The Boston Globe | June 24, 2022
Rebecca Reingold, associate director of the Health and Human Rights Initiative at the O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law at Georgetown Law School, said women of color could be particularly vulnerable in a post-Roe world.
“Many women who are living in poverty, in rural areas, who are women of color, who are young, who are undocumented, and who experience intimate partner violence will find it impossible to access abortion services,” Reingold said in a statement. “Harsh penalties for providing abortions will undermine the patient-physician relationship and dissuade physicians from treating miscarriages and other obstetric emergencies, resulting in worse maternal and infant health outcomes.”
Andrés Constantin, assistant director of health law programs at the Georgetown institute, called Friday’s ruling a “dangerous step back” for the country in a separate statement.
“We have seen how abortion bans play out in other countries, particularly in Latin America,” Constantin said. “The bottom line is that this SCOTUS decision will force women, girls, and adolescents to resort to clandestine, illegal, and unsafe abortion services. … With this decision, the U.S. is turning its back away from women seeking essential health care and joining the ranks of countries that ban abortion in most circumstances, such as Poland, Libya, Brazil and Iran.”
Katie Keith, director of the Health Policy and the Law Initiative at the Georgetown institute, spoke in even more dire terms, calling the ruling “nothing short of a death sentence for some women” portending “swift and devastating” fallout.
“Access to abortion services, and related services like miscarriage management, will be even more dismal than they are now and will disproportionately burden low-income women and women of color who are already more likely to face barriers to abortion,” Keith said. “No one should be forced to carry a pregnancy and give birth against their will. But that is exactly what the Supreme Court’s new conservative majority sanctions by overturning nearly 50 years of precedent and stripping women of a constitutionally protected right.”