Abortion After the Pandemic

Abortion After the Pandemic
The status of abortion rights and access in the United States is bleak. But a movement for universal healthcare offers the chance to give reproductive rights material, institutional force.

Joanna Wuest
May 13, 2020

It only took until the second week of the COVID-19 pandemic for GOP state lawmakers to clamp down on reproductive rights under the pretense of the crisis. Since then, governors and healthcare officials in ten states have classified abortions as “nonessential” medical procedures unless necessary to save the life or health of the pregnant person, bucking the recommendations of professional medical associations. Officials have justified such policies as acts of preservation in the face of a virus that could overwhelm healthcare systems across the country. With states already closing down clinics and limiting the time frame for legal abortions before the pandemic—Ohio just last year passed a controversial “heartbeat bill,” an abortion ban that extends to the first trimester of many pregnancies—it is clear that these emergency measures are more about stopping abortions than they are about delaying care for public health purposes.

Continued: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/abortion-after-the-pandemic