Lopez: Restoring Roe isn’t enough

In his State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden vowed to restore Roe v. Wade as “the law of the land.”

It was an admirable sentiment and one welcomed by supporters of reproductive rights.

But with all due respect, Mr. President, that’s not enough anymore. Women want — no, are demanding — the most fundamental right of all: autonomy over their own bodies.

Restoring Roe is next to impossible. The Supreme Court has passed judgment and is unlikely to reverse itself. A fractured and dysfunctional Congress makes the passage of widespread legal protections improbable.

The Supreme Court ripped away 50 years of standing from them and women now realize they can take nothing for granted — not even the Constitution. And girding for the new fight for reproductive rights has made them realize that for all its good, they now deserve better than Roe.

No more having to explain the reasons for their choice. No more humiliating questions about the circumstances of their pregnancy. No more mandatory waiting periods imposed by lawmakers who hope the stall will change their minds. No more medically invasive procedures like transvaginal ultrasounds or being forced to listen to a fetal heartbeat — meant to tug at their hearts and shame them for their choice. No more being forced to live through the torture of continuing a desperately wanted but unviable pregnancy or to carry dead fetus. No more having to be near death before being given permission to decide what’s best for them.

The obstacles under Roe were substantial. Sometimes impossible to overcome. Things quickly worsened post-Roe as more than a dozen states moved quickly to make abortion illegal. More followed. Women now must travel even greater distances for reproductive health care. Anti-abortion activists now boldly talk of banning birth control. Some states where abortion is illegal — even medication abortion — want to prosecute those who help women travel elsewhere for the procedure. Women are being charged with crimes for having miscarriages. In vitro fertilization, which allows thousands of Americans to grow their families each year, is under attack after the Alabama Supreme Court declared frozen embryos are children.

Minnesota has become one of the rare places in the Midwest where women can obtain abortion services while its neighbors move to tighten restrictions. In 2023, the state enacted a law affirming abortion and full reproductive care as a fundamental right. It specifically prohibits local governments from throwing up roadblocks, and has separate protections for out-of-state travelers seeking such care.

The laws have made the state a magnet for those desperate for help.

Dr. Sarah Traxler, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood North Central States, said her St. Paul, Minnesota, clinic has seen a 25% increase in patients seeking abortion services since Roe was overturned.

“We’ve seen nearly a 100% increase in patients coming here from outside of our state,” said Traxler, who calls herself who calls herself “a proud abortion provider.” The patients aren’t just from neighboring states, but as far away as Texas, Wyoming, Florida, Oklahoma and Missouri.

The new abortion landscape, she said, is difficult, dangerous and “it is putting my patients and health care providers at severe risk.”

On March 14, Vice President Kamala Harris paid a historic visit to Traxler’s facility. It’s believed to be the first time a sitting president or vice president has visited an abortion clinic. That symbolism alone is a powerful indicator of this administration’s commitment to elevating the right to reproductive care.

But even Harris, as easily as she speaks the language of body autonomy in a way that still evades President Biden, was unwilling to get out ahead of him. Asked at the event what should take Roe’s place, Harris’ response was measured: “What we want is to put back in place the protections that the Supreme Court took away.”

Roe was a titanic breakthrough for women’s rights when it occurred in 1973. But it’s time to recognize that it was always imperfect, with its interpretation that the right to choose had to be balanced against what it termed was the state’s interest in the “potentiality of human life.”

Somehow, in the years that followed, that “potential human life” managed to overtake and sweep away the rights of women themselves, to the point where some elected leaders dare to say publicly that a woman’s body is “no longer her own” once she is pregnant.

Biden and Harris’ efforts are appreciated. But women and their allies should aim higher than just restoring Roe. It’s time to fight for full reproductive care as a basic human right, for there is no real freedom without the freedom to control one’s own body.

Patricia Lopez is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

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