During COVID-19, the question of “Are abortions essential?” is being dueled out in 3 states.
After the recent developments concerning the new global pandemic, the Corona Virus, also known as COVID-19, government officials in Mississippi, Ohio, and Texas are considering abortions to be “non-essential” surgical procedures and must be postponed or canceled to make way for the sudden influx of hospitalized cases in the health care system. With the new arrival of people diagnosed with the CoronaVirus, many hospitals are struggling to find room to accommodate them all. This has caused multiple states to set new guidelines that are instructing patients to cancel or postpone any “unnecessary” surgeries or procedures. States are using this reference point to try and include abortions into the “unnecessary” surgeries, leaving many women confused as to what they will now do in terms of their reproductive health.
The history of abortion itself is a complicated issue that must first be examined to then analyze why it is such a hot-button topic in today’s political climate.
Abortion’s History
Abortion itself has been a common practice, originating around 4,000 years ago when it was documented in ancient texts like the Ramayana(circa 500 B.C.E.) and the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus(circa 1,500 B.C.E.) Abortion was viewed similarily to most other womanly functions such as menstruation and childbirth, as the women and midwives’ concerns, with most males avoiding the topic altogether. (Klabusich and Baptise, “Abortion Is as Old as Pregnancy: 4,000 Years of Reproductive Rights History.”) The practice of abortion was still prevalent in the newly founded United States where the most common abortion method was created by slaves in the 1600s and used a medley of different herbs and fauna to create a medicine that would abort the fetus.
This and other simple methods were used until the first mandated abortion law was passed in 1821, which forbid any women from having an abortion after the mother experiences movement from the fetus, commonly called quickening, which is usually experienced around 14-26 weeks into the pregnancy. (Dine, “Scarlet Letters: Getting the History of Abortion and Contraception Right.”) However, these laws were not strictly enforced, with many female practitioners still advertising their services in the newspaper. Two of these ads were printed in the February 24th, 1842 edition of the New York Sun, both offering their services to women who were desperate and in need. “Mrs. Bird, Female Physician, where can be obtained Dr. Vandenburgh’s Female Renovating Pills”, and “To The Ladies — Madame Costello, Female Physician, still continues to treat… all diseases peculiar to females”. (New York Sun) These ads continued until around the 1860s were abortions strictly prohibited. This was when the new wave of “underground abortions”, or the more unsavory name of “coathanger abortions”, began to spring up.
Soon after, politicians like Anthony Comstock enacted restrictions upon women’s health care by using religious motivations for the basis of his argument. He not only targeted abortions, but also common items like birth control, contraceptives, and condoms. Heather Ault, the designer of the 4000 Year For Choice program, which prides themselves on educating women and men about contraceptives and their benefits, describes Comstock as “the main anti-choice person who, in the late 1800s, starting burning books and made it illegal for anything to be sent through the mail having to do with sexuality”. (Acevedo, “Abortion in Early America.”) Because of these restrictions, abortion had an increased fatality rate, with over 15,000 women dying each year. (Pollitt, “Abortion in American History.”) David Grimes, former chief of the Abortion Surveillance Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that escalated in the 1950s, where it was reported that over 200,000 to 1.2 million illegal abortions were performed. Abortion laws began to change after the famous case of Roe v. Wade, where the Supreme Court found that banning abortion violated four constitutional rights. (McBride, “The Supreme Court. Expanding Civil Rights. Landmark Cases. Roe v. Wade (1973): PBS.”) This began a new change in abortion rights where the general procedure of abortion is legally allowed, as long as it fits the confinements that each state sets forth.
Which brings us to 2020, where the Coronavirus is sweeping across the United States and three states are questioning the necessity of abortion to be listed as an “essential service”. Mississippi, Ohio and Texas.
Are current government leaders using the new global pandemic to push their agenda further? Or are they only setting new requirements to help those who have been diagnosed with Corona and are looking for a place to seek medical treatment? The rest of this article seeks to help its readers understand the facts around these two questions and draw their own conclusions.
With all the recent developments in the Corona outbreak, no one can deny that right now as a country, it is necessary for everyone to band together to try and help those who have been afflicted by COVID-19. But as many hospitals are deciding to deem some surgeries as “unnecessary” and ask that those receiving these surgeries would either cancel or postpone their operations, one of these “unnecessary” surgeries is causing a wave of social disruption. As of March 23, 2020, officials from Texas, Ohio, and Mississippi have all stated that abortion is being included as one of the “unnecessary” surgeries.
