What overturning Roe v. Wade means for ‘abortion deserts’
Story at a glance
The Supreme Court on Friday reversed 50 years of precedent in overturning its landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade.
The decision triggered an onslaught of laws heavily restricting abortion access in states across the country.
For many Americans, accessing an abortion within thousands of miles of their homes could soon be impossible.
The Supreme Court on Friday overturned its landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, ending the Constitutional right to an abortion after nearly 50 years.
In the leadup to the court’s decision, more than a dozen states enacted “trigger laws” that would automatically restrict access to abortions should Roe be overturned, creating, in some cases, huge swaths of land where abortions are unprotected – and illegal.
Less than an hour after the court published its opinion, Missouri became one of the first states in the nation to certify its ban. “This is a monumental day for the sanctity of life,” state Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) said Friday.
Shortly after, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), said he had tasked lawmakers with readying anti-abortion legislation to be introduced once the legislature reconvenes in January.
For women and others of reproductive age – particularly in southern states, where most of the trigger laws are concentrated – accessing reproductive health care is likely to become exceedingly difficult.
Abortions are now banned in Louisiana, which shares a border with Texas, where abortions are now illegal after six weeks of pregnancy. Those states also neighbor Missouri. And nearby Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi are poised to make abortions illegal.
Put another way, within thousands of miles of the United States, accessing an abortion is soon to be virtually impossible. The quickest way for someone seeking an abortion in eastern Texas would be to travel across the state – spanning close to 800 miles – to neighboring New Mexico, where abortions are still accessible.
A person wishing to get an abortion in Louisiana would be faced with the decision of crossing Texas, or traveling through Arkansas and Oklahoma or Missouri to make it to Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa or Illinois.
Rampant inflation has driven airfares sky high, up 13 percent from April and close to 38 percent over last year, according to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate. And gas prices have surged by enough to make President Biden call on Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes until the end of September.
For many Americans, who, on average, make just over $1,000 a week, traveling to another state to get an abortion is not an option. Rather, they will be forced to carry their pregnancy to term.
The Department of Agriculture in 2017, using data collected in 2015, estimated that a middle-income family of two adults and two children spent an average of $233,610 per child from birth through age 17. With inflation, that translates to almost $286,000 in 2022.
Some major U.S. employers, including Amazon, Tesla, Bumble and Lyft, have pledged to front the cost of their employees’ travel expenses if they need to go out of state to obtain an abortion. It remains to be seen how many will make good on their promises.
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