In Kansas a woman gave herself a Drano douche to abort her fetus. She suffered renal shutdown, uterine sepsis, fever, and shock. She needed massive plastic surgery and a hysterectomy. In South Carolina a woman had her vagina packed with gauze after she had an illegal abortion with unwashed and unsterilized instruments. She began hemorrhaging and needed a hysterectomy to save her life. In Louisiana a young woman had an illegal abortion performed with Q-tips inserted into her vagina. Four days later she was dead.  But wait, isn't abortion legal in the United States? How can these women be dying when they should have easy access to abortions? The answer is simple: because they obviously don't. Eighty-two percent of abortion deaths in America are black or Latina women. A disproportionate number of black and Latina women are also dependent on federal medical insurance for their health needs, otherwise known as Medicaid. Are the connections becoming any clearer? Maybe a bit of history on the Hyde Amendment will explain the racist and sexist abortion policy in our supposedly egalitarian country.
In 1973, the Supreme Court legalized abortion under all circumstances for all women. In 1977, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment which prohibits federal funds to pay for abortions. This leaves abortions still accessible to women who can afford treatment with private doctors, but denies lower-class women an essential right-the right to have control over decisions about their bodies. In October of 1993 the Amendment was revised to allow female victims of rape or incest the right to use their Medicaid coverage for abortion if they submit a physician's certification of their condition to their state. Twelve states refused to comply with this change and had to be forced by court mandate to revise their laws. Alabama, South Dakota, and Mississippi are still refusing to recognize this new provision in the Amendment.
The consequences of the Hyde Amendment are glaring. Poor women either resort to finding illegal methods of aborting their unwanted fetus or they desperately try to save money to fund a legal abortion. While many of these women are scrounging up money in an attempt to reassert control over their lives, their pregnancy reaches a later term making even a legal abortion a more dangerous procedure. That conclusion also brings up an interesting connection to the latest anti-abortion activism attention on "partial-birth" abortion. Underprivileged women are not only competing against financial limitations, but they now also have to race against time restrictions imposed by state legislatures. With those facts, how can anyone claim that women have the right to decide their own fates? And take a look at these statistics: 93% of counties in Texas have no abortion provider. In North Dakota 98%, in Alabama 91%, in California 33%, and in Connecticut 12% of counties also lack the same provision. Not only are women who choose to exercise their reproductive rights limited by money and time, but many need to find long-distance modes of transportation to attain their needed abortion.
If any of the above facts have convinced you that the fight for Women's Rights has not yet been won, then please participate in the National Young Women's Day of Action on October 22. The Women's Resource Center, the Feminist Majority, and other womenís groups are organizing petitions to protest the Hyde Amendment; and they will also be holding a bake sale to raise money for the Abortion Fund, an organization that supplies women with grants and loans for abortions. Come support women and their reproductive rights!
The statistics presented in the above article were provided by NARAL, a pro-choice organization that serves as both a historical and current reference for women's reproductive rights. |