Hi guys, this week’s item is a “1973” Sweatshirt from Social Goods. The proceeds from the Sweatshirt are being donated to National Institute for Reproductive Health.
The National Institute for Reproductive Health is an organization that is working to change public policy and normalize women’s decisions about abortion/contraception. The year 1973 represents the year that abortion was first ruled constitutional in the United States in the Supreme Court case of Rowe Versus Wade.
Roe versus Wade was a landmark legal decision in which the U.S Supreme Court struck down a Texas law banning abortion. Now the U.S Supreme could strike down Rowe versus Wade, reversing the progress that our country has made.
Dorin Klair, a clinical professor of law at Cleveland State University explains what will likely happen if Rowe versus Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court.
“I think there are three steps that we’re about to see gradually,” says Klair.
STEP 1: Different states will create laws banning abortion
“The first is that 28 states already have trigger laws in the making or already on the books, just awaiting the day in which the court will indeed confirm that this draft opinion is the majority opinion of the Supreme Court. On that day, 28 state laws will spring into action and we’ll have different levels of restrictions, but basically it will eliminate the right of abortion across those states,” explains Klair.
Step 2: Women would be criminalized for having an abortion
If Rowe versus Wade is overturned, “there will be the notion that the unborn life is a person under the Constitution and therefore should receive all the protections under the 14th amendment and otherwise. That will turn the act of abortion actually into active murder, and that will criminalize abortion,” explains Klair. “From a Constitutional affirmative right, the act of abortion will turn into a negative criminal activity”
Step 3: A federal ban on the right to have an abortion
“Finally, I think that the final goal would be a federal ban on abortion. So, instead of what we’re talking about now, which is a federal acknowledgement or reaffirming of Roe v. Wade, the third stage of overruling Roe v. Wade after acknowledging personhood would be a federal ban on on abortions across all 50 states, which is the opposite of what we have now,” explains Klair.
By supporting the National Institute for Reproductive Health, you can help prevent Rowe versus Wade from being overturned.