Forty years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 7-2 ruling in the case of Roe versus Wade, striking down a Texas law that made having an abortion a crime except when a woman’s life was in danger.
West Virginians for Life President Wanda Franz says the decision, which legalized abortion, has cost too many lives. “Over 55 million innocent, unborn children have been killed in that 40 years and that’s an enormous proportion of the U.S. population,” Franz said.
But West Virginia Free Executive Director Margaret Chapman Pomponio says the decision has saved lives.
“We need to remember, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the women who died in this country in desperate attempts to manage their fertility and make a personal decision and access safe medical care,” Chapman Pomponio said. “That is what Roe v. Wade is about.”
Both Chapman Pomponio and Franz were guests on Tuesday’s MetroNews Talkline.
In the four decades since the ruling, the number of abortions in West Virginia has steadily declined. Records show there were 6,170 abortions in 1978, compared with 2,169 in 2009. Nationally, abortion rates have dropped as well.
Chapman Pomponio says there are many reasons for that, including increased family planning education efforts. “It reduces unintended pregnancy,” she said of family planning.
“I also think that supporting comprehensive sexual health education is really important. We’re moving away from abstinence only. We know that that’s a failed policy.”
Franz says she thinks women have educated themselves more about the potential long term effects of abortions and that’s why the numbers have declined.
“The majority of women have begun to recognize this is not the direction they want to go in and they are taking more pains to avoid getting pregnant, and when they are, they have their children,” she said.
Looking ahead, Franz says those in the “pro life” camp will continue to work to have Roe v. Wade overturned.
“We believe that legalizing abortion has done nothing but damage to the American public, to women. It opens the door for all kinds of medical and social problems,” she said.
But Chapman Pomponio says the U.S. Supreme Court has already decided on the issue. She says those in the “pro choice” movement will, instead, stay focused on the health care needs of women.
“We want to protect personal decision making. We want to protect the relationship between a woman and her health care provider,” she said.
The first federal restriction on abortions since Roe v. Wade came in 2007 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law banning partial birth abortions.