It’s Not About Abortion. It’s About Control.

The Supreme Court’s draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade claims that Roe was wrongly decided because legal abortion does not have a “long history and tradition” in the U.S. Their analysis goes back to 1868, with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, to support this argument. Do you wonder why they don’t go back any further than that? It’s because abortion in the U.S. was not only legal, it wasn’t even controversial prior to the 1860s. That’s when a small number of physicians – a profession that required no education and had little influence at the time – set out to eliminate their competition (midwives) and improve the white race (and their own influence) through a planned breeding program. The beginning of American eugenics, the idea was to reverse the trend of white Protestant women having smaller families by legally forcing them to have more babies. So, once again, it was about power, control, and, for extra added bonus points, profit. This paragraph is a synopsis of a portion of a very good story on NPR, on a podcast called Throughline. A transcript and audio of a portion of the show is available at the address below, but I recommend listening to the whole thing – it’s eye-opening.