{"id":252182,"date":"2021-09-01T14:45:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T19:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=252182"},"modified":"2021-08-31T16:19:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T21:19:08","slug":"tragic-decision-behind-roe-wade-disastrous-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tragic-decision-behind-roe-wade-disastrous-health\/","title":{"rendered":"The tragic decision-making behind Roe v. Wade and its disastrous health consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Supreme Court\u2019s 1973 <\/span>Roe v. Wade<\/span><\/i><\/a> decision and its equally controversial companion case, <\/span>Doe v. Bolton<\/span><\/i><\/a>, created a public health vacuum, the impact of which is still felt today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Attorney Clarke D. Forsythe\u2019s 2013 book, \u201cAbuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade,\u201d details how the Justices\u2019 unfounded assumptions about abortion not only led to the legal dehumanization of the preborn but also helped create today\u2019s abusive, unaccountable abortion industry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Medical Assumptions<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>Forsythe<\/span><\/a>, the <\/span>Roe <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Doe <\/span><\/i>decisions relied heavily on the Justices\u2019 mistaken idea that abortion was somehow safer than childbirth when, even today, the lack of reporting surrounding <\/span>abortion complications<\/span><\/a> raises questions about the health hazards surrounding it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, this falsehood was a major factor in allowing for abortion on demand and minimal regulation of abortionists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Justices declared a right to abortion at any time before fetal viability and at any time after viability if the woman\u2019s emotional \u2018well-being; – as the Justices broadly defined \u2018health\u2019 – was, in the discretion of the abortion provider, at issue,\u201d Forsythe wrote in his book.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c…In effect, the Justices wrote a national abortion statute that gave enormous discretion to abortion providers… and prohibited clinic regulations in the first trimester, when 90 percent of abortions are done,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For many of the Justices\u2019, legalizing abortion meant \u201cfreeing up doctors\u201d and deferring to their \u201cmedical judgment,\u201d according to Forsythe, as was the case for Justice Harry Blackmun. Blackmun thought abortionists were like his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and he assumed that, once abortion was legalized, family physicians and hospital doctors would conduct them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Roe v. Wade granted special privileges to abortionists<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Forsythe went on to explain that many of the Justices thought OB-GYNs would commit legalized abortions. The attorney speculated that <\/span>Sarah Weddington<\/span><\/a> might have influenced this assumption during the first oral arguments for <\/span>Roe<\/span><\/i> on December 13, 1971, when she claimed:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We have affidavits in the back of our brief from each of the heads of public of heads of obstetrics and gynecology departments from each of our public medical schools in Texas.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And each of them points out that they were willing and interested to immediately begin to formulate methods of providing care and services for women who are pregnant and do not desire to continue the pregnancy.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

According to a 2012 survey published in <\/span>Obstetrics & Gynecology<\/span><\/a>, however, most OB-GYNs refuse to commit abortions. Assessing 1,800 practicing OB-GYNs, the survey found that, while 97% had encountered abortion-minded patients, only 14% of those surveyed at that time were willing to conduct one. And in 2017<\/a>, the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute found<\/a> that 83% of OB-GYNs in private practice do not commit abortions.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, the Justices failed to consider that <\/span>abortion<\/span><\/a> is not a standard medical procedure, as the vast majority are done for social reasons, not some sort of health-related emergency. It also seems the Justices misunderstood the role an abortionist plays in a pregnancy termination decision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n