A majority opinion draft from the Supreme Court, written by Justice Samuel Alito and obtained by Politico, threatens abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade and enables a disturbing new reality for the country as a whole — but it is particularly worrying for residents of Missouri.
On May 2, Politico published an obtained majority opinion draft written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, which has the potential to overturn Roe v. Wade and the subsequent ruling upholding its precedent, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
So far, the document has not been changed since it was penned in February. The draft is legitimate, as confirmed by Chief Justice John Roberts, but Alito’s words are not an absolute verdict until a final decision is made. Currently, the legal precedent set by Roe v. Wade and subsequently Planned Parenthood v, Casey still stand.
If this drafted opinion is finalized — which could occur in the next two months — students with uteruses on this campus could be stripped of vital rights to their bodily autonomy and privacy under the future legislative possibilities here in Missouri. As members of this campus and current residents of this state, The Maneater Editorial Board finds this prospect politically dangerous for women’s rights and fundamentally wrong.
This Editorial Board includes 28 MU students, 21 of whom are female. Beyond our roles as student journalists and editors, this decision holds great personal implications for those of us living as women in the U.S.
If Roe is overturned, Missouri’s legislative future is among the most concerning in the country. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Missouri is one of 23 states that would institute restrictive bans on abortion access if the ruling was rolled back. It is also one of 13 states with a trigger law, a form of legislation that would be enacted immediately if the Supreme Court opinion is finalized.
House Bill 126, originally introduced in 2019, would drastically change the status of abortion-care in Missouri — a state with only one clinic providing abortion access to begin with.
Two acts within this bill mount particularly extreme threats. The Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act is a deep reservoir of anti-abortion legislation and history, concluding that abortion is ultimately against Missouri’s interests. It asserts, “the fact that the life of an individual human being begins at conception has long been recognized in Missouri law.”
The portion of HB 126 considered a trigger law, the Right to Life of the Unborn Child Act, makes performing or inducing an abortion a Class B felony, with an exception for medical emergencies. If this drafted decision by the Supreme Court does in fact return legislative control over abortion access to the states, these State House floor possibilities will become everyday realities.
For many out-of-state students, the current reproductive restrictions drastically depart from their hometown experiences. According to the fall 2021 MU Student Profile, a total of 5,245 out-of-state students come from Illinois, California, Colorado or Minnesota — all states where abortion access will remain legal even if this decision is finalized. If this draft is in fact finalized, a large number of out-of-state students enrolled at MU would lose many reproductive freedoms simply because they moved to this campus. Choosing to study and reside at this university has implications beyond surface-level concerns like class size and campus aesthetics.
While access to abortion may exist in other states, the financial hurdles involved in such travel make this a difficult feat for many. Besides the one Missouri abortion clinic located in St. Louis, the closest option for MU students is traveling to Illinois, Kansas or Iowa. Missouri’s other neighboring states — Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky — all have anti-abortion trigger laws in place.
In many cases, proximity is not the only barrier. According to a Guttmacher Institute survey, in 2014, three-fourths of abortion patients nationally came from low income backgrounds, with 49% living below the federal poverty level. Traveling out of state is simply not feasible for students with financial limitations. According to a national Pew Research Center study from 2019, 39% of dependent undergraduates and 67% of independent undergraduates were in or near poverty in 2016. Placing the additional burden of traveling to a clinic on college students with financial insecurities leaves them with few feasible options — a scenario that would only worsen under this potential decision.
In 2019, 56.9% of women who underwent abortion procedures were in their 20s, according to a CDC study done in the same year. This strikes the heart of the issue for MU’s campus. For this demographic, this initial draft poses a severe restriction on their independence and freedom at a physical level, regardless of their personal beliefs regarding pregancy and the morality of abortion.
This potential Supreme Court ruling goes far deeper than a mere gender binary, extending into complex levels of intersectional suffering for a large swath of people. Many non-female-identifying individuals still have the ability to get pregnant and face gender-related trauma if forced to carry a child.
The issue of abortion, and health care at large, is particularly poignant to communities of color as well. According to a 2019 report from the CDC, the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 2.5 times the rate for non-Hispanic white women. The CDC also found that from 2007-2016, pregnancy-related mortality rates for Black and non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native were higher than any other racial/ethnic population.
When abortion care is limited and restricted for women in general, these women – already slighted by the health care system during pregancy – will feel greater effects. This is reflected by the opinion of Black adults, as collected in a 2021 national survey by In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. According to their polling, 85% of respondents agreed that “every woman should have coverage for the full range of pregnancy-related care, including prenatal care and abortion.”
In Missouri and on campus, the effects of a Supreme Court overhaul of Roe v. Wade will be tangibly felt. The basic right to choice, regardless of an individual’s personal beliefs, is stripped. Along with it, decades of work and progress made toward women’s equality and legal liberation is lost.
We must remember this is not set in stone. For now, Roe v. Wade still stands.
While we are still in Columbia, we have resources to fight the fight. Visit MU’s Women’s Center, Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center or LGBTQ Resource Center for community support. Additionally, for more information on future advocacy and means of resistance to the legislative threats in Missouri, contact student organizations like It’s On Us Mizzou or Planned Parenthood Advocates of Mizzou.
As the summer — and midterm elections — approach, ensure that abortion rights are secured across the country by calling your state representatives and demanding legislative protection. Register to vote and support your local organizations working in the grassroots. MU is the biggest state school in Missouri, and a great deal of students on this campus are constituents of the politicians involved with legislation like HB 126.
If the Supreme Court does overturn the national enshrinements of our reproductive freedom, if this decision becomes more than a draft, it is up to us to demand codification of human rights for people with uteruses at a state level.
The MU student voice must be heard in all 114 counties of the state, and our Editorial Board plans to join the cry.