Roe v Wade overturned isn’t a victory for life – it spells death for women

Our lives and health are collateral damage. Unnecessary maternal mortality seems to be the order of the day in the US Supreme Court

We saw it coming at us like a 10-tonne truck but, if anyone needed confirmation, here it is: the bodily autonomy of women is under a deadly assault. Think that’s hyperbole? Think again.

In a sucker punch to women’s reproductive freedom, the US Supreme Court has overturned the landmark Roe v Wade ruling. This means that there will no longer be a constitutional right to an abortion in the US, and states get to decide whether to allow, ban or restrict pregnancy terminations.

While former vice president Mike Pence celebrated the ruling with the words “today, life won”, I wonder which lives he’s talking about? It’s certainly not those of women – particularly Black and impoverished women, who’ll be disproportionately affected by the elimination of their legal right to abortion.

Criminalising abortions means criminalising socially and economically disadvantaged women, and putting their lives at risk through unsafe termination procedures. Because this is what happens when abortion is criminalised. It doesn’t prevent women from terminating pregnancies, it just forces them into life-threatening, unsafe abortions with poorly trained or untrained practitioners and little or no aftercare, which can result in septic shock, perforated bladder and/or bowel, severe haemorrhaging, and death.

The World Health Organisation states that “unsafe abortion is a leading – but preventable – cause of maternal deaths and morbidities” that can also lead to “physical and mental health complications and social and financial burdens for women, communities and health systems”. In other words, this isn’t simply a “women’s issue” – it’s a public health issue. It’s a human rights issue.

Everyone should feel troubled by the Supreme Court’s decision. The rhetoric around the ruling might be “pro-life”, but that’s a misnomer when the lives of women are collateral damage. Unnecessary maternal mortality seems to be the order of the day in the US Supreme Court.

Bizarrely, there seems to be significantly more political appetite for banning abortions than for protecting children at the US Supreme Court. Have a look at the startling disconnect between the court’s decision on New York’s gun laws and its decision to overturn Roe v Wade. As the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, comments: “The hypocrisy is raging, but the harm is endless.”

You might think that the decision doesn’t affect us here in the UK, but it does – and the implications are chilling. How gossamer-thin is the fabric that binds us to our reproductive rights anywhere in the world if they can be ripped away so easily from US citizens? How can we feel safe knowing that our reproductive freedom is at the mercy of politicians who are willing to risk the lives of women to further a conservative agenda?

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I’m grateful that, currently, my right to a legal abortion is recognised in the UK – but today’s decision by the Supreme Court is disturbing. There’s no such thing as settled legal precedents and our rights – even over our own bodies – are hanging by a thread of benevolence from those who’ll likely never need an abortion or deal with the implications of being unable to access the procedure safely and legally. Unsafe abortions affect the desperate and the marginalised, not the people making this draconian decision.

And it’s not as if we can even take comfort from the idea that if the majority of citizens want to keep a law, then it’s likely to be protected. According to polling taken before the Supreme Court’s decision, the majority of Americans did not want Roe v Wade to be overturned – but here we are.

So, what’s next in the firing line? Whose lives will be in the balance once the domino effect of this decision starts to pick up speed? What other rights are on the agenda for elimination? Access to contraception? Sex education? Same-sex relationships?

When Donald Trump says that the Supreme Court’s ruling “will work out for everybody”, you know we’re in serious trouble.