Josie Lepe / AP
Mitzi Rivas, left, embraces her daughter Maya Iribarren during an abortion rights protest at City Hall in San Francisco after the Supreme Court’s decision to Roe vs. Wade to overthrow.
Members of Manawatū’s former U.S. population were devastated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of the historic Roe vs. Wade decision on abortion.
Rachel Blacher, a public health expert who moved with her family from Georgia to New Zealand in 2020, said the decision elicited a similar response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“It’s earth-shattering, it’s heartbreaking. It’s like September 11, 2001, when something happened and you knew your life would never be the same again.
“I had the same sick feeling in my stomach, it hit me in the core.”
READ MORE:
* What is Roe v Wade, and what happens if it is overthrown?
* Biden blows up ‘radical’ draft Supreme Court opinion on a case that has legalized abortion in the US
* Draft opinion proposes that the US Supreme Court Roe v Wade law that can legally overturn abortion nationwide
Roe v. Wade, who legalized abortion in the United States in 1973, was overthrown by a 6-3 vote by the United States’ conservative majority Supreme Court on June 24.
The overthrow of legislation that established abortion as a constitutional right will now enforce abortion restrictions in many U.S. states.
Blacher said, as an American, the step backwards was shocking and opened up a legal argument that other rulings and rights could also be eroded.
She said this is worrying as the Supreme Court ruling not only removes a national fundamental right for a woman to choose, but it also implies that if Roe v. Wade can be overthrown 50 years later, everything constitutional can also be withdrawn.
One of the concerns her friends and family members had in the United States was that same-sex marriage and other LQBTQ + rights, as well as the right to contraception, would be revoked.
“Nothing is guaranteed. “There is no security in knowing that previous Supreme Court rulings stand, so it’s terribly frightening, because nothing seems to be sacred anymore.”
David Unwin / Stuff
U.S. artist Marolyn Krasner, who is based in Manawatū, said a situation in which there is no access to abortions for women at risk is simply ‘inhuman’.
Manawatū artist Marolyn Krasner came to New Zealand from Southern California 19 years ago and said the decision would lead to many women experiencing medical problems and dying if they continued with unsustainable pregnancies.
“I have heard of situations where doctors are actually telephoning with lawyers and seeking advice, because there is a female patient with an ectopic pregnancy.
“The doctor has been on the phone with the lawyers for hours while the woman is lying there dying.
“In the situation where there is no abortion at all, it is simply inhuman.”
Krasner said the issue was sad and difficult, and it appeared that lawmakers, politicians and religious leaders had caricatured those seeking abortion as careless, and “oops, I got pregnant, let’s just have an abortion” decision make as a lifestyle choice.
“It’s not a lifestyle choice, it’s a medical procedure, and it’s the bottom line.”
Jean Hera, collective manager of Manawatū Women’s Health, said New Zealanders can be thankful that we now have good legislation that has decriminalized abortion and made it a health issue.
Murray Wilson / Stuff
Women’s Health Collective Manager Jean Hera.
“I think terminology is the best way to think about it, and women have the autonomy to make the decision themselves.
“I think the women who suffer the most are those who chose something that was not really in their hearts.”
Hera said in any unplanned pregnancy, it is important for a woman’s decision to be autonomous.
“This is what we always say to women, ‘do not let anyone influence you, it’s ultimately your decision’.”
Trudie Cain, a senior lecturer at Massey University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said while the United States may be influential in shaping international culture and values, Kiwis do not have to worry about changes in domestic policy.
“It is worrying that some New Zealand politicians have expressed their views on this, especially on social media where there is such a wide audience, but we also see a significant number of people here standing up in solidarity and sending a clear message that this type of politics is not welcome in New Zealand. ”