If Roe V. Wade Was Overturned…

-rises flame shield-

With yet another thread opening up arguing if it's right to allow a woman to decide her own future. I was wondering for a What If? storyline there was a massive blacklash against liberal government in the near future and the religious right successfully had abortion outlaw nationally.

Making a genuine speculation: How would society be affected?

edited 21st Jan '11 4:53:50 PM by joeyjojo

Is there any precedent, in US legal history, for taking a right away that's been taken for granted for a long time? One that directly affects many people, I mean, not something that people might defend on mainly ideological grounds?

I guess one could try and write it as a modern take on Prohibition...

That's was sort of the angle I was going for. However since it's difficult to enforce the happy families party really made an example of any women found guilty.

edited 21st Jan '11 8:06:08 PM by joeyjojo

If Roe V. Wade was overturned, it would do nothing to stop the number of abortions. All that it would do is make abortions less safe.

Once thing that ATF actually did to terrorise prospective buyers was instead of destroying confiscated whiskey shipments from Canada. They would poison them and release them back on street. So I was going to have the border police do the same with smuggled drugs.

edited 21st Jan '11 8:07:01 PM by joeyjojo

Access determined by the states, mobs from states without legal abortion trying to prevent their fellow citizens from crossing into neighboring states in order to get an abortion, formation of militias, widespread terrorism and reprisal killings, culminating in civil war.

edited 21st Jan '11 8:09:45 PM by EnglishIvy

edited 21st Jan '11 8:13:30 PM by SandJosieph

Abortion is almost impossible in many places, so for practical purposes, it might as well be illegal. Medical schools don't teach the procedure any more. Clinics close due to harassment, over-regulation, and death threats. Patients are forced to notify their parents, to wait long periods, to undergo "counseling," to travel hundreds of miles. On this issue the fundamentalists have essentially won the war.

^ Where do you live? In Canada (and indeed a number of places in Europe) abortions aren't quite that demonized. There's a lot of pro-choice support.

Indeed. Even the OP couldn't be bothered to make the context explicit, but based on the thread title (and <insert cheap shot at US-American cultural tunnel vision here>), it's probably safe to assume that all posts refer to the United States, unless otherwise stated.

^^ That kind of thing does goes on in the Southeastern US, although I don't think it's as bad as you make it sound.

edited 23rd Jan '11 3:28:48 PM by storyyeller

To answer a previous query, I live in the USA, where Roe v. Wade is ostensibly the law of the land. Technically, abortion is still legal, but as I pointed out, there are so many legal roadblocks, it might as well be illegal.

In my state, the legislature routinely tries to add regulations for inspections of clinics, to make the mother consult with "health professionals" (read: pro-life activists), to force her to listen to an ultrasound of the fetus's heartbeat, et nauseous cetera. They created a "choose life" license plate but that didn't make it past the state supreme court.

But to answer the OP's question, you'd have women using clothes hangers to do their own D&C procedures, with an appalling number of deaths. You'd have women administering abortifacents to themselves with unpredictable results. You'd have suicides by women who couldn't face the opprobrium from their families and communities. You'd have preachers telling everyone that premarital sex is a sin, and failed abortions would reinforce that argument on a regular basis.

You know, for a country that's supposed to be based on religious freedom, America can be endlessly hypocritical.

And you'd have people traveling across state lines in order to get abortions. And people trying to stop them at the border.

@Ralph crown/it's the guy: Is it seriously that bad?

Okay I should explain it a bit better. The setting is an alternative 2011 where George w Bush was assassinated and Dick Cheney took American far right and set about 'undoing the social decay of our nation'. Obviously Canada is still going to continue it's lack of abortion law, in fact one of the background plots has a Celine Dion expy arrested and placed in a show trail.

I Am Not American.

edited 24th Jan '11 1:41:30 AM by joeyjojo

Another factor to consider. According to Freakonomics, an unorthodox look at economics, a high abortion rate translates to a lower crime rate years later. Unwanted children, if you accept the cause-and-effect put forth there, grow up poor and/or socially maladjusted and/or mentally ill, so they tend to commit crimes. In your scenario, then, less abortion equals more crime. More crime equals more law and order. More law and order can tend towards a police state.

And yes, there are areas of the US where you must travel hundreds of miles to get a legal abortion. There are states that have no clinics in them. It has nothing to do with medicine or public health or logic, it's politics and emotion. This issue really draws them out of the woodwork.

Let's not forget the doctors. If you decide to perform abortions, there are Web sites that will post your name, your home address, and your home phone number, and encourage people to "express their views." Doctors have been shot. Clinics have been bombed. Well, that's free speech in action.

edited 25th Jan '11 8:14:26 AM by RalphCrown

Well, considering abortion was illegal in most states for well over 100 years, I'm thinking the effects are going to be far less drastic than the above suggest. Yes, you'll probably have back-alley abortion doctors and protests (though that second one wouldn't be much of a change), but I'm guessing for the most part life would simply go on.

Oh, yeah, and overturing Roe v. Wade would not outlaw abortion. It would leave it up to the states to decide.

edited 25th Jan '11 9:55:16 AM by petrie911

<mod hat ON>

Chronix will not be rejoining the conversation.

<mod hat OFF>

But he was so funny. awww

As for the setting being Over The Top i'm guilty as charged. Under a few years under Cheney the southern sates have pretty much turned into the city from Blade Runner after abstinence only education was brought in. The up side is that technology has greatly improved as the 'Next Edison Or Tesla' were born. The down side is the crime rate is through the roof and abandoned 'abnormals' stalk the sewer plotting the down fall of man.

The evil police state thing is more for drama then social commentary. But he's right about the 'liberal propaganda bullshit'. I was going to use a woman on the edge of time Framing Device so I might have progressive prolife world show up for 'balanced'.

I'm still going to had obama as a muscle bound eyepatched rebel leader but

edited 27th Jan '11 3:33:45 PM by joeyjojo

if Rv W didn't happen...SHIT WOULD GO DOWN

Yeah? what sort of shit?

No, what they mean is, the natural world would reflect the social imbalance through fecal matter falling from the sky and running down sloped surfaces. It's a truly profound statement they just made there.

Ooooookkkkkkkkkaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy.....

OK, I am Swiss, but I guess that first abortion would become fully illegal in some states and stay legal in others. Also, many a Back-Alley Doctor would crop up to serve abortion-seeking women that cannot go to other states for that. Later, pro-life politicians would start running into major problems as pro-life voters have no longer a reason to vote for them and pro-choice ones would seek to remove anti-abortion laws by electing pro-choice candidates. In the end result, abortion would become less FlameBait-y as abortion law becomes more of a "decidable" matter. In fact, one of the main criticisms leweled at Roe was that the court jumped the gun on that.

edited 20th Nov '11 5:23:04 AM by SeptimusHeap