Roe v. Wade, a 50-year-old US Supreme Court ruling that protects a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion, is gone. Here, disability advocate Hannah Diviney shares her opinion on how this change threatens to impact women with disability.
I woke up on Saturday morning feeling sick to my stomach, a sour dread clinging to my skin as soon as I opened my phone. Overnight, the US Supreme Court had made the catastrophic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the core piece of legislation ensuring all Americans had the right to a safe, constitutional abortion.
There are nine people on the Supreme Court and in just one vote, six of them set reproductive rights back fifty years. Stripping millions of Americans of their fundamental right to choose what they do with their bodies.
It's important to mention that by making this ruling, the Supreme Court has not created a blanket ban on abortions across the country, instead giving each state ‘the right to choose’ on whether they value and respect bodily autonomy. It’s predicted that twenty-six states will enact some sort of ban with many of them having prepared ‘trigger laws’ they could activate as soon as the decision was handed down.
People will die because of this decision. Women of colour, Indigenous women and disabled women will be put at greater risk. Generally speaking, disabled people are more likely to struggle financially, and if you’re a disabled woman, even more so. Due to the lack of universal healthcare in the US, some women who are forced to continue their pregnancies are at risk of not getting medical help because, frankly, it’s expensive.
As something of a ‘resident loud person’ in the disability advocacy space, I am terrified for what limited access to abortions means for disabled women/people with uteruses. What being forced to carry pregnancies will mean for their health and their bodies, as well as the treatment they receive.
Beyond the pregnancy, what is the impact on their emotional, psychological, and social health? Will they be given support as they navigate the structural barriers of a world not built for them, let alone when moving through parenthood?
Some in this scenario will be made to bring a child into a world of poverty. A world where their parents are denied basic equality, opportunity and aspiration.
What will forced pregnancies mean for the financial support disabled women receive - if they’ve managed to receive any at all? Here in Australia, despite making up more than half of people who identify as having disability, just 37 per cent of National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants are women. I’d imagine it’s a similar story in the US.
Will forced pregnancies greater distance disabled women from work and professional opportunities, especially given the US has no paid parental leave? And what about their access to care for their own needs? How many people will be left to sacrifice themselves and the lives they have built?
There are a million reasons someone might choose to have an abortion. All of them are valid and none of them are our business. This is a fight over reproductive rights that impacts women everywhere - some more than others.
Hannah Diviney
Hannah Diviney is a writer and disability advocate from Sydney, Australia. She's also the Editor-in-Chief of Missing Perspectives. You can follow Hannah's adventures on Instagram and Twitter.