“Obstacle Course – The Everyday Struggle to get an Abortion in America,” by David S. Cohen, Carole Joffe, 2020
This is a primer on going through the whole experience of
abortion in the U.S. It is based on over
70 interviews – women that have had an abortion; providers, volunteers and
allies. That experience is closely based
on what state you live in, your age, whether you have health insurance, a car,
money, various kinds of support and a strong stomach to deal with fake clinics
and lunatic anti-abortion protesters.
There is also the tight web of abortion restrictions that occurred prior
to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, both national and state. This book is written
before that ruling, so the picture now is even more difficult – making
miscarriages and non-viable fetuses subject to the new law in some states, which additionally threaten women’s health. This was seen in the recent lawsuit against Texas by 13 women. The south and
prairie states are the worst offenders, as they are in favor of forced child
bearing.
The authors take you, in detail, through ‘making the decision’ to
terminate the pregnancy; finding a clinic; coming up with the money; waiting
periods; transport; getting past the clowns; clinic counseling and the
procedure – whether it be medical or drug-induced. They end by trying to paint a picture of what
a sane approach would be, which in their mind is very limited.
Of most import is that working-class people, many times of
color, have the most difficult time accessing reproductive health services like
abortion. Abortion rights are part of
working-class struggle, especially of working-class women’s rights. It is pretty clear that the Democratic Party
talk to ‘just elect us’ went on while abortion rights were being whittled away
for years, clearly leading to an overturn of the 1973 law. The Dems were asleep at the wheel – when they
had it and when they didn’t. Trusting them again is fraught.
Here are some relevant facts from the authors:
1. They
call the treatment of abortion as a medical condition ‘abortion exceptionalism’ due to the multiple restrictions on the
practice.
2. From
their 2018-2019 figures: half of women
seeking abortions are below the federal poverty line, and another quarter just
above.
3. A
quarter have no health insurance.
4. A
third have Medicaid, but at that time only 16 states allowed its use for the procedure.
5. 60% of
patients are already parents.
6. Three
in five patients are women of color – African-American at 28%; Hispanic at 25%;
Asian/PI at 6%; European-Americans at 39%; 3% other.
7. The
rate of abortion is going down because of better contraceptive practice. There were 862K abortions in 2017, down from
1.2M in 2008. The rate has not dropped as much in conservative / Republican-dominated
states.
8. 1 in 4
women will have an abortion by age 45.
9. 39% of
abortions in 2017 were through medication.
10.
Abortion
is incredibly safe, at 2%; far safer than childbirth, colonoscopies,
liposuction and vasectomies.
11. The large “Turnaway’ Study showed that the economic, social, medical and psychological health of women declines if they fail to get an abortion they wanted or needed. They are more likely to be a, poorer; b, on public assistance; c, have a negative outlook on the future; d, bad partner relationships; e, the children are worse off; f, lower health overall; g, and introduces them to the high mortality rate of pregnancy in the U.S.
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| The 'pro-lifers' love a good bomb or burning |
They cover the legal decisions that whittled away at
abortion since 1973 – Planned Parenthood
v. Casey in 1992; Gonzales v. Carhart
in 2007; Whole Women’s Health v.
Hellerstedt in 2013 - a case which supposedly slowed restrictions. The latter was mostly ignored until the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which came out of Alabama and led the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade.
Their solutions are to follow the best practices in states
where abortion is still fully legal.
Added to that they want Medicaid to cover abortion; advanced-practice
clinicians to be allowed to do the procedure and making abortion by mail, using
Mifipristone, fully legal. They go into
the questionable practice of self-managed abortion. Stunningly they do not call for nationalized
health care, an independent and militant abortion-rights movement or any political recommendations
like a labor-left-populist party. They
instead have some weak language about ‘seeking allies.’ They limit themselves to the most
conservative approach, which has proved to be a failure.
If you are an activist, a volunteer, a patient, a medical professional or just curious, this book will provide a guide to the situation of getting an abortion in backasswards 'America.'
Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box,
upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms: “Without
Apology,” “Abortion Referendum in Ireland,” “Lets Rent a Train!” “Feminists and
Feminists,” “TexAss,” “Soviet Women – Walking the Tightrope,” “Why Women Have
Better Sex Under Socialism,” “Really?
Rape? Still?” “Socialist Feminism
and the New Women’s Movement,” “Ireland – What’s Up?”
And I bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog
August 19, 2023
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