I am a male, so I did not literally have an abortion. But it was my decision too, and I was fully involved in finding a provider and accompanying my girlfriend for the procedure. I believe every partner or spouse should be engaged in such a critical decision with implications ranging from health, moral and legal to financial.

My ‘abortion’ was over three decades ago in Chandigarh, India. My girlfriend was an Australian. What I remember is, we went to the local facility of the Family Planning Association of India. No (hard) questions asked. This was the protocol for medical termination of pregnancy, to use the official lingo, in India as far back as I can remember. So, I watch with dismay the pitched battles in America in this day and age over what should be a settled matter, as it is in much of the rest of the world, even Catholic countries. The worsening politics over it in a polarized America is still more worrying.

My girlfriend said at the time that she could have the baby and her country Down Under even supports single mothers. She knew I was not ready to get married as I was still in the process of deciding what to do with my life, career-wise. I could have married her to get instant immigration to Australia, which was difficult to get in those days with White Australia being the official policy there. But I decided against it. Even if we were not married, I would have still felt connected in some ways to that child she was to bring to the world.

So we went through the clinical procedure, which took a couple of hours. I am sure, for the woman more than the man, it is a heart-wrenching experience and an episode indelibly recorded in her life story. But I remember it too and am reminded of it every time abortion debate hits the headlines here in America, as it did this week with the leaked draft judgement of the US Supreme Court overturning the five-decade old Roe vs Wade landmark decision, making abortion legal. I hear the abortion critics’ argument that the fetus too has a right to life. At what stage in the pregnancy life begins is an unsettled matter among the medical experts and religious people though. I am not competent to comment on pro-lifers’ line of attack. My question is:  whether the unaborted child can hope to have a good life? Bringing up a child outside of marriage by a single mother does not bode well emotionally  or financially for the woman or the child. The newest Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barret glibly talked about adoption in such cases. That is a poor runaround.

Let us see who will be most affected when Roe is gone. According to an analysis of abortion data by The New York Times, a typical woman seeking abortion is poor, is unmarried and in her late 20s with some college education. Since the issue will now devolve to the states, abortion will be restricted in GOP ruled states, some of which have already been passing laws to that effect circumventing Roe. Abortion seekers in these states will suffer. Many who cannot afford to carry the child may not have the means to travel to Democrat run states or a neighboring country to terminate the pregnancy. The result? “One of the things that I worry about the most is that we are going to see an increase in maternal deaths in this country” if Roe is overturned, said Lauren Ralph, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, as quoted by NBC News.

The other major argument against Roe vs Wade is that it was a bad decision. Justice Samuel Alito comments in the leaked draft opinion that ‘the Constitution makes no reference to abortion.’ My counterargument? Times change, societies evolve. So, the Constitution should get amended by the legislative  bodies to keep up with the changing social and moral mores. Who would have thought of writing in same sex marriage protections two and half centuries ago in the US Constitution? Now it is the law of the land. That is indeed the argument of Roe defenders: that after Roe is overturned, many other private matters like gay marriage can go on the chopping block of the court.

Ironically, over 60% Americans have consistently supported legal abortions since 1995, according to Pew research. But a conservative majority of SCOTUS cobbled together by the Trump-McConnell machinations in the last administration is dragging law in the other direction.  Democrats, led by President Biden, want to codify Roe but do not have the votes in the US Senate to do it.

(The writer is former editor of The South Asian Times. He can be reached at parveen.chopra@gmail.com)