The facts listed below are meant to inform the reader about how each state is standing with this decision and the response from various health organizations. Tate Reeves, the Governor of Mississippi, was asked about this new policy and responded with: “We’re doing everything in our power and have for many years to make Mississippi the safest place in America for unborn children,”. (Kelly, “Mississippi, Texas, and Ohio Move to Limit Abortion as Part of Coronavirus Response.”) And in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott ordered that health care providers “postpone all surgeries and procedures that are not immediately medically necessary to preserve a patient’s life or condition.” Bethany McCorkle, communications director for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, stated: “This is not an abortion issue”. Some feel that these state leaders are simply using the pandemic to enforce their policies because of the states’ long histories with fighting abortion rights. Last year, both Missippi and Ohio tried to instate laws that would ban abortions after six weeks, which is far before the 24-week limit set forth in Roe v. Wade. (Kelly, “Mississippi, Texas, and Ohio Move to Limit Abortion as Part of Coronavirus Response.”) And in Texas, many cities have claimed they are “sanctuary cities for the unborn” and tried to enact unenforceable policies saying that abortion is not allowed within city limits. (Kaur, “Small Towns in Texas Are Declaring Themselves ‘Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn’.”) In a statement from CBS News, Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, stated: “A public health emergency is not the time to play politics,”. And President of Whole Women’s Health, Amy Hagstrom Miller, responded to these new policies by saying, “forcing people to delay much-needed care and possibly exacerbate their health situations by doing so. Patients cannot wait until this pandemic is over to receive safe abortion care.” With these states’ new policies, many are questioning the legitimacy of their motives behind their actions.
In this trying time, there should be no debate that those who have been affected by the Coronavirus should be treated as a top priority in trying to help them and stop the spread of this disease. The topic we would like our readers to determine is whether or not these new policies set forth by Mississippi, Texas, and Ohio, that prohibit women from receiving abortions is done by true consitutional means or through asserting an agenda from state leaders.
insert disclaimer for Young and Hungry here
Source Citations:
Acevedo, Z. “Abortion in Early America.” Women & Health, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1979, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10297561.
Dine, Ranana. “Scarlet Letters: Getting the History of Abortion and Contraception Right.” Center for American Progress, 8 Aug. 2013, www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/news/2013/08/08/71893/scarlet-letters-getting-the-history-of-abortion-and-contraception-right/.
Grimes, David A. “The Bad Old Days: Abortion in America Before Roe v. Wade.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 17 Mar. 2015, www.huffpost.com/entry/the-bad-old-days-abortion_b_6324610.
Kaur, Harmeet. “Small Towns in Texas Are Declaring Themselves ‘Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn’.” CNN, Cable News Network, 25 Jan. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/01/25/us/sanctuary-cities-for-unborn-anti-abortion-texas-trnd/index.html.
Kelly, Caroline. “Mississippi, Texas and Ohio Move to Limit Abortion as Part of Coronavirus Response.” CNN, Cable News Network, 25 Mar. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/coronavirus-abortion-texas-ohio/index.html.
Klabusich, Katie, and Nathalie Baptiste. “Abortion Is as Old as Pregnancy: 4,000 Years of Reproductive Rights History.” Truthout, Truthout, 22 Jan. 2016, truthout.org/articles/abortion-is-as-old-as-pregnancy-4-000-years-of-reproductive-rights-history/.
McBride, Alex. “The Supreme Court. Expanding Civil Rights. Landmark Cases. Roe v. Wade (1973): PBS.” The Supreme Court. Expanding Civil Rights. Landmark Cases. Roe v. Wade (1973) | PBS, www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_roe.html.
“New York Sun.” New York Sun, 24 Feb. 1842.
Pollitt, Katha. “Abortion in American History.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 22 Jan. 2019, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/05/abortion-in-american-history/376851/.
Smith, Kate. “Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves Calls for Abortion Ban during Coronavirus Outbreak.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 25 Mar. 2020, www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-ban-mississippi-governor-tate-reeves-coronavirus/.
Smith-Spark, Laura. “Abortion Provision Thrown into Doubt by Coronavirus Pandemic.” CNN, Cable News Network, 27 Mar. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/03/27/health/coronavirus-abortion-access-intl/index.html.
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