Hartness1

Mollie Hartness

December 2, 2021

Baldwin

ENGL1010

Rhetorical Analysis

Research Question; What will be the consequences

if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade?

Currently the United States Supreme Court is under pressure to overturn a womans right

to having an abortion. Roe v. Wade (1972) was a landmark decision made by the Supreme Court

to protect a womans right to have an abortion without excessive government interference.

Abortion is a fairly common procedure with 1 in 4 woman receving this operation a year. The

surgical process when preformed in a safe, sterile environment has a success rate of over 99%.

What will be the consequences if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade? Perhaps

unregulated abortion will rise, women will regretfully put up the baby up for adoption, or the

woman will keep the baby lacking proper financial means.

By criminalizing abortion we are almost guarenteeing a substancial rise in underground

abortion. Usafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal death in the United States

holding 13% (Haddad). Some of the most common forms of an usafe abortion are inflicting

internal or external damage to the cervix, consuming toxic fluids or inciting infections(Planned

Parenthood). Throughout the world 5 million women are hospitalized each year in relation to

unsafe abortion. As safe, legal abortions begin to decline unsafe underground abortions begin to

climb. According to the World Health Organization, “Every 8 minutes a woman in a developing

nation will die of complications arising from an unsafe abortion.” (Haddad). This could very well
 Hartness2

not be an accurate calculation due to the fact that the mothers are most likely preforming these

procedures so much will go undocumented. Even safe abortions can carry risks depending on the

heath of the baby, mother and the credibility of the doctor. According to Unnecessary Maternal

Morality, “The leading complications abortion-related are hemorrage and sepsis.” (Haddad).

Because sepsis and gastrointestinal bleeding are often due to related causes hemorrhaging and

sepsis are most likely caused by blunt force trauma to the abdomen. By crimalizing abortion

women are left with very few options that are unrelated to self harm.

Many who don’t believe that abortion is an option offer adoption as the natural

alternative. Childbirth has very serious medical and emotional risks and could put the mother at a

high risk of death. The foster care system is broken in many ways. According to Olivia Paige

“More than 390,000 children and teens are in foster care, more than 100,000 of which are

waiting to be adopted. Around 50,000 are placed up for adoption each year.”(Reneau). Based on

these numbers that would mean that over 25.6% of children and teens in foster care are waiting

to be adopted while only 12.8% are actually put up for adoption each year. 20% of children in

foster care become homeless the minute they are out of the system. There is a very low chance

these children will ever graduate and around 25% will suffer from PTSD(Reneau). A life is not

just saved by allowing it to be born.

The average cost of raising a child in the United States is 284,570 USD (Lino). You have

to take into account that most women who are seeking an abortion are single mothers, who are

commonly known to be under the poverty line. 37.2 million US citizens are below the poverty

line as of 2020(Lino). This number would substantially rise if abortion were to be criminalized.

Women would be forced into giving birth and many into keeping the child. Maternal death would

go up due to childbirth because most of these woman cannot afford to go to a proper medical
 Hartness3

facility with a qualified staff to give birth. Raising a child is expensive, not to mention physically

and emotionally draining. According to the cost of raising a child in the United States, “The

largest expense is housing” (Lino). If you are living in a less wealthy community there is a

chance your house will not be big enough to have a child safely in. The estimated cost of raising

a child in the United States does not include a college tuition, which could easily add on another

20 thousand dollars(Lino). Raising a child is hard and expensive and not everyone has the

financial means to properly sustain a child.

If the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade the effects would be detrimental. Not

only would we be stripping away a womans constitutional right to chose, we would be putting

them into harms way. You can believe what you would like for yourself but you have no right to

push those beliefs onto others. Roe v. Wade protects women and we would be taking that away.

Restricting access to abortion will not reduce the number of abortions. Abortions will always be

around. Overturning Roe v Wade could put legal, safe abortions out of reach for women ages

15-49(Planned Parenthood). Before Roe v. Wade illegal underground abortions made up one-

sixth of all pregnancy related deaths in the United States, and these statistics are only the

reported cases. Abortion is a very common procedure. In face, 1 out of 4 women will have an

abortion during their lifetime. If Roe v. Wade were repealed by the Supreme Court unregulated

abortion will rise, women will regretfully put up the baby up for adoption or the woman will

keep the baby lacking proper financial means. For generations women have held the right to

decide when to or when to not have a child, and make their own personal medical decisions. It is

not up to the law the senate or the legislatures to make these decisions for woman.
 Hartness4

Works Cited

Guttmacher Institute, https://www.guttmacher.org/.

Haddad, Lisa B, and Nawal M Nour. “Unsafe Abortion: Unnecessary Maternal

Mortality.” Reviews in Obstetrics & Gynecology, MedReviews, LLC, 2009,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2709326/.

Lino, Posted by Mark, et al. “The Cost of Raising a Child.” USDA, 18 Feb. 2020,

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2017/01/13/cost-raising-child.

Liptak, Adam. “Supreme Court to Hear Abortion Case Challenging Roe v. Wade.” The

New York Times, The New York Times, 17 May 2021,

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/us/politics/supreme-court-roe-wade.html.

Parenthood, Planned. “Roe v. Wade: The Constitutional Right to Access Safe, Legal

Abortion.” Planned Parenthood Action Fund,

https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion/roe-v-wade.

Reneau, Annie. “A Woman Who Grew up in Foster Care Explains Why the 'Adoption

Not Abortion' Argument Doesn't Fly.” Upworthy, Upworthy, 23 July 2019,

https://www.upworthy.com/a-woman-who-grew-up-in-foster-care-explains-why-t

he-adoption-not-abortion-argument-doesn-t-fly.
Hartness5