The morning the Supreme Court struck down our federal protection for abortion, I reflected on the ruling at home with my son and his girlfriend. For each of us, this ruling was deeply personal. My son expressed anxiety about what would happen if he experienced a birth control mishap.
For his girlfriend, a 19-year-old from Mississippi, the decision left her feeling hopeless, without control of her body and future. She described what she thought would be the devastating effect of denying young people access to abortion in her home state, which mandates abstinence-only sex education and allows pharmacists to refuse requests for emergency contraceptives. Then the last abortion clinic in Mississippi closed on July 6.
For me, the decision goes against years of findings from careful research on this topic. I study the psychological consequences of denying access to abortion, and I fear we are seeing only the beginning of the far-ranging repercussions this ruling will have on the well-being of pregnant people and their families.
