Student Opinion: Why College Students Should Care About Abortion Access
Protesters gathered on May 3 in front of the Bruce R. Thompson Courthouse and Federal Building less than 24 hours after Politico revealed the leaked SCOTUS draft opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Photo taken by Lynn Lazaro.
On January 22, 1973, The Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled 7-2 in favor of a woman named Norma McCorvey (“Jane Roe”), establishing that a person’s right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy was protected in the Constitution under the right to privacy. For college students like me, this ruling has existed for much longer than we have been alive and we have never lived in an America where a person could be forced to give birth.
However, the leaked SCOTUS draft majority opinion to a case that challenges Roe v. Wade has rudely awakened us to the fact that a person’s right to an abortion is very likely to be ripped away from them — a reality in which the rights of the unborn outweigh the rights of an existing human being.
Much has already been said about the dangerous implications of this majority draft opinion in terms of economic disparity, reproductive health outcomes, and eroding legitimacy of the Supreme Court. Reproductive health experts, including Harvard professor Dr. Ana Langer, claim that leaving abortion access up to the individual states would force women in states with no abortion services to travel across the country to recieve healthcare. An endeavor that would disproportionately exclude those without the financial resources to do so. For those unable to make the trip, self-managed abortions or going without care may be the only option.
Huge strides have been made in recent decades to ensure that abortions are safe procedures. In fact, a 2018 Atlantic article reported that “since the early ’90s, abortion fatalities have declined by 42 percent globally”. Studies such as those conducted by the Guttmacher Institute show that banning abortion does not decrease the number of abortions. Rather, unsafe abortions become more common in countries where abortion is made illegal. Given this, the Supreme Court’s ruling, if finalized, will undoubtedly lead to increased deaths and health complications caused by self managed abortions, especially among poor individuals, BIPOC communities, and any other person who would not readily be able to travel great distances, dedicate time, and spend money accessing out-of-state abortion services. Finally, as highlighted by Nicholas Reed Langen in his commentary piece for Project Syndicate, the leaked draft casts incredible doubt on the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, an institution whose original purpose was to be non-partisan and loyal to judicial precedent.
Amongst this unnerving public debate on the national scale, people all over the country have been forced to consider what the overturning of Roe v. Wade would mean for them personally. As a female college student who has always been driven by my education and career aspirations, this leak has catastrophic implications for the future I have planned for myself. In “Why Reproductive Rights Matter in an Open Society,” Rachel Hart summarizes my sentiments when she asserts that “for women, in particular, the ability to control decisions pertaining to their reproductive health means they control their own destiny”. Parenthood is one of the most important decisions a person can make and can dramatically rechart the course of one’s life. When a person impregnates another person they bear no bodily responsibility past the point of conception, while having a child takes a tremendous toll on the pregnant individual’s body as well as their freedoms post-pregnancy. Some people may have the resources and support to raise a child while pursuing higher education or maintaining a career, but many, possibly including myself, would have to halt their aspirations in order to assume the role of parenthood.
The burden that abortion bans would place on young students in the United States is not a mere theory, but is backed by prior studies. One 2014 study found that the 18-29 year old age group accounted for almost 7 out of 10 abortions. In another 2013 study, 1 in 5 abortion patients who responded to a survey regarding why they chose to pursue an abortion cited education and career aspirations as leading reasons. Finally, the authors of a 2021 article from the magazine Contexts analyzed a collection of over 200 longitudinal interviews of American teenagers and found that the leading cause of teens dropping out of college was an unplanned pregnancy.
Ultimately, these humbling statistics prove what an important issue abortion access is to college students in particular, whose educations and careers depend heavily on their bodily autonomy. It is easy to convince ourselves that an unplanned pregnancy will not happen to us personally and that it is not our issue, but the fact of the matter is that it can happen to anyone who is sexually active, even if contraceptives were used. This is why it is crucial for college students to consider how abortion bans triggered by the potential finalization of the Supreme Court majority opinion would change their lives.
The leaked draft of the majority opinion serves as a signal to women, and all those who can become pregnant, everywhere that the government values them less than an unborn child's potential. The time is now for us to get loud and band together. We are here. We matter. Our futures are worth fighting for.
Dominique Alexander is a student at the University of Nevada, Reno earning a degree in Neuroscience. She currently serves as the President of Planned Parenthood Generation Action on campus and is a passionate advocate for the causes she believes in, including women’s rights and reproductive healthcare. Dominique will graduate in Fall 2022 and hopes to pursue a career in Genetic Counseling.
