News of the Supreme Court’s draft ruling to potentially overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked April 2nd and has shocked many people across the United States. 

Roe v. Wade protects a women’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without restriction by the federal government. This is important for medical reasons regarding the life of the mother and the functionality of life for the baby. 

Many complications can occur throughout a woman’s pregnancy that could cause a miscarriage to occur or result in an abortion. For example, an anembryonic pregnancy happens within the first trimester in pregnancy when a fetus cannot develop properly while an ectopic pregnancy causes the fetus to develop outside the uterus.

Both cases would require an abortion to save the mother’s life to prevent her from either bleeding out or a having a blood clot. An ectopic pregnancy can even go undiscovered until the second or third trimester.

Overturning Roe v. Wade not only causes a direct threat to a woman’s life but it also takes away the right she has to her body. This guarantees that a fetus will have more of a right to life than that of the woman who is carrying it. 

When we lose this right, it makes you begin to wonder what other rights could be easily taken away from us. If our government can overturn such a landmark case so easily, having the choice to have and abortion was never a right, only a privilege. 

“My opinion on abortion isn’t relevant since I don’t have a reproductive system,” senior Jaime Vanchaik said. “I support whatever the woman’s choice is.”

Especially for high school girls who find themselves unintentionally pregnant, without the option for a safe abortion, they are forced give up some of their future goals to become a full-time parent. The choice to have a safe abortion would guarantee that all female students at least get a choice of education first.

It is estimated over 26 states are likely to ban abortion, which is over half of the United States, according to Guttmacher Institute.

For students at Montrose High School, we luckily don’t have to worry about this female right to be taken away because of where we live. In Colorado, abortion will still be legal thanks to Governor Jared Polis signing a bill which guarantees people in Colorado will still have access to safe abortions which passed just five weeks before the court’s leaked ruling. We are protected by federalism, but some women in this country aren’t that fortunate.

“No matter what the Supreme Court does in the future, people in Colorado will be able to choose when and if they have children,” Polis wrote.