Short question from someone living in the EU. How is the US currently dealing with the aftermath of Roe vs Wade?

  • PapyrusOsiris
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    1 year ago

    The loss of RvW has meant that certain states have essentially outlawed all abortions, and I believe others have tightened restrictions beyond what they would have been allowed to before, while still technically allowing them under the right conditions. Practically what that means is many many people now have to travel out of state (sometimes across multiple states to the nearest abortion friendly state) in order to access safe abortions. Unfortunately some states (Texas and maybe others) have even outlawed going to a legal state for an abortion. Texas has also passed a law that allows for regular people to “report” their neighbors if they suspect they’ve gotten an abortion.

    Even though in many places it’s still legal to travel to another state for an abortion, for poorer people this is often entirely cost prohibitive because many southern states are completely surrounded by anti-abortion states. The distant travel problem is further exasperated by our countries general lack of public transportation (trains and buses are more expensive here and have very limited routes). Add to that again the fact that the vast majority of our work force, especially low paid workers, have none or very little paid sick leave.

    Essentially the wealthy in most of the country can still access safe abortion by taking a short vacation to a nearby state, whereas poorer folks might find it extremely difficult or impossible to afford the necessary travel, let alone the cost of our notoriously expensive healthcare.