Battles Already Raging

In this letter to the editor, Nancy Northup warns that a Roe reversal would be devastating to women’s reproductive rights in the United States, despite the mild projections of a recent Op-Ed in USA Today.  USA Today, Letter to the Editor
Published: August 3, 2005To the Editor: Re “If ‘Roe’ were overturned,” by Laura Vanderkam (The Forum, July 27):Laura Vanderkam writes that the Center for Reproductive Rights has overestimated the impact of a Roe reversal. What she fails to recognize is that state legislatures across this country are already passing laws that would virtually ban abortion procedures — including those in the first trimester. Why would such actions stop in the advent of a Roe reversal? Last year, Michigan passed a law that could essentially ban all abortions in that state, and having a Democratic governor didn’t make any difference. Anti-choice lawmakers managed to override the governor’s veto of the legislation. Sixty percent of Rhode Island voters may have voted for John Kerry for president, but the state’s constitution explicitly says that it doesn’t protect abortion rights. Moreover, the House and Senate are anti-choice, as is the governor. This year alone, 27 anti-choice laws have been enacted. Laws like these are currently being challenged in court. Without Roe protecting a woman’s right to decide if, when and how often she becomes pregnant, such cases would likely be lost and those laws would likely be in effect. Ms. Vanderkam not only drastically underestimates the determination of anti-choice legislators, she also disregards the host of legal battles currently keeping anti-abortion laws at bay and preventing a return to back-alley abortions.Nancy Northup
President
Center for Reproductive Rights
New York

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-08-03-letters-roe_x.htm