President Trump is determined to appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade. Brett Kavanaugh seems to be part of that plan. Let’s put aside the controversy regarding the morality of abortion and focus on the implications of making abortion illegal again. Simply put, abortions would not cease to exist if abortion were illegal; they would become less safe and harder to obtain.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, as of 2014, roughly one in four women has had an abortion by age 45. It is shortsighted and foolish to believe those numbers would change if Roe v. Wade were overturned, a not-unlikely situation if Kavanaugh becomes a Supreme Court justice. Before Roe v. Wade, people got abortions, and they would continue to get abortions if Roe v. Wade were overturned.
When people lack options, especially regarding their bodies, they resort to extreme measures. In the case of terminating unwanted pregnancies, that could mean dangerous home remedies or solutions.
This nation has evolved too far to regress back to the days of people drinking chemicals or injuring themselves with metal trying to end a pregnancy.
If people in this country want fewer abortions, then comprehensive sex education needs to be taught, which might help prevent many of those pregnancies to begin with.
The solution is not reversing Roe v. Wade, nor is it appointing Kavanaugh.
Rachel Minkovitz, Lewiston
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