Abortion rights activists put up signs near the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on June 24, 2022.
Olivier Doulieri AFP | Getty Images
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Rowe v. Wade could cause financial difficulties for many women, especially those already facing economic instability, studies show.
Ruling Friday puts an end to nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights. It allows individual states to set their own laws, and nearly half of the states are expected to ban or severely restrict abortion as a result.
“Unfortunately, this affects the most marginalized women – women of color and people who do not have economic access to abortion,” said Carolyn McClanahan, based in Jacksonville, Florida, a certified financial planner, physician and founder of Life Planning Partners.
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While richer women living in states with abortion bans can still travel to other states for the procedure, those with fewer resources may not have that option, said McClanahan, who is also a member of the CNBC Advisory Board. .
Caitlin Myers, a professor of economics at Middlebury College, who three years ago began modeling the effects of Rowe’s repeal against Wade, stressed that many of the most severely affected women already have children.
More than 150 other economists and researchers, including Myers, have filed a friend’s complaint with the courts showing the link between women’s access to abortion and economic opportunities.
Access to abortion affects women’s finances
Although the Supreme Court’s majority opinion summarized how Roe’s repeal of Wade could affect women’s lives, it concluded that the court could not predict the impact, Myers said.
“This simply ignores a huge amount of credible and rigorous research,” she said, citing recent evidence from the Turnaway study, which tracked nearly 1,000 women seeking abortion at 30 clinics in the United States from 2008 to 2010.
These women’s finances were moving in a similar way “until this crucial moment” when some who wanted abortions were rejected, she said. For those who have been denied an abortion and given birth, the result is years of financial hardship, the study found.
Among those who have been refused an abortion, there has been an increase in household poverty for at least four years compared to those who have had an abortion. Years later, women who are denied abortion are more likely to have no money to cover basic living expenses such as food, housing and transportation.
Moreover, denial of abortion lowered the credit rating of these women, increased their debt and increased negative financial records, such as bankruptcies and evictions, the study found.
While the right to abortion may remain legal in more than half of the states, “the impact would be absolutely enormous” if banned nationwide, Myers said.
“This is a major obstacle to women’s rights, both from a health and economic point of view,” McClanahan added.
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