As ballot boxes open for the upcoming election, a few key issues stand out to voters across the country. One of these primary concerns is reproductive rights, specifically abortion, and whether it should be legal or not.
Many believe abortion shouldn’t be considered a political issue, however because of its history and importance to voters, it has become a polarizing issue among political parties.
In the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court ruled that in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, there is a fundamental “right to privacy” that protects a pregnant woman’s choice to have an abortion.
On June 14, 2022, the Supreme Court overruled this decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, saying that the Constitution doesn’t explicitly mention abortion, and therefore isn’t protected.
With varying perspectives on the matter, voters in the upcoming election grapple with candidate policies, considering what the future of the country may look like.
Pro-Life: Protecting the Unborn
On one side of this dividing issue, people defend the lives of the unborn, viewing abortion as an ethical and moral concern. For pro-life advocates, the right to life is critical, reaching beyond politics.
“Abortion, in my perspective, has never been a political issue, but rather a social justice and human rights issue,” said Ramona Treviño, the outreach director for 40 Days for Life.Â
For people like Treviño, the pro-life movement is about protecting the sanctity of human life, from conception to natural death. They view abortion as analogous to murder, killing those that cannot defend themselves.
From the opposing side, many ask the question of whether or not a life should still be protected if the baby was conceived through morally gray ways such as rape or incest. To this, some pro-lifers respond that these unborn babies shouldn’t be punished for the actions of their parents.
“We don’t believe that the child should be punished for the crimes of their parents. In that situation, we should be giving them all the support we can, both the mother and the baby are victims. We shouldn’t kill one of the victims in an attempt to help the other victim,” said Mary Rose Short, the director of outreach for California Right to Life.
Because of the emphasis on morality when it comes to abortion, certain views of each side may be misconstrued. With all the polarization of both views, there are many misunderstandings about what it actually means to be pro-life.Â
“The biggest misconception about pro-lifers is that they only care about the unborn babies and that we don’t actually care about them when they’re born, or care about the mothers and the families that are going through the crisis that they are going through. And that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Treviño said.
Pro-Choice: Reproductive justice
On the other side of this issue, people hold reproductive rights as constitutional rights that are being taken away from them. For pro-choice supporters, the ability to choose is a fundamental liberty.
“What most people don’t recognize is that reproductive rights and reproductive justice isn’t just a political issue, but, more importantly, it’s a human rights issue,” said feminist historian Angela Hume.
Hume, who has recently published her book “Deep Care: The Radical Activists Who Provided Abortions, Defied the Law, and Fought to Keep Clinics Open” which covers the history of reproductive justice in the Bay Area, believes that the issue is larger than most people think.
While discussions on reproductive rights are frequently framed within partisan lines, it’s important to recognize that there is significant bipartisan support for these issues.
According to the Pew Research Center, 63% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while only 36% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.Â
Despite this support, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022, removed federal protections for abortion. California responded by passing Proposition 1 in Nov. 2022, the constitutional amendment that enshrines the right to abortion within the state.
Following these decisions, the Guttmacher Institute reported that nearly one in five abortion patients traveled out of state for care in early 2023, up from the previous one in ten in 2020.
“These people now need to come to states like California in order to receive care, which places a tremendous burden on the state of California. States where abortion is legal need to step up their ability to meet the demand for more abortion care,” Hume said.
A study by the University of California San Francisco found that women who were denied abortions were nearly four times more likely to experience economic hardship and fall below the federal poverty line compared to those who received one.
“It’s an equity issue just as much as it’s an economic issue, which is something people don’t always think about,” Hume said.
With the upcoming presidential election, stakes are high as presidential support will decide the future of reproductive rights in America.
“I think the future of reproductive justice in this country actually depends a lot on the coming presidential election because the right wing has an agenda for how it will try to limit sexual and reproductive freedom,” Hume said.
Closing thoughts
Despite these diametrically opposing views, both sides can agree on the fact that abortion is a human rights issue first and a political issue second.
“What’s the point of having any laws at all if we don’t even have the fundamental right to live? That, to me, shouldn’t be a partisan issue, but rather a unifying, human rights issue,” Treviño said.
And while there isn’t a specific proposition on the election ballot regarding reproductive rights, each presidential candidate represents a side within this debate. Their fundamental differences emphasizes the importance of this election as the results of this election will likely set the stage for how reproductive among other rights are addressed for years to come.
“I think ahead to the upcoming election. We need to remember how important it is to participate in and defend our democracy,” Hume said.
