Tufts community members react 10 months after roe v. wade is overturned

by Becca Pinto Staff Writer

Originally published April 25

On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that granted American women the right to abortion. As a consequence, pregnant people, especially those living in red states, may no longer be able to access medical abortions. In the 10 months since the ruling, various legal actions have followed in response to the tightening restrictions. Community members at Tufts shared their views on the ruling’s implications for young women.

Sarah Lee Day is a visiting lecturer currently teaching an Experimental College class on the subject of abortion in the United States. She voiced concerns about abortion laws that seek to further criminalize abortions, such as an ‘abortion trafficking’ bill passed in Idaho on April 5.

“The way that the law is written is that it’s specifically aimed at minors, so adults that help minors travel out of state for abortion without their parents’ permission would be guilty of, or could be found guilty of, human trafficking,” Day said.

According to Day, most pregnant youth get a parent or guardian involved in conversations on how to handle the situation. Young people who are most at risk or who have suffered abuse are more likely to keep it to themselves and thus be forced to seek help from other sources.

“So in the cases where … the youth are not willing to talk with their parents, it’s usually not that they’re not willing, it’s that there is an actual barrier stopping them,” Day said. “It may be that the parent is the one who is responsible for impregnating them. It may be that there are other types of abuse. It may be that the impregnation was at the hands of a family friend, and they’re afraid that the family won’t believe them.”

In such situations, Day explains that the Idaho bill will only compound the inequities that pregnant youth already face.

“Youth who already have good relationships with their parents will still be able to get out of state for abortion,” Day said. “For people who already have troubled relationships with their parents, to people who already have certain barriers or oppressions that they face, this is just going to compound that. And there’s obviously going to be racial components to that; there’s going to be socioeconomic components to that.”

Day also spoke about the recent legal battle surrounding mifepristone, the first pill in a two-step procedure for a medical abortion that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000. At the time of Day’s interview with the Daily, the validity of that approval was under question following a case brought to court in Texas. Following the interview, on April 21, the Supreme Court blocked a ruling issued by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in the U.S. District Court in Texas that had invalidated the FDA’s approval of the drug.

“If [a reversal of the FDA approval of mifepristone] occurred, that would be

Abby Stern What I Wish I Knew

It’s nice not to know things

Istarted this study abroad journey as a slightly uptight, gently neurotic individual obsessed with learning all the important things I needed to make the most of this semester. Four months later, I am still a slightly uptight, gently neurotic individual who now understands that in order to make the most of studying abroad, it’s actually incredibly nice not to know exactly what comes next.

What I Wish I Knew: Over the course of study abroad, I will grow so much more from the things I didn’t know than from the things for which I was prepared.

It’s stressful to realize that study abroad is like returning to freshman year, but it’s thrilling to make your first real friend and go out to a London pub for the first time.

catastrophic, because at least people who can’t get surgical abortions in red states right now can still potentially get a medication abortion mailed in,” Day said. “If they can’t even [get that], it’s going to cause even more problems beyond just the travel aspect.”

Day also mentioned a failed South Carolina bill that proposed the death penalty for those who get an abortion. Though the bill was considered dead on arrival, Day said its mere existence demonstrates the grave consequences that women seeking abortions in red states may face in a world without Roe v. Wade.

Senior Aleksia Kleine is conducting her capstone research on abortion travel. According to Kleine, women face countless issues when traveling for abortions, the most glaring one being financial barriers.

“Financially, it’s just really difficult, especially for people [who] don’t have a lot of disposable income. It’s really difficult to, first of all, just pay for a plane ticket or pay for gas, or rent a car, if you don’t have a car,” Kleine said. “It’s also difficult to pay for childcare if you’re leaving a state for a day or a few days. Also, the actual cost of the procedure is usually difficult.”

According to Kleine, the obstacles that might come with traveling to obtain an abortion will likely lead to an increase in unwanted pregnancies.

“Some people can’t leave work, or, … to leave work, they have to disclose [the abortion] to someone that they don’t want to tell,” Kleine said. “There are also a bunch of emotional problems with [abortion travel], like people not being able to go with family members, or being separated from their kids for a long period of time, or having a sense of shame, … or a sense of fear of legal [prosecution].”

Blythe Elderd is a first-year student from Baton Rouge, La. She recalled seeing friends from her home state react to the news on social media the day that Roe v. Wade was overturned. In the aftermath of the ruling, Louisiana residents need to drive 10 hours on average to reach the nearest abortion clinic, according to CNN.

“I think people have kind of just learned to live with it and learned to

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

accept it,” Elderd said. “[There was] a trigger law that was already written and then it was put into effect as soon as Roe v. Wade got abolished, so literally that day people that were scheduled to get abortions couldn’t get their abortions. And so that was really scary.”

ShaSha Kingston is a junior from Boise, Idaho — the same state that passed the abortion trafficking bill earlier this month. She described how there is a mix of opinions across the state, and the capital of Boise tends to have a more progressive tilt.

“Young people are really frustrated, [but] some of them don’t really care,” Kingston said. “I definitely think in Boise, there’s a really big surge of anger that’s coming from this, but I don’t think a lot of people know how it’s going to individually impact them.”

Kingston expressed concern about the emotional distress that many women in states that have banned or severely restricted abortions now face.

“I think there’s a lot of fear,” Kingston said. “A lot of people [are] planning themselves and being like, ‘Okay, I need to protect myself. I need to make sure I don’t get into this situation,’ and a lot of the blame is being pushed on an individual instead of the system.”

Kingston mentioned how anti-abortion measures in Idaho have been causing some medical professionals to leave the state, which can have impacts on other sectors of health care provision. On a personal level, Kingston has observed how the overturn of Roe v. Wade has deterred some of her own friends living out of the state from the prospect of returning home long term.

“A lot of us were like, ‘Maybe we’ll come back to Idaho after we graduate or something. It’s a beautiful place,’” Kingston said. “[Now,] a lot of my friends, especially my female friends, are also like, ‘No, I’m never coming back. I could never be here and also raise kids here.’”

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned nearly a year ago, the United States has been grappling with the ramifications and will continue to do so for years to come. The upcoming 2024 presidential elections will again put abortion at the forefront of the American conscience.

It’s hard to let go of a stable routine, but it’s fun to realize that you can’t write your Tufts Daily column this weekend because, instead, your friends are going to hang out in Soho.

It stinks to realize that your classes are actually difficult, but it makes it all the better when you get your first good grade on a midterm at a U.K. university.

It’s hard to realize that you can’t meticulously plan out every trip so that you can visit everywhere in Europe, but it makes it so much more special when you do get to travel.

It’s a bummer to miss your family, but it’s incredible to realize that you can, in fact, survive more than 3,000 miles away from them.

It’s scary to realize that school in London ends in March, but it’s so much fun to realize that you can plan a trip to Monaco or Budapest with just a few days’ notice.

For every difficult part of studying abroad and for every single aspect of this experience that I wish I had known about before, there was something truly special to be gained from the spontaneity of my life, and from the anticipation that something incredible could be just around the corner that I don’t even know about yet.

So now, after seven columns telling you What I Wish I Knew, I guess I’m saying … who cares about knowing absolutely everything. Some things are better left to the unknown until you get the thrill of discovering them for yourself.

Abby Stern is a Staff Writer at The Tufts Daily. She is a junior studying political science and women, gender, and sexuality studies. Abby can be reached at abigail. stern@tufts.edu.