It seems that the jail time in Arizona is five years for both the woman the the provider.
Tucson, Arizona Sunday, 19 January 2003
Roe V. Wade 30 years after
Wednesday is the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which assured a woman's right to have an abortion. Ever since, the decision has elicited strongly opposing viewpoints, as revealed in these two commentaries.
Two-thirds of Americans support a woman's right to choose
By Patti Caldwell
SPECIAL TO THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
On Wednesday, we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in 1973 in the case of Roe v. Wade.
That decision, which legalized abortion throughout the United States, marked the end of a 100-year era, an era during which a series of laws were passed by states and Congress banning information about birth control and abortion and outlawing abortion even in cases of rape, incest or severe fetal abnormality.
The supporters of this anti-choice, anti-birth-control legislation were clear about their motivation. The stated purpose of the 1873 Comstock Act, under which Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, would later be prosecuted for attempting to distribute information on contraception, was to "enforce chastity on the young and unmarried and to preserve the position of women within the traditional family structure."
Unfortunately, despite the historical evidence of 100 years of unwanted pregnancies and back-alley abortions, there are still those who advocate a return to those bad old days.
Like the supporters of the Comstock Act, the present-day fundamentalists who purport to support "the right to life," "abstinence only" and "family values" want to keep our young people ignorant about how to prevent pregnancy; and they oppose measures such as increasing funding for contraception or providing emergency contraception even to rape victims.
At a state level, these fundamentalists are once again succeeding in passing anti-choice legislation.
Between 1995 and 2001, states enacted more than 300 such bills, placing unnecessary obstacles in the way of women who have made the difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy.
Of potentially even greater concern is the support for their position from four out of the current nine Supreme Court justices, who have argued that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and that the Constitution does not protect the right to choose.
With the next Supreme Court appointment likely to be made by George W. Bush, that right is now far from secure.
The undue influence of these fundamentalist groups leaves the impression that America is a deeply divided country on the issue of abortion.
In fact, there is a national consensus. Two-thirds of Americans believe the Roe v. Wade decision should continue to be upheld, while fewer than one in five believe that abortion should be illegal in all cases, the position of the so-called "right to life" groups.
Four out of 10 American women have had an abortion by age 45. In the wealthiest country in the world, in which public education is available to all and a wide range of contraceptive methods exist, that is not a statistic to be proud of.
But the way to reduce the abortion rate is not to imprison these women and their health care providers for up to five years, as Arizona's pre-Roe abortion statute stipulates. (That law is still on the books, currently unenforceable as a result of the Roe decision).
As we learned in the pre-Roe era, failing to provide access to safe and legal abortion does not eliminate abortion; it merely makes it unsafe and illegal.
Policymakers must do more to make abortion less necessary, not less available. With greater awareness and availability of contraception, the number of abortions performed in this country could be dramatically reduced.
It has been estimated that emergency contraception alone, if always used when appropriate, could cut the abortion rate in half.
Add to that comprehensive sex education so young people learn how to avoid unintended pregnancy. And realistic funding for family planning and family spacing so income is not a barrier to using contraception.
Then, in less than 30 years, we will be able to celebrate both the anniversary of the right to choose, as well as that fewer and fewer women have to decide whether or not to exercise that right.
* Patti Caldwell is president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona. |
