"AND HIS MAMA CRYS ...."

 ...... 'Cause if there's one thing that she don't need
It is another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto.

The 1969 Elvis Presley song In The Ghetto could well be an anthem for the overturning of the Roe vs. Wade ruling by the Supreme Court in USA and the likely banning of abortions in most if not all states in USA as a consequence.

The repercussions for women, and girls down to very young ages who wish to terminate pregnancies for any reason will be serious. The reasons are many and varied but the worst scenarios are pregnancies due to impregnation through rape, incest and because mental health, poverty and family violence make bringing a child into a disturbed family situation unsafe and downright dangerous. I guess this particularly applies to that mother "on a cold and grey Chicago mornin' .... in the ghetto".

Overturning the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal across the USA means that abortion will be no longer protected at federal level opening the door for individual states to decide whether abortion is legal or not. Some states have already moved to further restrict access to abortion since the likely ruling was leaked in May. An example is in Oklahoma where the governor signed the strictest law in the country, banning abortion "starting at fertilisation with very few exceptions" and allowing citizens to report anyone who "aids or abets" an abortion. We saw stuff like that going on in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

I like what Richard (of RBB) wrote in a comment on my blog today:

Sadly, if plenty of US states choose to follow this federal ruling and ban abortions at state level, and the indications are that they will, then many women will be forced to complete pregnancies for babies they don't want or cannot care for. Countless children will be born, unwanted into lives of lovelessness, poverty and danger. Many young women will die or be maimed  as a result of illegal, unsupervised and unsterile 'back street' abortions. More 'underworld' criminal organisations will take advantage of this. Many countries around the world who take guidance (for whatever silly reason) from what the Americans do, will use this as an excuse to further repress women.  And why? Because Christian people like Robert who also have some pretty strange ideas of what women's rights are, decide themselves, without serious discussion or input from the majority of women, that they know best.

It makes me want to spit.