This Oklahoma case gives us a horrifying glimpse of the post-Roe future
What will America be like for women if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, the cases that, respectively, established and upheld a constitutional right to abortion? For an answer to that question, you need look no further than the sad and outrageous story of an Oklahoma woman named Brittany Poolaw.
As Michelle Goldberg recounts in her powerful New York Times column on the case, Poolaw, then 19 years old, took marijuana and methamphetamine while pregnant and suffered a miscarriage at 17 weeks. She was then arrested, charged with first-degree manslaughter, and sent to jail for a year and a half while awaiting trial (because she couldn't afford a $20,000 bond). Earlier this month, she was convicted in a one-day trial and sentenced to four years in prison.
If prosecutors in Oklahoma can charge, convict, and imprison a woman for manslaughter following a miscarriage, how likely will they be to charge, convict, and imprison women for murder following abortions if the Supreme Court eliminates constitutional strictures on doing so? The answer is: Extremely likely — almost certain.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Goldberg notes that anti-abortion activists regularly claim they merely wish to protect the lives of the unborn, not punish women. (When Donald Trump suggested during his 2016 presidential run that women should face "some form of punishment" for terminating pregnancies, pro-life advocates tried to distance themselves from the remark.) But if abortion is murder, as pro-lifers insist, then women who procure abortions are contract killers, just as those who perform the procedures are assassins for hire and those who pay for or otherwise facilitate the acts are accomplices. An America in which numerous states treat abortion as legally and morally tantamount to murder is an America in which women are going to be arrested, convicted, and jailed for ending their pregnancies.
At least in some states. In others, women will be free to terminate their pregnancies at any point, even past viability.
It's hard to imagine a more grotesque application of federalist principles. Instead of following the example of the many other countries in the world, where women's rights override those of the fetus early on in pregnancy but give way to the rights of the unborn baby at some point after the first trimester, the United States looks likely to end up with two diametrically opposed absolutist moral universes. Red states will protect fetal rights with almost no exception while blue states will protect the rights of women with almost no exception.
That might follow from our country's polarized dividedness and satisfy the rationalists on both sides of the issue, but it makes a mockery of the tragic moral conflicts that pass right through the heart of the issue of abortion.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.
-
'Is the death penalty racist? Of course it is.'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - May 8, 2024
Cartoons Wednesday's cartoons - social media guilt, gag orders, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Boy Scouts changes name to Scouting America
Speed Read The organization is rebranding, citing inclusivity
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Panama presidency won by stand-in for fugitive
Speed Read José Raúl Mulino was the stand-in candidate for disqualified former president Ricardo Martinelli
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Xi comes to Europe: what's on the agenda?
The Explainer China's president visiting for first time since 2019, with spotlight on support for Russia over Ukraine and trade tensions with EU
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Net neutrality is back. And so is the battle over it.
Talking Point Old internet rules are being reinstated, but the internet has changed since last time
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
'Presidential debates are more performance art than actual ways to inform'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Russia gains as Ukraine awaits US aid
Speed Read Ukrainian forces have retreated from several villages as the situation at the front line worsens
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'Horror stories of women having to carry nonviable fetuses'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Haiti interim council, prime minister sworn in
Speed Read Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigns amid surging gang violence
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'Elevating Earth Day into a national holiday is not radical — it's practical'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published