RightsAfterRoe:Feminism,TheConstitution,and TheFightforAbortion

Julia Ciampa Staff Writer

The fight for women’s rights and bodily autonomy is heavily connected to feminism, the Constitution, and the abortion rights movement, according to Jordan Pascoe, professor of philosophy, and Jonathan Keller, professor of political science, who hosted a discussion about the reality of a post-Roe v. Wade country on campus.

Since the law of Roe v. Wade was overturned last June, there has been an uproar of women advocating for their rights as well as the freedom to access safe and legal abortions.

Keller began the talk by touching upon how the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case of 1992 not only upheld the bylaws of Roe v. Wade, but also changed it so that feminist and liberal projects that advocate for women’s rights could take inspiration from it. This paves the way in which both feminists and liberals think about our rights, sexuality and the nature of pregnancy, he said.

“Starting with the fourteenth amendment, there is such thing as a due process clause that says that one must follow certain procedures before they may deprive a person of a protected life, liberty, or property interest,” Keller said.

“However, cases like Planned Parenthood v. Casey preserve the right to proportion, or the fact that women have a right to have an abortion before viability, or the stage of development where a child is capable of living outside the uterus.”

This poses many questions in regards to how viability is measured pertaining to each state.

“Relevant to the Mississippi Dobbs v. Jackson case that formed the abortion law that prohibits abortion due to it being illegal as of 2022, most states say that in the first trimester one can get an abortion. However in the second trimester, you need additional proof to have an abortion,” Pascoe said during the discussion.

This additional proof consists of medical documents and certain reasons that must comply with the state’s selective acceptions for an abortion.

“So, what’s shocking about this is that the court says no thank you to that option, and the holding is that Roe and Casey are just overturned,” said Pascoe. “Now, there is no right to abortion in the Constitution and therefore there is no constitutional protection for the right to an abortion. Evidently, similar to how Mississippi formed their own laws in regards to abortion, each state does the same.”

Additionally, the political standpoint of a state will also influence what abortion laws are made and the extremity of such laws. In the midst of such an upsetting and unfair time for women everywhere, the professors asked what can college students do to ensure that abortion rights remain implemented in the U.S as it’s slowly diminishing day by day.

“Codefying rights in the legislature would be immensely beneficial, however this is unfortunately super unlikely federally,” said Pascoe. “In states like New York, which are safe haven states, we need to be fighting to remove all abortion restrictions so that women who need access from other states can get access here, and add state funding for access to abortion. It would also be beneficial to keep democratic processes as protected as we can so that things like ballot initiatives against abortion remain merely possibilities.”