As an American living in Canada, today is an interesting convergence of events. I am keenly aware of the fact that today is World AIDS Day. For many years in Greenville and Charleston, SC I would gather with individuals to remember and call the names of those we had lost to the only pandemic we knew in the pre-Covid world. On December 1 we would gather, have a service, call their names, and light a candle in hopes that that plague might pass from the earth. I was a part because the first funeral I ever did was for an individual who died from AIDS.
But today is also the day in which the United States Supreme Court is hearing a case that I believe will result in the overturning of the landmark Roe v Wade decision legalizing abortion in the US. In my opinion with the make up of this court it is no longer a question of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’ What happens then?
In my previous life I was a Youth Minister. In my first church, faced with an alarming number of teen pregnancies in our congregation and community I asked the question, “What is going on?” I was invited to a meeting, which I thought was an information meeting. Well, it was informative, but it was the local organization to prevent teen pregnancies. The rest is personal history! I ended up being the chair of the board! After moving the SC the same thing happened on a local level, and then on the state level!
At that point in SC nearly 1 out of every 10 girls in the state were becoming pregnant every year. It was one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country. After decades of work the rate has fallen by 70%, as well as the number of abortions. It happened because we focused on proven effective programs and education.
But it didn’t happen easily! Every step of the way there has been a coordinated effort to undermine and thwart our efforts, from attempts to take over sex education curriculums removing any mention of contraceptives, to spreading misinformation about what we were attempting to do. And over and over again the issue of abortion came up.
Our position has always that if a young girl ever has to face the issue of abortion we have failed! All our work has been about preventing a pregnancy in the first place!
But after this decision (which again I believe is a foregone decision) what happens?
I am convinced that in state after state nothing will change for many.
I have two grown daughters. They never had to face the decision about an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. Neither did many of the young women in my youth groups. They had options, they had hopes and plans for the future. They were going to college, grad school, planning for careers. A pregnancy wasn’t in their plans.
And if it had? What would I have done if they had faced that decision in a world where abortion is illegal? Someone asked me that once. My reply. “We have a passport and an American Express card. We can find an option.”
That is a horrible thing to say, and I am certain that there will be those who will strenuously disagree. But these are my children. Who wouldn’t do the same?
The answer is those who don’t have those options, who don’t have a passport and a credit card; those who live in a state where abortion is already all but outlawed; those who soon will be forced to travel across state lines, perhaps multiple state lines to find a safe and legal abortion.
Roe v Wade was not good law. I will admit that. But its overturn will only further exacerbate the growing divide between rich and poor. Women will no longer have control over their bodies. When faced with an unplanned pregnancy then they will be disparaged, faced with enormous medial bills and their child faced with a life beginning far behind.
That is my fear. But maybe, just maybe…
We will see age appropriate sexual education. Contraceptives will be readily available. Parental leave will be expanded, as will early childhood education. Preventive medical care will be expanded. We will pass legislation that says that we are pro-life and not just pro-birth, because every child matters.
Or maybe we can just give them all a passport and an American Express card.
