Alarming case shows we can’t take abortion access for granted, even in Washington state
A monumental threat to safe, accessible abortion looms over women and pregnant people everywhere in this country.
The US Supreme Court agreed to hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a challenge to Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban.
Make no mistake: There is no path for the court to uphold Mississippi’s abortion ban without overturning Roe v. Wade’s core argument that abortion is legal prior to viability. Abortion advocates have rightly flagged that there is no precedent for the court to even review this unconstitutional ban.
However, given how Former President Trump and Senate Minority Leader McConnell packed the courts with anti-choice judges, reproductive freedom advocates knew this was only a matter of time.
Washingtonians should be alarmed. Though our state has a strong history of supporting the legalization of abortion, legality does not equal access, especially for women of color and young people.
Many rural, Indigenous, immigrant and military women struggle to get the care they need in Washington, due to federal restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion and lack of sufficient abortion care in Eastern Washington.
People who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to pay rent, food, car payments and the $600 fee for a first-trimester abortion also struggle to access care, often turning to limited abortion funds to make ends meet.
If SCOTUS rolls back or overturns Roe when they hear Mississippi’s case in 2022, and if states can ban abortion, we expect Washington’s overburdened health care system to become even more overwhelmed.
Pregnant people from Idaho, Montana and the 22 other states expected to make abortion illegal will seek care in states like ours.
More than half of hospital beds in Washington are already subject to policies that deny abortion access, even in the case of life-saving care. That leaves the remaining clinics, hospitals and providers with too many patients and not enough resources to meet current demands.
An estimated 77 percent of Americans support reproductive freedom. Our court is out of line with most American people, as is the Republican Party. The GOP continues its onslaught against women in every state by introducing, advancing or passing more than 300 attacks on abortion access just since 2021 began - more than in all the last decade.
Washingtonians fought for decades to legalize abortion. We enshrined the right for a patient to end a pregnancy into law through Referendum 20 in 1970, and again in 1991 with Initiative 120, which codified Roe in our state laws.
But we cannot stop there. We must demand Congress pass the Women’s Health Protection Act to ensure abortion remains legal in every state.
We must insist that state legislators protect pregnant people from denials of care and unchecked hospital mergers, and increase funding for sex education and reproductive health care.
We must demand that decision-makers in our state remove barriers for all so that abortion doesn’t become an option only the wealthy can afford. And we must provide resources to prepare providers for the impact of overturning Roe.
If we don’t fight this attack on reproductive health care, we face disturbing scenarios. How would these bans be enforced? Will people be jailed for having an abortion or a miscarriage? What kind of interrogation would somebody be subjected to in order to investigate how a pregnancy ended? Will doctors and other health care providers be jailed if they provide abortion care or assist someone during a miscarriage?
These scenarios are not far-fetched. Pregnant people across the country are already charged, even prosecuted, for experiencing pregnancy loss.
To end this nightmare and ensure the anti-choice Justices don’t make our health care decisions, it’s up to Congress and state leaders to enshrine legalized abortion as a federal law and expand access to those who lack it now.
Sara Kiesler lives in Tacoma with her spouse. She is as a board member and fundraising committee chair at NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. She works as communications and marketing director at Cascade Bicycle Club.