The law criminalizing abortion recently passed in Alabama will accelerate a public health crisis for poor women, wrote Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Dean Michelle Williams in a May 17, 2019 op-ed in the Boston Globe.
Williams noted that in Alabama, lawmakers voted against protecting access to contraception and expanding Medicaid, which pays for more than half of the births in the state—measures that would have protected the health of women and children.
The law in Alabama, and efforts by other states to chip away at abortion rights, will not eliminate the demand for abortion—only access to safe, legal procedures, Williams wrote. The majority of women who seek abortions already are low income, and they will face significant health and financial burdens if access is restricted.
“When women don’t control their own reproduction, they don’t control their own health, their economic prospects, or their ability to reach their full potential,” she wrote. That disempowerment “exacerbates health disparities and perpetuates inequality. And the consequences for public health will be far-reaching and detrimental to us all—unless we stand up, together, and stop this madness.”
Read the Boston Globe op-ed: Anti-abortion laws have dire public health consequences
Learn more
The importance of providing abortions (Harvard Chan School news)