Post-Roe v. Wade reflections

Society holds women, more than men, accountable for a pregnancy.

Parents seldom caution sons to “Keep your zipper zipped;” however, they admonish daughters to “Keep your legs closed.”

If a girl does get pregnant, she faces getting kicked out of the home.

Ironically, parents often disapprove of school health education programs that provide information about reproduction and contraception, preferring abstinence as the only option.

According to the The Hechinger Report (THR), a national nonprofit newsroom, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, guarantees the right to an education for pregnant and parenting students.

In a July 2022 article for THR, Kavitha Cardova reports, “But the federal civil rights law is often ignored, misunderstood or blatantly violated in public schools …. most pregnant students …. talk of more subtle “pushouts” that make them discontinue their education: a guidance counselor suggesting they transfer to an online program that is less rigorous; a teacher removing them from an honors course or extracurricular activity; a principal ignoring reports of harassment ….

“About half of states are expected to ban abortion or allow other restrictions on the procedure to go into effect, and advocates worry the number of pregnant and parenting students will increase.”

Motherhood

Any woman who has had children knows the challenges of motherhood.

Commercials and print ads for diapers and other baby products, promote the perception that motherhood is bliss, not cracked nipples, fatigue, and sleep deprivation.

Likewise, we become mothers during a period in our lives when our self-image is still evolving, and we often demonstrate little discernment about men we hook up with or marry.

American culture pays lip service to the importance of motherhood, yet as a nation, we continue to demonize single mothers, teen mothers, mothers with drug or alcohol problems, and low-income mothers.

We criticize, even penalize, them rather than address the financial, mental health, and health care needs of these mothers and their children.

For example, the Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) program (began during the Clinton Administration) provides (meagre) benefits for low-income women and calls for a lifetime ban on assistance after five years. In other words, when your benefits end, you are on your own.*

Rules for eligibility require a minimum of 30 hours of work per week. More often than not, recipients find employment in minimum wage, unskilled jobs.

Taxpayers frequently decry tax dollars going to low-income mothers (single or otherwise) who they perceive as unmotivated and lazy.

In New York City in the 1970s, the phrase, “welfare queen,” described women believed to be mooching off the welfare system. (Read: Black women)

On a June 2019 episode of NPR’s Code Switch, host Gene Demby recalled, “The term was the result a Chicago Tribune article, “Welfare Queen Arrested,” about Linda Taylor who “received Illinois welfare checks and food stamps, even though she was driving three 1974 autos - a Cadillac, a Lincoln and a Chevrolet station wagon - claimed to own four South Side buildings and was about to leave for a vacation in Hawaii.”

Taylor embodied what elected officials and social commentators viewed as flaws in the welfare system; hence, the term gained agency (however misguided) among the public.

Working Mothers

Working and/or single mothers often cannot afford the cost of daycare and depend on a shaky network of family and friends. Their older children are labeled “latchkey kids” if they return to motherless homes after the school day ends.

If elected officials genuinely care about working mothers and their families, they will increase legislation for affordable daycare, subsidized and low-income housing, equal pay for equal work for women, and paid leave for mothers (and fathers) after childbirth.

One size doesn’t fit all

 As a disclaimer, I must state that I am not a proponent of abortion; however, I do believe in a woman’s right to make decisions about abortion based on her health, economic status, marital status, mental and emotional state, and religious beliefs (if any).

Government should not impose a one-size-fits-all mandate that denies a woman’s right to privately determine the course of her life.

It is tragic that the demise of Roe v. Wade forces women, including survivors of domestic abuse, rape, incest, or sex trafficking, to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, thereby heightening their victimization.

Unintended Consequences

In June, Linda Goler Blount, president and chief executive of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, stated in a Los Angeles Times op-ed,

“For all women in the United States, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade will reverse half a century of progress in women’s healthcare….

“For Black women, this decision represents something even more sinister. For us, losing access to legal abortion could spell the difference between life and death …. As a recent study from Duke University found, a total nationwide abortion ban would increase pregnancy-related deaths for women overall by an estimated 21% — and predictable results of denying women access to medically-supervised pregnancy-related deaths among Black women by 33%.”

Women across the country should follow the lead of Kansas voters who successfully defeated an ant-abortion amendment, thereby keeping abortion legal.

Tom Bonier, CEO of TargetSmart, a political data firm, told CBS News, “women accounted for 70% of all new registered voters in (Kansas) since June 24 ….”

A number , he said, that he had never seen before.

* Twelve states have shorter term limits for TANF.

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