The ‘Right to Life’ Will End Up Killing Women
Abortions allowed women to escape abusive and even deadly relationships. Now that door is closing, state by state.
A matter of life and death.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThe Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will affect much more than women’s access to abortions. Decades of economic research demonstrate that, by limiting their power over when and with whom they form families and relationships, it will threaten their livelihoods and even their lives.
Arguably the most telling research has nothing to do with abortion at all. It involves divorce, or more specifically a revolution in family law that occurred nearly 50 years ago, about the time of the original Roe v. Wade decision. Instead of requiring both parties to agree to dissolve a marriage, or one party to prove that the other was at fault, states started allowing either spouse to act unilaterally. This gave women more power to leave unhappy or abusive marriages.