It has been three months since half of the U.S. population lost legal protection of their bodily autonomy. On June 26, The Supreme Court ruled to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling which was enacted in 1973 and had  a 49-year precedent. A group of nine unelected judges overturned it, ripping away the right of bodily autonomy to millions of Americans. This decision not only impacts abortion rights, but is a gateway to other cases being overturned.

     The court handed the choice on whether abortion should be legal to the states, and some, such as Missouri, had trigger laws in place, meaning that as soon as Roe was overturned, abortions were banned. Doctors performing the procedure and women seeking abortions now have the threat of prison as part of their decision. 

     The vote to overturn Roe was 6-3, with it being called by Justice Alito “egregiously wrong from the start.” This “egregiously” wrong case protected the medical freedom and privacy of millions of Americans. It gave them the option to make decisions about their bodies and to protect their medical information from being shared. Now, police are able to subpoena medical records. 

     Wealthy people will always be able to obtain an abortion. More money mean

s more access to travel, hotel accommodations and premium medical care. The people who will be most affected though are low-income communities and marginalized populations. There will be  “back alley abortions” and deaths because they bled out or they got an infection. 

     Because Roe protected  medical privacy, it has led to the question of what other court cases will be overturned. All of which will affect people with uteruses as well as the LGBTQ community, such as Obgerfell vs. Hodges which protected gay marriage in the United States; Griswold vs. Connecticut which protected the right to buy contraceptives without government restriction, and Lawrence vs. Texas which declared that punishment of consensual sex between adults is unconstitutional.

     People deserve the right to make choices about their reproductive health. Abortion is healthcare.