On May 2, 2022, an anonymous whistleblower informed Politico that the Supreme Court is planning on overturning Roe v. Wade. If this indeed comes to pass as expected, the landscape of reproductive rights and abortion access in the United States would shift radically overnight, with state governments deciding individually whether to make abortion outright illegal. In many ways, those states that outlawed abortion would resemble their counterparts in the pre-Roe era (meaning before 1973).
Indeed, the country before Roe v. Wade was a bad one for Americans who needed to exercise their reproductive rights. Looking back at that world from the vantage point of 2022, it is clear technology has advanced enough that (at least medically speaking) it has become much safer to terminate a pregnancy. Even so, it is useful to look at what life was like in America before the 1973 Supreme Court decision that protected reproductive rights, since it offers a glimpse into what might happen in America after the Supreme Court's Republican wing prevails in overturning Roe v. Wade.
