.2 percent to 6.6 percent — 10 out of 153 — from 2017 to 2018. The percentage of female heads of government dropped from 5.7 percent to 5.2 percent — 10 out of 193 — in the same period (Lederer). Unfortunately, women are not deemed capable of being in these positions. So, when it comes to abortion access, or any laws and regulations as a matter of fact, it is mainly men who are making the decisions and ruling what is right or wrong.
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This image from 2013 shows the Ohio governor John Kasich surrounded by men signing a Bill that contained many abortion restrictions and budget cuts.