Opinion: Mainstream media’s current narrative surrounding Roe v. Wade is failing to convey the human and emotional effects. 

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In the wake of the unprecedented Roe v. Wade leaks, our country’s news cycles have been filled with media covering what this proposed ban could potentially mean and its effects. Articles titled “Overturning Roe V. Wade Would Have ‘Very Damaging’ Economic Effects” and “How the End of Roe v Wade Will Affect American Politics,” have filled my feed amongst others similarly detailing how the overturn threatens countless aspects of our government and political freedoms. 

And, while it’s without a doubt that Roe v. Wade will have ripple effects throughout our country’s political and economic landscape, I fear we are straying away from the true human aspect of the ban. An overturn of abortion rights is first and foremost a war on every person with a uterus’s bodily autonomy as well as their physical and mental health.

As shown throughout history and today, a rise of illegal abortions is one of the most common outcomes of banning the right to chose. And these illegal practices are extremely unsafe and damaging to women’s health. In Brazil, for example, the government has banned abortions. However, illegal abortions still occur, and  “it’s estimated that 250,000 women are hospitalized from complications from abortions, and about 200 women a year die from the complications.”  

The women attempting these unsafe abortions are being forced to put themselves in danger, and this is what our country will face with the overturn. Overturning Roe v. Wade isn’t a ban on abortions –– it’s a ban on safe abortions. In so many countries that have criminalized abortion, there are countless examples of women who have died under these circumstances.

Mildred, a young woman in Kenya, is a story that highlights this tragic reality. After becoming pregnant in a country that banned abortions, she died at the hospital following her attempts to terminate her pregnancy. Following her death, Mildred’s father told the media “I wish my daughter had accessed a safer abortion… terminating the pregnancy was a better option to her happiness than trading her life with herbs that caused her infection and painful death,” 

In addition to the physical dangers of illegal abortions, the potential overturn of Roe v. Wade would also harm the emotional health and well-being of women across the nation. Much of the current media coverage of Roe v. Wade doesn’t take into account the impact of an unplanned pregnancy on the everyday lives of women in today’s world. 

Center for American Progress attorney and women’s health policy analyst Elyssa Spitzer explains this concept, claiming the abortion ban “makes it much more difficult for women to escape poverty, and for women to pursue the careers that they want.” For many women in our current society and economy, the addition of a child against their will also imposes a burden they can’t always support. And, while anti-abortion activists fight to preserve the life of unborn fetuses, they seldom address the struggles the mother and child will face post birth. 

Gwendolyn Iris, an organizer at the recent Eugene pro-choice protest agrees with this sentiment. She said when news broke of the overturn, she was faced with shock as abortion had affected her life on a personal level when she found out she was pregnant with her second child.

“I was poor, struggling, on food stamps, and I was trying to go to finish school and I just didn’t feel like I could support another child and give them the quality of life that I wanted to provide,” Iris said. “So I made that decision, and it was hard. So I just can’t imagine any human in this country not being able to make that choice.”

Thousands of women across the nation have stories similar to this one. The right to choose allows people to be able to control their own lives and stops the others from controlling their minds and bodies: a human right we should all be afforded. 
The human impact that this overturn carries cannot be overstated enough. Minimizing it only makes it easier for the rights to be revoked. So, when the media cycles over the abortion ban with blank statistics and political jargon, we must remember the countless individuals’ physical and mental pain that this overturn would represent.